Please Stop Force-Feeding Emotional Intelligence to Engineers and Scientists

I am so tired of hearing people malign and stereotype engineers and scientists. As a high school senior, I excitedly told my classmates that I'd been accepted for enrollment at MIT. Imagine my dismay when several friends recruited their older brothers to conduct an intervention. I was warned - if I went to MIT, I would NEVER get a date. Years later, I was happily employed as a systems engineer at IBM. I'll never forget the well-meaning HR manager who asked me, "on a scale of technically-oriented to people-oriented, where would you place yourself?" I responded, "I disagree with your scale!"

Today, many people talk about IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Intelligence) as though they are opposite ends of a single scale. I disagree! You CAN have both! Scientists, engineers, technically-oriented people, logical thinkers - we like to observe, measure, and solve problems. We are also emotional beings.

I love this photo of Doris Mable Cochran (1898-1968), a herpetologist, scientist and curator at the Smithsonian. Doris is learning about a turtle by measuring its shell. Doris appears to enjoy her solitary, exacting work. Since she died in 1968, Doris may never have heard of Emotional Intelligence. Back then, she probably focused on hard work and scientific competence.

Today, thousand of scientists and engineers have attended workshops on "Soft Skills" or "Emotional Intelligence" without learning much, if anything. Why is this?

• Bad Attitude. These classes are meant to teach people empathy. Unfortunately, the instructors often lack empathy for engineers and scientists, portraying them as unemotional creatures who need to be fixed.
• No Compelling Problem. Engineers and scientists are most engaged when solving problems. Simply asserting "You need to become more emotionally intelligent" it not going to cut it. Before an engineer or scientist will actively participate, they must agree that there IS a problem AND that the problem is properly defined.
• Spoon-feeding Solutions. An engineer or scientist doesn't want YOU to solve their problem, they want to solve their own problem. Instead of telling them what to do and demonstrating it, an effective instructor will provide tools and allow the participants to experiment.