Who Needs Emotional Intelligence Skills?
What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)?
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge from your emotions and the emotions of others. You can use the information about what you're feeling to help you make effective decisions about what to say or do (or not say or do) next. Emotional Intelligence is NOT about being soft! It is a different way of being smart – having the skill to use your emotions to help you make choices in-the-moment and have more effective control over yourself and your impact on others.
Who Could Benefit From EI Skill Enhancement?
The Development of Emotional Intelligence skills can benefit a broad range of people within an organization. Read on for a few examples of who needs EI skills and how they will benefit from developing them.
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. Enhancing leaders' EI skills enables them to lead with courage, demonstrate their passion, grow and retain 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.
Achieve Maximum Success
Why Improve Your Emotional Intelligence Skills?
As the competition heats up and the pace of change accelerates, you can't continue doing "business as usual." You need a new approach that transcends linear thinking and cuts through barriers. You need advanced skills that will increase your mental clarity, elicit higher productivity from your staff, magnetize talented people to you, and inspire people while experiencing less chaos and confusion.
Mental Clarity - Increase personal energy and mental clarity
Every leader needs maximum personal energy and mental clarity to lead his/her organization into the future. Developing your Emotional Intelligence (EI) skills to the fullest minimizes physical, mental, and emotional energy drains while allowing you to think more clearly in pressure situations that you face every minute of every day.
HigherProductivity - Elicit higher productivity and personal motivation from all of your staff
The ability to improve organization-wide productivity is largely dependent on increasing each individual's personal motivation to do excellent work. By developing your Emotional Intelligence skills, you will positively impact every person you come in contact with throughout each business day. As the role model of behavior and performance for your company, your enhanced skills will have a dramatic impact on every person's productivity.
Magnetize Talent - Magnetize talented people to you and your company
The best most effective executives and leaders are like magnets. People love to work for them. The most talented people seek out leaders and executives that bring out the best in them and challenge them to perform. Leaders with high Emotional Intelligence skills have been shown to be the best bosses people have ever worked for.
Inspire People - Empower and inspire people to achieve corporate objectives
Developing your Emotional Intelligence skills allows more of your authentic self to be present in every interaction. Your passion, courage, and visionary thinking will be more clearly evident to those around you. People are more creative, will work longer, and cooperate more effectively when they work for a leader with high Emotional Intelligence skills.
Less Chaos - Experience less chaos and confusion and shorter, smoother meetings
Friction, confusion and argumentative behavior comes more from a lack of Emotional Intelligence skills than it does from a lack of clear direction. As the coherence between you and others increases, less time is wasted arguing and defending turf positions. Meetings are more organized and individuals feel free to express diverging opinions without being attacked. This allows for a full exploration of possibilities and problems in an efficient and effective manner.
High Potential People
High potential people take on demanding multiple projects and leadership roles. Unforeseen events occur that delay or derail critical business initiatives under their responsibility. They have daily contact with customers, suppliers and even competitors who are often irate and threatening. 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 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. Research has shown that high EI skills are the distinguishing characteristic that separate star performers from average ones. The earlier these skills are developed and ingrained, the more likely High Potentials and the company are to experience success. Ensuring that high potential people develop their EI skills to the fullest ensures a cadre of competent global leaders available to introduce new products, start new businesses, and lead the integration of new acquisitions.
Why Improve Your Emotional Intelligence Skills?
As the competition heats up and the pace of change accelerates, you can't continue doing "business as usual." You need a new approach that transcends linear thinking and cuts through barriers. You need advanced skills that will enhance your career potential, improve work/life balance, increase job satisfaction, improve productivity, and help you manage demanding clients and staff.
Enhance Your Career - Enhance your career and success potential.
Research strongly indicates that Emotional Intelligence, as a determinant of high performance, is twice as important as technical and cognitive skills combined. In addition, Emotional Intelligence is more than 85% of what enables "star performers" to develop into great leaders.
ImproveProductivity - Improve your personal productivity.
