Emotional Intelligence - A Global Leadership Competency

Businesses across a broad spectrum of industries have been helping their employees develop their Emotional Intelligence (EI) skills for more than a decade. People improving their skills have held positions ranging from the executive level to administrative staff. The one factor all these people have in common is "how they feel" or the emotions they experience despite the fact that the challenges and pressures they face at the various organizational levels are quite different. Empowering people by helping them develop EI skills, enables them to become internally self-managed and capable of making their greatest contributions. And the organization itself performs best when its employees work in that zone of peak performance. The examples below explain how development of EI skills can benefit executives, high potential people and managers or supervisors.

Executives:

Executives must make decisions daily that may make or break their companies. They must rely on more people than ever to achieve results they, personally, are held accountable for by the board. They must quickly and flexibly lead system-wide organizational change, while inspiring and energizing their followers. This constant, burdensome pressure can create feelings of anxiety, fear, caution, and even guilt and depression. The wrong decision, an untimely decision or no decision may cause "The Street" to undervalue the company, hampering its ability to meet its goals and stockholder expectations.

Research has shown that high EI skills are the distinguishing characteristics that separate star performing executives from average ones. With enhanced EI skills executives are able to demonstrate their passion, lead with courage, retain and grow talented leaders, and empathize with people while humanely challenging them to meet demanding business goals. The resilient, flexible, strong organizational culture that is created by such a leader attracts talented people, ensures organizational success (through thick and thin), and creates a lasting legacy.

High Potential People:

High Potential People must assume the demands of multiple projects and leadership roles. Unforeseen events occur that delay or derail critical business initiatives under their responsibility. Daily they may interact with customers, suppliers and even competitors who can be threatening and irate. Hundreds of emails demand immediate attention. These situations can cause the person to feel anxious, fearful and overwhelmed. They may feel frustrated that things are not moving faster and may worry that problems are hurting their career. Negative emotions can lead to poor decisions and multi-million dollar flubs. Products flop and marketing campaigns go awry as critical details fall through the cracks. A shallow talent pool can keep the company from developing new products and services, crippling its chances in its industry.

Since high EI skills are a distinguishing characteristic between average and high-performing individuals, then the earlier these skills are developed and ingrained, the more likely High Potentials and the company are to experience success. When high potential people develop their EI skills to the fullest, the company has a cadre of competent global leaders capable of introducing new products and services, starting new businesses, and leading the integration of new acquisitions.

Managers and Supervisors:

Managers' and Supervisors' behavior and treatment of their people determine turnover and retention. The manager or supervisor interacts on a daily basis with individuals who have distinct wants, needs and expectations. They significantly influence the attitudes, performance, and satisfaction of employees within their department and other departments. The stress brought on by the demands of upper management along with the stress of leading people and satisfying so many changing needs and expectations can be overwhelming. Being both firm and caring at the same time causes many to feel inadequate for the role. Forty percent of turnover is reportedly due to an inadequate relationship between the employee and their direct supervisor. Where trust is lacking, performance suffers.

Enhancing EI skills enables Supervisors and Managers to regulate their emotions and motivate themselves more effectively. This allows them to manage their own emotional turmoil effectively and demonstrate compassion and empathy for their employees. Enhanced EI skills also equip them with the courage to challenge existing thinking and processes to make necessary changes for their people. All employees want a supportive, caring Supervisor or Manager who has their best interests at heart. Knowing this, the employee will be more likely to turndown offers from other companies to work for such a person.

Results:

While it's evident that developing EI skills can be extremely valuable to the individual and the organization, it's beneficial to examine actual results people have achieved. Participants in EI training programs have reported a range of 20% to 35% increase in personal productivity, 15% to 35% increased teamwork, a 20% to 40% reduction in stress and worry, and similar improvements in management of emotional reactiveness, personal motivation, creativity, work/life balance and more. These increases can translate into positive return on investment for the organization.