People Skills Handbook Updated Edition from Core Factors Gives Action Tips and Three Skill Levels for 54 EQ Competencies

The People Skills Handbook, now in an updated edition from Core Factors, gives action tips and three skill levels for each of 54 EQ competencies.

TEMECULA, CA, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Core Factors, a people-development platform for coaches, consultants, and HR professionals, has released an updated edition of the People Skills Handbook: Action Tips for Improving Your Emotional Intelligence by Judy Aanstad, Ph.D., Pamela Corbett, M.A., Catherine A. Jourdan, MA.Ed., and Roger R. Pearman, Ed.D. First published in 2012, the book covers 54 emotional intelligence competencies. Core Factors worked with Pearman on the new edition, which has a new design and updated references. For each competency, the authors describe the skill at three levels of development, explain why the skill matters, identify the barriers that keep a person from using the skill, and give specific action tips for building the skill. Coaches and HR professionals can use the book with the people they develop, and any reader can use the book on their own to work on a particular people skill. The updated edition is available in paperback through Amazon at $59.95 USD.

A 360 review, a performance conversation, or an emotional intelligence assessment can point a person to the people skill that needs work, whether that skill is listening, patience, or conflict management. The harder question comes after the feedback: what to do differently in the next meeting, the next disagreement, or the next difficult conversation.

The four authors heard that question throughout their careers. In the preface, they write that they “heard our clients ask again and again where they can learn more about how to develop compassion, or flexibility, or some other interpersonal trait or competency.” They add, “Very often our clients are open to learning but don’t know where to begin or how to determine their current skill level in an interpersonal skill that they hope to develop.” When they wrote the book, the authors had yet to find a book that described each emotional intelligence skill at the talented, skilled, and unskilled levels and gave concrete ideas for developing each one. Core Factors has not found another book that does both today.

“A 360 review or an assessment report tells a person which people skill to work on. The People Skills Handbook gives that person specific actions to take,” said Kris Kiler, Founder and President of Core Factors. “If feedback says your listening needs work, the useful question is what to do differently in tomorrow’s meeting. The book answers that question for each of 54 competencies. The four authors worked as executive coaches, psychologists, training facilitators, and counselors, and the action tips draw on research and on their work with clients. We brought the book back into print so a coach can recommend one reference that covers every skill a person might work on, and so any reader can turn directly to the competency they want to build.”

The People Skills Handbook is written for people who have decided to improve how they work with others. Readers can work on managing conflict, influencing others, and collaborating more effectively to advance a career. Readers can also build stronger relationships at home and at work by increasing self-confidence, balancing independence with interdependence, and understanding themselves and others more clearly. Conflict Management, Influencing Others, Collaboration, Self-Confidence, Patience, Listening Generously, and Compassion are among the 54 competencies in the book.

Every competency follows the same eight-part structure. Each entry opens with a definition and an illustrative quote. Behavioral lists at the Talented, Skilled, and Unskilled levels support self-evaluation, and a Big Picture View explains the competency and its importance. Barriers to Effectiveness identify what keeps a person from using the skill, and Related Competencies point the reader to connected entries in the book. Quick Action Tips help the reader become more effective with the competency. Learn from Experience activities, at work and in personal life, help the reader integrate the lessons into daily life. A Resources section lists books, websites, and other media for continued learning.

Eight toolboxes complete the book. One toolbox links the scales of widely used personality, emotional intelligence, and multi-rater assessments to the 54 competencies for developmental planning. Coaches, HR professionals, and participants can use the book as a desk reference alongside any emotional intelligence assessment. Another toolbox connects career stallers and interpersonal problems to specific competencies, and the final toolbox is a reproducible EQ Action Plan form. The book also works with the EQ Accelerator, the emotional intelligence assessment from Core Factors. The EQ Accelerator rates 40 emotional intelligence skills on Importance and Effectiveness and highlights one priority skill in each of four dimensions: Self-Awareness, Other Awareness, Self-Regulation, and Other Engagement. Participants can open the book to each highlighted skill and continue developing the skill between coaching sessions.

