Dr. Hendrie Weisinger

Few people have developed an expertise in areas that impact everybody, everyday-at home and at work, but that is exactly the case for creator, innovator, practioneer, world renowned psychologist and New York Times Bestselling author, Dr. Hendrie Weisinger. Giving and taking criticism, managing emotions and responding effectively to the feelings and emotions of others, motivating oneself and others, resolving conflict, are all “emotional intelligence skills, that are part of Dr. Weisinger’s expertise that has been recognized and sought by leading business schools, influential government agencies, Fortune 500 Companies, and dozens of professional organizations, such as The Young Presidents Organization.

Author of Emotional Intelligence at Work, The Emotionally Intelligent Financial Advisor, Dr. Weisinger’s Anger Workout Book, Anger at Work, The Power of Positive Criticism, and the New York Times Bestseller, Nobody’s Perfect, Dr. Weisinger has spent three decades helping individuals and their organizations enhance their personal and work effectiveness through innovative applications of clinical, social, organizational, and most recently evolutionary psychology, with the publication of his latest book, The Genius of Instinct.

His early clinical training and practice provided him the opportunities to decipher the emotional complexities of giving and taking criticism back in the day when “feedback” was the choice word. His work in this area culminated in his New York Times Bestseller, Nobody’s Perfect. The success of this book put Dr. Weisinger in front of executives, managers, supervisors, and line personnel from Corporate America. IBM, AT&T, Merck, Nintendo, Sheraton, Hughes Aircraft, General Electric, Medtronic, KMPG, McDonalds’, The Hartford, Prudential, Hyatt, Estee Lauder, and Nabisco are just a small sample which has requested Dr. Weisinger to present his message to their employees. The same is true for government agencies, such as the CIA, FBI, IRS, NSA, to name just a few. Since Nobody’s Perfect, Dr. Weisinger has continually advanced his theory and techniques for giving and taking criticism, his most recent thoughts captured in The Power of Positive Criticism, translated into over a dozen languages. His article for The Wall Street Journal, “So You’re Afraid to Criticize Your Boss?” was selected as one of the sixty best articles ever to appear in the Journal’s Management Column and is reprinted in Dow Jones on Management. The article caught the eye of the executive education program at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management and since the 1980s, Dr. Weisinger has been a frequent lecturer in their executive education and executive MBA programs.

While his reputation in giving and taking criticism was becoming prominent, Dr. Weisinger was developing a second expertise and one, like giving and taking criticism, that is crucial to individual and organizational effectiveness: anger management. Long before it was a movie, Dr. Weisinger was integrating cognitive psychology, behaviorism, and interpersonal psychology to formulate the blueprint for the majority of anger management programs. He became one of the first psychologists to provide training in the subject to the mental health community so it is not surprising that he has spoken to dozens of mental health organizations, hospitals, and school systems. His book, Dr. Weisinger’s Anger Workout Book is a classic among mental health workers and is now in its 28th printing, and no doubt is one of the reasons that Dr. Weisinger appeared on The Today Show five consecutive days for their Anger Management Special, as well an appearance on Oprah, and being featured in The New York Times Sunday Business Section. As with giving and taking criticism, Dr. Weisinger applied his knowledge to the working world, the result being Anger at Work, and according to The Library Congress: “Highly Recommended to managers at all levels.”

In the mid ‘90s, Dr. Weisinger was thought to be a world expert in the area of Emotional Intelligence, a subject that he would lecture on at numerous business schools, including NYU, MIT, Penn State, University of Washington, Cornell, and Wharton, where he is now one of their most popular and highly regarded executive education professors. His publications on Emotional Intelligence are numerous and diverse. His signature book on the subject, Emotional Intelligence at Work is considered to be the best book on applying emotional intelligence and can be found on seven continents. Working with the likes of Merrill Lynch, Bank America, Wachovia, Morgan Stanly, Smith Barney, H$R Block, and numerous other financial service companies and making numerous presentations for the Security Industry Association, Dr. Weisinger became armed with the knowledge to write The Emotionally Intelligent Financial Advisor, the first book on Emotional Intelligence to be customized to a specific industry, and is now doing the same for the Nursing profession and Project Management profession. His article, “Tutored by Television” for TV Guide illustrates how parents can use television to develop the emotional intelligence of their children.

Always looking for innovative perspectives on human behavior, and always seeming to be ahead of the pack, Dr. Weisinger turned his interest to the evolutionary sciences, particularly evolutionary psychology. His studies in the field that is now called, ‘the new science of the mind,” took him down a path that, when mixed with clinical expertise, provided startling new thoughts and strategies for handling everyday dilemmas that we all encounter at home and at work. His findings and observations are the subject of his most current work, The Genius of Instinct: Reclaim Mother Nature’s Tools for Enhancing our Health, Happiness, Family and Work. The book presents many revelations including the fact that we are hardwired for success, man is more successful than animals because we have more instincts not less, and ruled by reason rather than instinct typically spells disaster. This evolutionary perspective has also helped Dr. Weisinger generate novel insights into leadership, marriage, parenting, and work.

Dr. Weisinger is currently working on his new book, Flying Like Superman. His father was the story editor of Superman for thirty years!

    Nerves of Steel

    Emotional Intelligence Right Now

    The Power of Positive criticism

    The Genius of Instinct

    Instinctual leadership

    Emotional Intelligence at Work