Improve your ability to think under pressure and minimize the time wasted by feelings of anxiety, frustration, fear and panic. Increasing your ability to consider all of the relevant factors quickly and accurately will minimize the time you might spend second-guessing yourself and correcting problems. Improving your interaction with staff will save time and instill confidence.
IncreaseJob Satisfaction - Get better performance from and increase job satisfaction of your direct reports.
Developing your Emotional Intelligence skills allows more of your authentic self to be present in every interaction. Your passion, courage, and visionary thinking will be more clearly evident to those around you. People are more creative, will work longer, and cooperate more effectively when they work for a leader with high Emotional Intelligence skills.
Manage Demanding Clients - Work easily with demanding clients and team members.
Friction, confusion and argumentative behavior comes more from a lack of Emotional Intelligence skills than it does from a lack of clear direction or appropriate information. Developing your Emotional Intelligence skills increases the coherence between you and others which minimizes time wasted arguing and defending turf positions. Meetings are more organized and individuals feel free to express diverging opinions.
Improve Work/Life Balance - Improve work/life balance so you can enjoy your personal life.
Improving your personal productivity, getting better performance from your staff, and working easily with demanding clients and team members means that you can leave work at a reasonable time with confidence. Having the energy and time to do the things you enjoy outside of works makes for a better life and better leader.
Managers / Supervisors
Managers' and Supervisors' behavior and treatment of their people determine turnover and retention. They interact daily with individuals who have distinct needs, wants and expectations. They significantly influence the attitudes, performance, and satisfaction of employees within their department and other departments. The stress of trying to lead and satisfy so many people's changing needs and expectations can be overwhelming, to say nothing of the demands from upper management. 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 – allowing them to manage their own emotional turmoil effectively and demonstrate compassion and empathy for their employees. IT also provides them with the courage to push against the system 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.
Team Leaders / Product Managers
Team Leaders and Project Managers are held accountable for setting and maintaining a positive environment where very diverse, non-local individuals can work together to achieve success in shorter and shorter time periods on projects of greater magnitude and importance. They must eliminate roadblocks and internal and external or organizational barriers so their teams can achieve success. Working in the political environment of organizations can cause a lot of frustration, anxiety, suspicion, and resentment as the maze of organizational change is deciphered. Teams and projects fall behind schedule. Members leave the team, causing further delays. Enhancing EI skills of Team Leaders and Project Managers enables them to maintain a positive attitude as they eliminate impediments to team success. By improving their own internal motivation and persistence, they motivate their team to high sustained levels of performance and achievement. Major projects of significant importance to the organization are achieved on time and on budget. Critical talented staff are developed and retained.
Sales Professionals
Sales people frequently work with difficult prospects and customers. They often find themselves in adversarial situations over price, features, delivery schedules, etc. These situations can generate anxiety, fear, frustration or even outright anger on the part of both the sales person and the customer. This can lead to a vicious negative emotional cycle where sales decline, sales people are demotivated, and customers are unsatisfied and leave. Enhancing EI skills allows the sales person to have more control over themselves and thus the situation. They are not as apt to let the customer "push their buttons." They can stay mentally focused on the key issues and not "give-away-the-store." Research shows that the more optimistic a sales person is, the higher their volume and sales dollars. Optimism leads to persistence which leads to more sales. Being able to empathize with the customer allows for faster, more effective problem-solving and better communication. Developing strong positive relationships with customers, through thick and thin, ensures higher sales and better cooperation when problems do arise.
Teams
Teams are shouldering more and more responsibility for major organizational initiatives. They are under pressure to work smoothly with people they may never see face-to-face both inside and outside their organization. Deadlines are tight, resources are scarce, technology is rapidly advancing, and team members are constantly changing. It's easy to be dejected, overwhelmed and confused as things change about you. It's normal to feel angry when a team member doesn't deliver, disgusted when resources are taken away, and angry when you are still expected to meet tight deadlines. Team cohesion and effectiveness breakdown and progress slows to a creep. Product introductions are missed and market share can be lost to competitors. Teams with enhanced EI skills can dramatically shorten the storming phase of team formation. Team members deal effectively and efficiently with their own and other member's emotional turmoil, using it as a source for developing team cohesion and trust. Esprit de corps is developed with a can-do attitude. Major projects of significant importance to the organization are achieved on time and on budget. The organization gains a reputation as a great place to work and grow.
Customer Service Representatives
Customer service representatives deal with angry, frustrated customers continuously throughout their day. They find themselves being verbally abused through no fault of their own. The customer's anger, frustration and rage can cause representatives to become nervous, mad, disgusted, and angry themselves. If the representative does not have a high level of EI skills, the discussion may escalate and require the intervention of the CS Supervisor. Or worse, it can cause the company to lose that customer. An upset customer will typically tell 10-15 friends about the poor treatment they received. CSRs who have enhanced their EI skills can easily manage their emotional reactiveness to angry customers, maintain a calm, polite and sincere attitude and conversation with customers in-the-moment. Being able to empathize with the upset customer allows for faster, more effective problem-solving and better communication. Maintaining customer satisfaction in the face of adversity and conflict builds customer loyalty. Loyal customers tell their friends. Higher customer loyalty leads to higher profitability
Technical Professionals
Technical Professionals are constantly under pressure to do more with less faster, better, and cheaper. They work long hard hours to complete projects. They are challenged to create and innovate, interact with a multitude of people from different functions, and do tasks, in many cases, they would like to avoid. These situations can cause technical professionals to be agitated, resentful, anxious, frustrated, and stressed-out much of the day. These negative emotions cause what is known as "emotional hijacking" – a physiological response in the brain that literally keeps people from thinking clearly. Communication is hampered, more mistakes and errors are made, and creativity is blocked. Enhancing the Technical Professional's EI skills provides them with what they never were taught in school - how to manage their own emotional reactiveness to people and situations and how to build interpersonal skills that allow them to get other technical colleagues to help them when they need it. Strong EI skills ensure that projects are completed on schedule, and that they incorporate the best innovative thinking that is available both inside and outside the organization.
Staff
The sheer volume of work that most Administrative Staff must deal with is overwhelming. They support more people who travel more and need more work done with shorter deadlines for each task. New computer systems, new requirements, new policies and procedures, all add to the frustration. Constant minute-by-minute interruptions are the norm. Is it any wonder they feel completely overwhelmed, worried, dejected, confused, fearful and even guilty by all the various demands and expectations placed on them? These feelings can lead to situations where Staff feel paralyzed by all they have to do. Procrastination becomes evident, errors and mistakes increase, and feeling like they have no control often leads to a depressive state where complaining and absenteeism increases. Health, attitude, and morale suffer. Enhanced EI skills enable people to gracefully handle multiple demands, interruptions and tight deadlines. Processes, databases, and projects run more smoothly, details do not fall through the cracks, and professional staff are freed-up to focus on their work.
What are the Competencies of Emotional Intelligence?
There are five basic competencies that comprise the field of Emotional Intelligence. The first three are Intra-personal, that is they are invisible to others and occur inside of us. The last two are inter-personal, that is they occur between us and other people and are observable in our behavior. The better developed your intra-personal skills, the easier it is to demonstrate your inter-personal skills.
Emotional Self-Awareness – Having the skills to focus your attention on your emotional state. Being aware, in-the-moment, of what you're feeling. Are you happy, excited, worried, angry? Given that information about your emotional state, what should (or shouldn't) you do or say next? Use that information to help you make effective decisions to achieve better outcomes for yourself and others.
Emotional Self-Regulation – Having the skill to be able to choose the emotions you want to experience, rather than being the victim of whatever emotions occur. Not letting others "push your buttons." Possessing the ability to manage your emotional state. Do not confuse this with "burying " or "stuffing" your feelings. The skill to choose the emotions you want – typically to be able to transform negative draining emotional states into positive productive ones.
Emotional Self-Motivation – The ability to use your emotions to cause yourself to take positive action, to continue to persistently pursue goals even in the face of significant adversity or difficulty. This is about using your emotions to be positive, optimistic, confident, and persistent rather than negative, pessimistic and second guessing yourself and your decisions.
Empathy – Not to be confused with sympathy. Possessing the ability to listen effectively and accurately enough to put yourself in the other person's shoes. Not to necessarily agree with them, but to truly understand the situation from their point of view in order to improve communication, problem-solving, and trust.
Nurturing Relationships – The ability to demonstrate sincere care (as contrasted with "required courtesy") for others. Through word and deed, demonstrate appreciation for people's efforts and contribution. Setting a positive tone of cooperation no matter how difficult the situation or conversation. Having other's best interests in mind while focusing on achieving goals to create win-win outcomes.
Introducing Emotional Intelligence to Your Organization
Step 1 - Identify Your Needs
One approach is to identify functions, departments, or groups that have the most direct impact on key organizational issues and outcomes that could benefit by developing their EI skills. For example…
1. Executives
2. Managers
3. High Potentials
4. Team Leaders
5. Sales
6. Service
7. Operations
8. Nursing
9. The XYZ Team
10. Service Representatives
11. Executive Committee
12. Production Management
13. Other
Another approach is to identify issues that are negatively impacting goals. A good source for identifying these issues is your employee attitude/satisfaction survey. Example issues might include…
1. Communication
2. Productivity
3. Absenteeism
4. Creativity/Innovation
5. Stress
6. Vendor Relations
7. Negativity
8. Employee Retention
9. Emotional Reactivity
10. Climate/Morale
11. Customer Relations
12. Change Management
13. Healthcare Costs
14. Re-work
15. Merger/Acquisition
16. Other
Step 2 - Introduce
Provide Information
This enables people to understand the impact of mismanaged emotions inside and outside the workplace. Make sure that there is some form of discussion among the people you provide this information to. Relate this information to the needs you identified above. Example information…
1. Articles
2. Books
3. Case Studies
4. Clinical Studies
5. Wire Service Articles
6. Book Summaries
7. Videos
8. Multi-Media CD
9. Audio Taped Talk
10. Other
Schedule an Internal Overview Presentation
The 1.5 to 2 hour session that we provide will educate people on What emotional intelligence is and is not, Why it's important, and How it affects performance. It gives people a chance to ask questions and get answers tailored to their situations, jobs, and culture from an expert in EI skill development. Participants will understand the research that demonstrates why this is a critical business issue. They will learn about the benefits experienced by other organizations as a result of learning techniques for improving emotional intelligence.
The title of this presentation can vary and should be tied to organization needs identified above. Examples include…
• Managing Change by Developing your Emotional Intelligence
• Maximizing Leadership Performance
• Enhancing Personal Effectiveness
• Maintaining Resilience in the Face of Chaos
• Managing the Stress of Change
Have each attendee complete an evaluation that asks them if they would be interested in attending a comprehensive training if it is offered.
Step 3 - Implement
Once you've identified the need for skill building in emotional intelligence and you have a few key people who are interested who could help you champion the program
Schedule Internal Training Programs
While some organizations find it valuable to gain internal support through attendance at a public workshop, many others begin by initiating a pilot offering inside the organization. The intent is to provide measurements identifying the value of the program to the organization.
Pre and post training measurements and assessments are used to demonstrate the impact of the training. Each participant should complete a written evaluation indicating specifically how they are using and benefiting from what they have learned.
The largest impact and most benefits occur by beginning with individuals in executive, director and management positions, because everyone is impacted by the behaviors they model and the quality of their decisions. Research shows that the higher one's position in an organization, the greater the relationship of success to a high level of competency in emotional intelligence.
Once you've documented and presented the benefits of the training to leaders and executives in the organization, develop an implementation plan to deliver the training to all of the functions that need it. Make sure you've identified specific needs and objectives for skill building in emotional intelligence and have identified the group(s) to be trained. Your organization is ready to have a measurable impact on productivity and organizational climate.
