I was facilitating a session for 2nd Line Managers on Emotional Intelligence this week for the first time and it got me thinking around how many of us do still focus on improving our 'Intelligence' on the educational front (hence the reason we are all going through our current qualifications) but how much do we actually focus on growing self-awareness and developing our own emotional intelligence. It's a huge and very interesting topic with loads of info out there...whilst work on emotions and their impact on behaviour have been ongoing since forever - evidence dating back to 440BC with Hipporcrates, a famous figure in the history of medicine, one of the most famous names linked with EI (or EQ) is Daniel Goleman, who was mainly responsible for brining EI into the forefront and introducing it to 'managment speak' back in the mid 1990's with his first book on the subject.
The good news is that whilst it is believed that our IQ is determined at a very early age (some believe from birth) and reaches its peak at approx age 17, that we can continue to develop our EI (EQ) continuously at any time.
Back in the day, it was your IQ and knowlege/skill within a certain field that guaranteed you the job - I'm sure we all have examples of past managers/colleagues where this still seems to be the case...intelligent and good at the job but no people skills!!!
Goleman's research has proved that the further up the corporate ladder we climb and/or enter more of a leadership role, the more important our EI skills become in distinguishing the best from the average.
Loads of good stuff on this subject out there (especially the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) but thought I'd get you considering this side of your development too, if it's not already on your radar!
I've put a link in to an interview by Daniel Goleman too giving a great introduction to the subject...
Comments
Couldn't agree more Rachel - to be a great people manager or leader requires emotional insight as this enables you to build great relationships with people. If you can display emotional intelligence with ease, stronger connections are made resulting in trust and increased discretionary behaviour. Emotional intelligence enables you to pro-actively manage symptoms in the workplace before they erupt in to bigger issues.
I'm an advocate of authentic leadership in that being authentic shows that you are in touch with your emotions, your strengths and importantly your limitations. It also shows that you genuinely care about your people.
In my experience if you lead with your heart and your mind it gets great results. It takes strength to show our emotions and vulnerabilities, but it is this that enables us to connect better with our colleagues. Over the years leaders and women in particular were encouraged not to show emotion as it is a sign of weakness, what a load of tosh! Communicating in a direct way or having difficult conversations takes strength, is critical to successful outcomes, but needs to be done with empathy.