Though the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been around for decades, there is a growing body of research and real world success stories that prove leaders with high EI outperform their peers with lower EI. They also create greater impact and more profitability for the organization overall.

So what is Emotional Intelligence? EI can be defined as:

  • The ability to identify and manage emotional information in oneself and others
  • Skill in focusing energy on those behaviors that influence your ability and the ability of others to succeed in responding to environmental demands.

Unlike IQ, or cognitive intelligence, Emotional Intelligence is not hard wired at birth. The skills defined and measure by Emotional Quotient Inventories (EQ-I’s) can be improved no matter how old you are.

Jack Welch, former Chairman and CEO, General Electric Co. recognized this long ago. He said “A leader’s intelligence has to have a strong emotional component. He has to have high levels of self-awareness, maturity and self-control. She must be able to withstand the heat, handle setbacks, and when those lucky moments arise, enjoy success with equal parts of joy and humility. No doubt Emotional Intelligence is more rare than book smarts, but my experience says it is actually more important in the making of a leader. You just can’t ignore it.”

Top organizations are improving their bottom lines by using tools that help employees at all level develop their EI. In fact, research has identified key EI competencies for success in specific vocations – everything from accounting, medicine, financial services, consulting, law, sales, marketing, teaching, religious vocations, to general management and so on.

Here are just a few ways EI success indicators have been utilized to create significant business impacts:

  • The United States Air Force was able to increase the recruiter retention from 50% to 96% and save $2.7M dollars in one year alone
  • A national insurance company discovered that sales agents with higher EI scores in a certain combination of competencies sold policies worth 111% more than their peers
  • The Center for Creative Leadership studied 302 leaders and senior managers, finding successful leaders scored significantly higher in four components – Interpersonal Relationship, Stress Tolerance, Happiness and Impulse Control.

Leadership development begins from the inside out. Developing stronger EI skills requires that each leader answer three key questions:

  1. Self awareness – where am I at today?
  2. Organizational awareness – what EI skills are most critical to my success as a leader in this organization?
  3. Developmental awareness – how do I develop those critical competencies to take my skills to the next level?

At Enerpace, we are trained in using EQ-I assessments to assist our clients in answering all three key questions! For more information, contact Diana@enerpace.com or call #630-832-4399.

To learn more about Emotional Intelligence, we recommend “The EQ Edge” by Steven J. Stein and Howard Book. It’s practical, easy to read and uses real world examples and exercises to illustrate the 15 components of Emotional Intelligence.