What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)?
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge from your emotions and the emotions of others. You can use the information about what you're feeling to help you make effective decisions about what to say or do (or not say or do) next. Emotional Intelligence is NOT about being soft! It is a different way of being smart – having the skill to use your emotions to help you make choices in-the-moment and have more effective control over yourself and your impact on others.
Who Could Benefit From EI Skill Enhancement?
The Development of Emotional Intelligence skills can benefit a broad range of people within an organization. Read on for a few examples of who needs EI skills and how they will benefit from developing them.
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. Enhancing leaders' EI skills enables them to lead with courage, demonstrate their passion, grow and retain 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.
Achieve Maximum Success
Why Improve Your Emotional Intelligence Skills?
As the competition heats up and the pace of change accelerates, you can't continue doing "business as usual." You need a new approach that transcends linear thinking and cuts through barriers. You need advanced skills that will increase your mental clarity, elicit higher productivity from your staff, magnetize talented people to you, and inspire people while experiencing less chaos and confusion.
Mental Clarity - Increase personal energy and mental clarity
Every leader needs maximum personal energy and mental clarity to lead his/her organization into the future. Developing your Emotional Intelligence (EI) skills to the fullest minimizes physical, mental, and emotional energy drains while allowing you to think more clearly in pressure situations that you face every minute of every day.
HigherProductivity - Elicit higher productivity and personal motivation from all of your staff
The ability to improve organization-wide productivity is largely dependent on increasing each individual's personal motivation to do excellent work. By developing your Emotional Intelligence skills, you will positively impact every person you come in contact with throughout each business day. As the role model of behavior and performance for your company, your enhanced skills will have a dramatic impact on every person's productivity.
Magnetize Talent - Magnetize talented people to you and your company
The best most effective executives and leaders are like magnets. People love to work for them. The most talented people seek out leaders and executives that bring out the best in them and challenge them to perform. Leaders with high Emotional Intelligence skills have been shown to be the best bosses people have ever worked for.
Inspire People - Empower and inspire people to achieve corporate objectives
Developing your Emotional Intelligence skills allows more of your authentic self to be present in every interaction. Your passion, courage, and visionary thinking will be more clearly evident to those around you. People are more creative, will work longer, and cooperate more effectively when they work for a leader with high Emotional Intelligence skills.
Less Chaos - Experience less chaos and confusion and shorter, smoother meetings
Friction, confusion and argumentative behavior comes more from a lack of Emotional Intelligence skills than it does from a lack of clear direction. As the coherence between you and others increases, less time is wasted arguing and defending turf positions. Meetings are more organized and individuals feel free to express diverging opinions without being attacked. This allows for a full exploration of possibilities and problems in an efficient and effective manner.
High Potential People
High potential people take on demanding multiple projects and leadership roles. Unforeseen events occur that delay or derail critical business initiatives under their responsibility. They have daily contact with customers, suppliers and even competitors who are often irate and threatening. 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 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. Research has shown that high EI skills are the distinguishing characteristic that separate star performers from average ones. The earlier these skills are developed and ingrained, the more likely High Potentials and the company are to experience success. Ensuring that high potential people develop their EI skills to the fullest ensures a cadre of competent global leaders available to introduce new products, start new businesses, and lead the integration of new acquisitions.
Why Improve Your Emotional Intelligence Skills?
As the competition heats up and the pace of change accelerates, you can't continue doing "business as usual." You need a new approach that transcends linear thinking and cuts through barriers. You need advanced skills that will enhance your career potential, improve work/life balance, increase job satisfaction, improve productivity, and help you manage demanding clients and staff.
Enhance Your Career - Enhance your career and success potential.
Research strongly indicates that Emotional Intelligence, as a determinant of high performance, is twice as important as technical and cognitive skills combined. In addition, Emotional Intelligence is more than 85% of what enables "star performers" to develop into great leaders.
ImproveProductivity - Improve your personal productivity.
