Emotional Intelligence for Effective Leaders - The Business Case for EQ

The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence

I met a client that Executive Coaching is the President / CEO of High Tech Company of San Francisco Bay Area yesterday. It is considering hiring a vice president of technology to help run the new business strategy.

I also provide executive coaching for two other members of the executive team. The COO who has had some difficulties in the field of emotional intelligence was partly responsible for some problems in the retention of key employees. He has gotten a lot better develop his social skills and work with his team.

The President / CEO and I discussed my conducting a structured behavioral interview with the Vice President of Technology final candidates. The process should include through the use of psychometric questionnaires to assess each candidates' personalities, abilities and personal skills, interpersonal and technical skills based on a model for the position. The President / CEO wants to decide which of the final candidates not only the technical ability, but the emotional intelligence to become a productive team member and leader who is a great fit with corporate culture. He had wisely learned from teething troubles with the COO of the importance of selecting the best talents that are both technically competent and emotionally intelligent.

The following examples of research provide a bottom-line rationale for the formation of emotional skills in recruitment, selection, and retaining, developing performance metrics, and management of customer relationships.

After supervisors in a manufacturing plant received training in emotional competencies such as how to listen better and help employees resolve problems on their own, lost-time accidents were reduced by 50 percent, formal grievances were reduced from an average of 15 per year for 3 years, and the plant exceeded productivity goals by $ 250,000 (Pesuric and Byham, 1996).

In another manufacturing plant where supervisors received similar training, production increased by 17 percent. There was no such increase in production for a group of supervisors that have not been found trained (Porras and Anderson, 1981).

The U.S. Air Force used the EQ-i (Emotional Quotient Inventory, Multi-Health Systems, Toronto) to select recruiters and found that the most successful recruiters scored significantly higher in emotional competencies of assertiveness, empathy, happiness and emotional self-awareness. They found that using EQ to select the recruiters, have increased their ability to predict the recruiters of success of almost three times. The immediate gain was a savings of $ 3 million a year.

The analysis of over 300 senior executives from fifteen global companies showed that six emotional competencies distinguished artists star average: influence, team leadership, organizational awareness, self-confidence, achievement drive, and leadership (Spencer , 1997).

The financial advisors of American Express whose managers completed the Emotional Competence training program were compared with managers who had not. During the following year, qualified managers grew their businesses by 18.1% compared to 16.2% of those whose managers were trained.

In a beverage company large, using standard methods to take Presidents of division, the 50% left within two years, mainly because of poor performance. When they started selecting based on emotional competencies such as initiative, self-confidence, and leadership, has left only 6% in two years. The managers selected on the basis of EQ were far more likely to perform in the top third: 87% were in the top third. The division leaders with these competencies outperformed their targets 15 to 20 percent. