The
emotional intelligence of your managers is affecting your business
performance. There is now ample evidence
of a direct link between the emotional intelligence of managers and the
engagement of their people. Research
also shows that engaged employees are more productive and this has a direct
impact on the bottom line.
But
there is evidence that engagement has far wider ramifications. Kevin Kruse, an expert in engagement,
highlights what he calls the ‘Spill Over’ effect. When people enjoy their work they are very
likely to be highly engaged in it, and it creates a virtuous circle. If they have a fulfilling day at work they bring
positive emotions home, this creates a positive and happier personal life,
which makes them more positive at work.
On
the other hand, research found that disengaged people are likely to be more
stressed, weigh on average 5lb more, and have a higher risk of heart attacks (about
the same as if they were smokers). One 4
year study of fathers and their young children even discovered that when the
father had a bad day at work, there was evidence of his children misbehaving at
school the next day. Being dissatisfied
at work is seriously bad for your health and the emotional health of your
family. Allowing your people to become
disengaged is seriously bad for business and bad for society.
So what is Emotional
Intelligence?
We
are all totally unique and have our own particular patterns of thinking and
inner dialogue that we have created and honed over many years. As intelligent creatures we also have beliefs
and values that influence our behaviour, even when they are below our conscious
awareness. They give us our identity and
our own particular set of drivers and motivators, which include the things that
we enjoy most at work.
However,
it requires awareness and skill to tap into people’s complex beliefs, values
and traits in a way that engages them and encourages them to move beyond their
comfort zone; to become the best they can be.
This awareness and skill can be summarised as ‘Emotional Intelligence’
but what exactly does that term mean?
And how do you measure it?
There
are four fundamental domains of Emotional Intelligence:
1. Self-Awareness
This
is becoming one of the key requirements of 21st century
leaders. In order to effectively
influence and lead others you need to be fully and consciously aware of your
own emotions and inner drivers.
In
this domain it is useful to consider the following: Why do you behave the way
you do? How do your emotions affect your
thoughts and behaviour? What stresses or
triggers you? What do you enjoy most at
work? How can you play to your strengths
and develop or mitigate any weaknesses?
How can you fully utilise your considerable experience of life by tapping
into your intuition and balancing it with a healthy dose of logic?
2. Self-Management
In
a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA)
it is important to be able to control our impulsive feelings and reactions in a
healthy way. This means having both high
levels of self-acceptance and a strong desire to improve by being open to
feedback and becoming a little better every day. Effective self-management is also about
recognising the limits of our comfort zone and being able to step outside it in
order to adapt to changing circumstances.
This requires taking initiative, being willing to experiment and having
the persistence to follow through on commitments.
In
this domain it is useful to consider the following: What level of self-acceptance do you have? How aware are you of the limits of your
comfort zone? How well do you manage
your emotions when you step outside it?
How open are you to feedback and receiving correction? How effectively do you manage the amount of
pressure in your work and your levels of stress? How agile are you in your responses to the
VUCA work environment of the 21st century?
3. Social Awareness
Social
awareness follows when we have a high level of self-awareness, self-acceptance
and self-management. There are now more
different generations in the workplace and in your market place than ever
before, each with their own drivers, wants and desires. The ability to pick up on emotional cues,
feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or
organisation is becoming ever more important.
In
this domain it is useful to consider the following: How effective am I at team working? How well do I pick up on the dynamics of a
group or team? How well do I know my people
and my customers, or the individual decision makers within my clients? How comfortable am I socialising in a
business setting?
4. Relationship management
No
matter how sophisticated or simple your business is, its success is totally
dependent on the quality of the relationships that are in and around it. There is an ever increasing need to
understand the emotions, needs and concerns of other people, from suppliers to
clients, potential customers to new employees.
These days if we get it wrong there can be an instant backlash on social
media. I now have restaurant clients who
are experiencing customers tweeting about the service they are receiving during a meal; they prefer to complain
to their friends rather than say something to the restaurant manager. Staff can now rate their workplace and
manager (Just put ‘Rate your Boss/employer/job’ into a search engine), and many
people now look at this to check if they want to work in certain places. Some of these sites are becoming like Trip
Adviser for potential employees to check employers.
In
this domain it is useful to consider the following: How effective is my communication and how
well do I build rapport and trust with others in order to develop and maintain
good relationships? How good am I at
influencing and inspiring others to help them learn and grow? How compassionately do I enforce the required
standards and results? How effectively
do I assert my needs while being helpful to others? How well do I handle and manage conflict?
Finding Answers
Finding
the answers to all the questions above can take a lot of effort because they
are often below our conscious awareness.
It requires some thinking and exploration. However, emotionally intelligent leaders and
mangers are genuinely interested, so they take the time to consider them and
seek ways to become even more effective.
Their
efforts are rewarded by more effective working relationships, higher levels of
engagement and more personal fulfilment.
It also becomes clear that if you are doing everything you can to engage
your people but one of them remains disinterested and disengaged, you have the
right to have an honest conversation about it and explore what might be missing
and if necessary discuss options for them to change roles or to work elsewhere.
It
is also possible to measure your own and your people’s emotional intelligence
with a number of assessment tools that are now available through Inspired
Working. They
allow
you to quickly discover your levels of emotional intelligence by highlighting
your natural strengths, so you can explore the best ways to utilise them.
A
number of wise managers are now using assessment tools to get a list of the key
engagement factors for their people. For
example, what people’s expectations are with regard to Development,
Appreciation, Remuneration, Communication, Authority, Social Activity and Work
Life Balance. This means they have all
the information they need to have a genuine conversation about the degree to
which these expectations are being met or not.
This powerful conversation can then be used to identify what they need
to continue, stop or start doing to have a fully engaged team. That sounds pretty emotionally intelligent to
me.
With best regards
David Klaasen
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