Improve your ability to think under pressure and minimize the time wasted by feelings of anxiety, frustration, fear and panic. Increasing your ability to consider all of the relevant factors quickly and accurately will minimize the time you might spend second-guessing yourself and correcting problems. Improving your interaction with staff will save time and instill confidence.
IncreaseJob Satisfaction - Get better performance from and increase job satisfaction of your direct reports.
Developing your Emotional Intelligence skills allows more of your authentic self to be present in every interaction. Your passion, courage, and visionary thinking will be more clearly evident to those around you. People are more creative, will work longer, and cooperate more effectively when they work for a leader with high Emotional Intelligence skills.
Manage Demanding Clients - Work easily with demanding clients and team members.
Friction, confusion and argumentative behavior comes more from a lack of Emotional Intelligence skills than it does from a lack of clear direction or appropriate information. Developing your Emotional Intelligence skills increases the coherence between you and others which minimizes time wasted arguing and defending turf positions. Meetings are more organized and individuals feel free to express diverging opinions.
Improve Work/Life Balance - Improve work/life balance so you can enjoy your personal life.
Improving your personal productivity, getting better performance from your staff, and working easily with demanding clients and team members means that you can leave work at a reasonable time with confidence. Having the energy and time to do the things you enjoy outside of works makes for a better life and better leader.
Managers / Supervisors
Managers' and Supervisors' behavior and treatment of their people determine turnover and retention. They interact daily with individuals who have distinct needs, wants and expectations. They significantly influence the attitudes, performance, and satisfaction of employees within their department and other departments. The stress of trying to lead and satisfy so many people's changing needs and expectations can be overwhelming, to say nothing of the demands from upper management. 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 – allowing them to manage their own emotional turmoil effectively and demonstrate compassion and empathy for their employees. IT also provides them with the courage to push against the system 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.
Team Leaders / Product Managers
Team Leaders and Project Managers are held accountable for setting and maintaining a positive environment where very diverse, non-local individuals can work together to achieve success in shorter and shorter time periods on projects of greater magnitude and importance. They must eliminate roadblocks and internal and external or organizational barriers so their teams can achieve success. Working in the political environment of organizations can cause a lot of frustration, anxiety, suspicion, and resentment as the maze of organizational change is deciphered. Teams and projects fall behind schedule. Members leave the team, causing further delays. Enhancing EI skills of Team Leaders and Project Managers enables them to maintain a positive attitude as they eliminate impediments to team success. By improving their own internal motivation and persistence, they motivate their team to high sustained levels of performance and achievement. Major projects of significant importance to the organization are achieved on time and on budget. Critical talented staff are developed and retained.
Sales Professionals
Sales people frequently work with difficult prospects and customers. They often find themselves in adversarial situations over price, features, delivery schedules, etc. These situations can generate anxiety, fear, frustration or even outright anger on the part of both the sales person and the customer. This can lead to a vicious negative emotional cycle where sales decline, sales people are demotivated, and customers are unsatisfied and leave. Enhancing EI skills allows the sales person to have more control over themselves and thus the situation. They are not as apt to let the customer "push their buttons." They can stay mentally focused on the key issues and not "give-away-the-store." Research shows that the more optimistic a sales person is, the higher their volume and sales dollars. Optimism leads to persistence which leads to more sales. Being able to empathize with the customer allows for faster, more effective problem-solving and better communication. Developing strong positive relationships with customers, through thick and thin, ensures higher sales and better cooperation when problems do arise.
Teams
Teams are shouldering more and more responsibility for major organizational initiatives. They are under pressure to work smoothly with people they may never see face-to-face both inside and outside their organization. Deadlines are tight, resources are scarce, technology is rapidly advancing, and team members are constantly changing. It's easy to be dejected, overwhelmed and confused as things change about you. It's normal to feel angry when a team member doesn't deliver, disgusted when resources are taken away, and angry when you are still expected to meet tight deadlines. Team cohesion and effectiveness breakdown and progress slows to a creep. Product introductions are missed and market share can be lost to competitors. Teams with enhanced EI skills can dramatically shorten the storming phase of team formation. Team members deal effectively and efficiently with their own and other member's emotional turmoil, using it as a source for developing team cohesion and trust. Esprit de corps is developed with a can-do attitude. Major projects of significant importance to the organization are achieved on time and on budget. The organization gains a reputation as a great place to work and grow.
