Emotional Intelligence

"No doubt emotional intelligence is more rare than book smarts, but in my experience it is actually more important in making a leader."
Jack Welch

Background

Emotional Intelligence first came to prominence in 1994 with Dan Goleman's best selling Harvard Business Review article entitled 'What makes a Leader?' Goleman was fascinated by why the 'brightest' people, in terms of traditional measures such as IQ tests, did not have the greatest success. How did people with less intellectual ability become more successful? In brief the research he embarked upon illustrated that whilst a reasonable IQ level was important for entry into jobs, the facet which predicted how successful somebody would become related to a different area - emotional intelligence. This became more important the higher a person rose in their organisation, as their need to achieve became even more through the efforts of others in addition to their own personal capabilities.

What is it?

Whilst a variety of 'experts' in the field have slightly different definitions, Goleman defined Emotional Intelligence as

"The capacity for recognising our own feelings, and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships"

Some of the core competencies are self awareness; impulse control and self regulation; empathy and influence. An appropriate blend of competencies provides the 'tipping point' for increased success.

Is this something new?

Yes - and No. There are few entirely new truths, and Goleman was able to pull together a range of existing knowledge (based largely on the work of Mayer and Salovey) and use his research capabilities to mould an interpretation of the required competencies into tools which working managers could use and develop to increase their capabilities and effectiveness. It therefore took the existing best knowledge and used this in a slightly different way.

The new piece comes from our increasing knowledge of neuroscience and how this illustrates the workings of our brains and what informs and affects our decision making. This area has serious consequences for the development of 'emotional intelligence' capabilities.

Why is it important in business?

Managers - especially senior managers, who lack emotional intelligence, can harm the long term effectiveness of their business by destroying value through their style. They can leave a legacy of short term victory, yet devastation. Managers exhibiting a high level of emotional intelligence use their emotions, and their understanding of others emotions, to help them with their performance and the achievement of business results. They do not suppress their passion, drive, enthusiasm or at time their frustrations; however they make informed choices about how to use these at work.

Goleman's research suggests that in most management jobs the highest performers over time will have higher levels of emotional intelligence - a fact supported by much in-company research.

Can you develop it - and if so how?

Any manager can increase their emotional intelligence - if they are prepared to work at developing it. Purely reading a book about the topic will have as much impact as people who buy exercise machines for the New Year and expect to lose weight by using them for just a week. By understanding the factors involved in emotional intelligence, having a clear view of personal strengths and weaknesses and experimentation and review, managers can increase their capabilities.

Some of the issues our clients have addressed using emotional intelligence are:

• How can we greatly increase the leadership capabilities of a group of senior Finance managers in a short period of time?
• How can we dramatically increase the savings attained by an experienced team of supply chain and purchasing individuals?
• How can we broaden the horizons of a group of Eastern European HR managers about to undergo radical change?
• How can we provide a team of senior Investment professionals with a greater understanding of the people management issues and its consequences to their business?
• How can we increase the individual capabilities of a range of technical professionals and improve their ability to manage relationships across their organisations?
• How can we prepare our engineering experts and other technical specialists to take on global leadership roles?

Currently cfa use emotional intelligence frameworks in their executive coaching and management development programmes for a variety of organisations.

cfa consultants are accredited to use both the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) a 360 degree instrument which provides detailed ratings from a large number of colleagues, benchmarked against external high performers, and the MSCEIT - an ability model of emotional intelligence.

For teams:

We have tailored a number of solutions for intact work teams and management teams to increase their collective abilities working with each other and crucially with their clients and customers. This work is aided by a number of assessment tools we are accredited to use.

For groups:

From senior high potential staff on a global leadership programme through middle managers and technical specialists, through to frontline managers we have crafted interventions to build emotional intelligence.

For individuals:

Chief Executives, Managing Directors, Global Marketing Directors, Human Resource Directors, Engineering specialists, Accountants, Consultants, Programme Commissioners, Project Managers, Fund Managers and many others have benefited from individual work using a variety of tools