For an individual coach, the book gives the people they coach a way to keep working between sessions. A person can work on one competency between meetings, bring notes on what they tried, and use the next session to refine the practice. The book also serves as pre-work before a 360 debrief or as a reference after a workshop.

For leadership programs, the book gives a cohort a shared vocabulary for development. When every participant describes listening or conflict management in the same terms and at the same three levels, facilitators, managers, and coaches can discuss each participant’s progress in the same language. HR and talent teams can use the toolbox on career stallers to connect a performance concern to specific competencies and specific actions.
Over time, the book becomes a reference people keep. The skills a person needs change with each new role and each new team, and the reader returns to the competency each new situation requires.

The People Skills Handbook (Core Factors, 491 pages, paperback, $59.95 USD) is available through Amazon. International Amazon marketplaces sell the book in local currency. Coaches, consultants, and HR professionals who design leadership programs or coach individual development can use the book alongside any emotional intelligence assessment they already administer. The book includes a reader offer for 25 percent off the EQ Accelerator. Practitioners can create a free Pro Account or request a demo to see the EQ Accelerator report and the Participant Hub.

About the Authors
Judy Aanstad, Ph.D., is a consultant, coach, and trainer who works with individuals and organizations in leadership, effective communication, career management, and team development. She has served as an adjunct executive coach and faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership for more than 20 years and is a Board Certified Coach.

Pamela Corbett, M.A., is a psychologist and the owner of Spectrum Psychological Services in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, she has focused on leadership and executive effectiveness for more than 20 years.

Catherine A. Jourdan, MA.Ed., is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Board Certified Coach. Her career spans more than three decades. Since 1977, she has provided coaching, feedback, and facilitation as adjunct staff in leadership development programs at the Center for Creative Leadership.

Roger R. Pearman, Ed.D., is a recognized authority on emotional intelligence and personality type and the developer of the EQ Accelerator^®, People Skills 360™, and Brain Agility Lens™ assessments. He is the CEO of the talent development firm TalentTelligent, EOT. His research earned the Isabel Myers Memorial Research Award, and the Association for Psychological Type International awarded him the Mary McCaulley Lifetime Achievement Award.

Free Download: The EQ Playbook
For the business case behind emotional intelligence development, download The EQ Playbook: How Emotional Intelligence Drives Business Success, a free report from Core Factors for talent development professionals. The report covers how emotional intelligence affects leadership and team effectiveness, compares the major emotional intelligence frameworks, and examines the gap between how important an EQ skill is to a person’s success and how effective the person is at the skill. The report also shows how the EQ Accelerator identifies development priorities from that gap, and the report closes with best practices for EQ development programs.

About Core Factors
Core Factors is a people-development platform for practitioners. Executive coaches, OD consultants, L&D professionals, HR professionals, and career practitioners use Core Factors to administer assessments, deliver results, reinforce development between sessions, and document outcomes through participant feedback and reporting.

The assessment portfolio includes Type Discovery, Type Elements, and Type Dynamics for psychological type work across decision-making, learning, leadership, and interpersonal effectiveness. EQ Accelerator guides emotional intelligence development with a structured focus on priority skills and growth sequencing. Social Dynamics addresses interaction styles and their applications across communication, collaboration, influence, and conflict. Career Path and Career Signals support career alignment through occupational fit mapping and values-based career planning.

Every assessment is supported by the Participant Hub. In the Participant Hub, participants access results, explore model content, engage with structured reflection, and receive developmental guidance from Evidentra^®. Evidentra is the Core Factors AI Coach Assistant. Core Factors is built on a commitment to psychometric integrity, ethical application, and practical results for both the practitioner and the people they develop.

Kris Kiler
Core Factors
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