Innovation and emotional intelligence are hot buzzwords these days, but they aren't normally connected. However, innovation guru Tim Brown, of IDEO, recently highlighted the importance of skills like empathy, optimism and collaboration for successful innovation - all attributes of emotional intelligence. Empathy, for example, allows us to see things from the perspective of a lot of people, which can be crucial in design.

In the Talent Smart newsletter, researchers Lac D. Su and Nick Tasler note that engineers - the people most often charged with innovation - tend to have the lowest EQ skills in the work force. However, they add that emotional intelligence skills can be developed - as long as you recognize their need and importance.