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Capitalizing on Your Political Savvy 133

decided he was okay. Still she felt she was in an awkward place. She
wanted to know how the project was coming along, but she didn’t
want to be a micro-manager. So she decided to just wait until the
first milestone date to check in with him. After all, she figured, no
news is good news, right?
Obviously she sensed that something wasn’t right, or she wouldn’t
have come to me for feedback, but without more information she
couldn’t quite figure out what was bothering her. I told her that she
needed to “read between the lines” of what was being said to her and
look for what wasn’t being said. In other words, are they avoiding
looking at you when you speak or they speak to you? Are they tapping
their fingers or pens on the table or just seem stressed or anxious when
you talk about the project to them; shoulders held in, no smile or
enthusiasm projected by their facial expressions, or just seem weary
and tired? All of these are body language signals to look out for when
reading between the lines.

Tune into Your Empathy

The idea that a high E.Q.—emotional quotient—can be more impor-
tant than I.Q. gained mainstream currency in Daniel Goleman’s best-
selling book Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books, 2006). This
ability to relate to and connect with people is really just a way of
adapting empathy to the workplace.
Empathy, of course, is pretty familiar to all of us. It generally
means recognizing how someone feels and being able to put yourself
in their place. At work, it might mean being attentive to others,
adapting your language to your audience, making an effort to see
others’ points of view, asking insightful questions, and last but not
least, listening actively.
One afternoon, I had to fly to one of Fairchild’s operations in
upper New York State for a meeting with our senior human resource