Customer Service Representatives
Customer service representatives deal with angry, frustrated customers continuously throughout their day. They find themselves being verbally abused through no fault of their own. The customer's anger, frustration and rage can cause representatives to become nervous, mad, disgusted, and angry themselves. If the representative does not have a high level of EI skills, the discussion may escalate and require the intervention of the CS Supervisor. Or worse, it can cause the company to lose that customer. An upset customer will typically tell 10-15 friends about the poor treatment they received. CSRs who have enhanced their EI skills can easily manage their emotional reactiveness to angry customers, maintain a calm, polite and sincere attitude and conversation with customers in-the-moment. Being able to empathize with the upset customer allows for faster, more effective problem-solving and better communication. Maintaining customer satisfaction in the face of adversity and conflict builds customer loyalty. Loyal customers tell their friends. Higher customer loyalty leads to higher profitability
Technical Professionals
Technical Professionals are constantly under pressure to do more with less faster, better, and cheaper. They work long hard hours to complete projects. They are challenged to create and innovate, interact with a multitude of people from different functions, and do tasks, in many cases, they would like to avoid. These situations can cause technical professionals to be agitated, resentful, anxious, frustrated, and stressed-out much of the day. These negative emotions cause what is known as "emotional hijacking" – a physiological response in the brain that literally keeps people from thinking clearly. Communication is hampered, more mistakes and errors are made, and creativity is blocked. Enhancing the Technical Professional's EI skills provides them with what they never were taught in school - how to manage their own emotional reactiveness to people and situations and how to build interpersonal skills that allow them to get other technical colleagues to help them when they need it. Strong EI skills ensure that projects are completed on schedule, and that they incorporate the best innovative thinking that is available both inside and outside the organization.
Staff
The sheer volume of work that most Administrative Staff must deal with is overwhelming. They support more people who travel more and need more work done with shorter deadlines for each task. New computer systems, new requirements, new policies and procedures, all add to the frustration. Constant minute-by-minute interruptions are the norm. Is it any wonder they feel completely overwhelmed, worried, dejected, confused, fearful and even guilty by all the various demands and expectations placed on them? These feelings can lead to situations where Staff feel paralyzed by all they have to do. Procrastination becomes evident, errors and mistakes increase, and feeling like they have no control often leads to a depressive state where complaining and absenteeism increases. Health, attitude, and morale suffer. Enhanced EI skills enable people to gracefully handle multiple demands, interruptions and tight deadlines. Processes, databases, and projects run more smoothly, details do not fall through the cracks, and professional staff are freed-up to focus on their work.
What are the Competencies of Emotional Intelligence?
There are five basic competencies that comprise the field of Emotional Intelligence. The first three are Intra-personal, that is they are invisible to others and occur inside of us. The last two are inter-personal, that is they occur between us and other people and are observable in our behavior. The better developed your intra-personal skills, the easier it is to demonstrate your inter-personal skills.
Emotional Self-Awareness – Having the skills to focus your attention on your emotional state. Being aware, in-the-moment, of what you're feeling. Are you happy, excited, worried, angry? Given that information about your emotional state, what should (or shouldn't) you do or say next? Use that information to help you make effective decisions to achieve better outcomes for yourself and others.
Emotional Self-Regulation – Having the skill to be able to choose the emotions you want to experience, rather than being the victim of whatever emotions occur. Not letting others "push your buttons." Possessing the ability to manage your emotional state. Do not confuse this with "burying " or "stuffing" your feelings. The skill to choose the emotions you want – typically to be able to transform negative draining emotional states into positive productive ones.
