Daniel Goleman

Too bad you're not married.

I'll say that.

This is exactly the kind of thing that couples who are very strongly connected have, which is the ability to sense where the other person is.

I think it's a kind of deep empathy where you're so familiar with the other person that you can read signs in them, nonverbal signs, that other people might miss.

Yeah.

But to you, they're very clear, very loud.

And you may not be able to articulate what it is, but you have that gut sense that you mentioned, that something's not right with the person.

I know with my wife and I, it often has to do with being on the same track in what we're thinking.

And we know each other so well that what I'm thinking is sometimes what she's thinking.

So I can say, by the way, X, Y, Z, and she'll say, yeah, that's what I was thinking.

And vice versa.

So what's going on, you're saying?

Yeah.

The answer is I don't know.

Okay.

It happens.

It happens.

I think the best leaders do it, and they do what's called reading the room, which isn't as deep as you're talking about, but it gives you a sense of the collective mood.

And you just read nonverbal signals and put it together automatically.

And so you know where people are at.