Emotional Self-Motivation – The ability to use your emotions to cause yourself to take positive action, to continue to persistently pursue goals even in the face of significant adversity or difficulty. This is about using your emotions to be positive, optimistic, confident, and persistent rather than negative, pessimistic and second guessing yourself and your decisions.
Empathy – Not to be confused with sympathy. Possessing the ability to listen effectively and accurately enough to put yourself in the other person's shoes. Not to necessarily agree with them, but to truly understand the situation from their point of view in order to improve communication, problem-solving, and trust.
Nurturing Relationships – The ability to demonstrate sincere care (as contrasted with "required courtesy") for others. Through word and deed, demonstrate appreciation for people's efforts and contribution. Setting a positive tone of cooperation no matter how difficult the situation or conversation. Having other's best interests in mind while focusing on achieving goals to create win-win outcomes.
Introducing Emotional Intelligence to Your Organization
Step 1 - Identify Your Needs
One approach is to identify functions, departments, or groups that have the most direct impact on key organizational issues and outcomes that could benefit by developing their EI skills. For example…
1. Executives
2. Managers
3. High Potentials
4. Team Leaders
5. Sales
6. Service
7. Operations
8. Nursing
9. The XYZ Team
10. Service Representatives
11. Executive Committee
12. Production Management
13. Other
Another approach is to identify issues that are negatively impacting goals. A good source for identifying these issues is your employee attitude/satisfaction survey. Example issues might include…
1. Communication
2. Productivity
3. Absenteeism
4. Creativity/Innovation
5. Stress
6. Vendor Relations
7. Negativity
8. Employee Retention
9. Emotional Reactivity
10. Climate/Morale
11. Customer Relations
12. Change Management
13. Healthcare Costs
14. Re-work
15. Merger/Acquisition
16. Other
Step 2 - Introduce
Provide Information
This enables people to understand the impact of mismanaged emotions inside and outside the workplace. Make sure that there is some form of discussion among the people you provide this information to. Relate this information to the needs you identified above. Example information…
1. Articles
2. Books
3. Case Studies
4. Clinical Studies
5. Wire Service Articles
6. Book Summaries
7. Videos
8. Multi-Media CD
9. Audio Taped Talk
10. Other
Schedule an Internal Overview Presentation
The 1.5 to 2 hour session that we provide will educate people on What emotional intelligence is and is not, Why it's important, and How it affects performance. It gives people a chance to ask questions and get answers tailored to their situations, jobs, and culture from an expert in EI skill development. Participants will understand the research that demonstrates why this is a critical business issue. They will learn about the benefits experienced by other organizations as a result of learning techniques for improving emotional intelligence.
The title of this presentation can vary and should be tied to organization needs identified above. Examples include…
• Managing Change by Developing your Emotional Intelligence
• Maximizing Leadership Performance
• Enhancing Personal Effectiveness
• Maintaining Resilience in the Face of Chaos
• Managing the Stress of Change
Have each attendee complete an evaluation that asks them if they would be interested in attending a comprehensive training if it is offered.
Step 3 - Implement
Once you've identified the need for skill building in emotional intelligence and you have a few key people who are interested who could help you champion the program
Schedule Internal Training Programs
While some organizations find it valuable to gain internal support through attendance at a public workshop, many others begin by initiating a pilot offering inside the organization. The intent is to provide measurements identifying the value of the program to the organization.
Pre and post training measurements and assessments are used to demonstrate the impact of the training. Each participant should complete a written evaluation indicating specifically how they are using and benefiting from what they have learned.
The largest impact and most benefits occur by beginning with individuals in executive, director and management positions, because everyone is impacted by the behaviors they model and the quality of their decisions. Research shows that the higher one's position in an organization, the greater the relationship of success to a high level of competency in emotional intelligence.
Once you've documented and presented the benefits of the training to leaders and executives in the organization, develop an implementation plan to deliver the training to all of the functions that need it. Make sure you've identified specific needs and objectives for skill building in emotional intelligence and have identified the group(s) to be trained. Your organization is ready to have a measurable impact on productivity and organizational climate.
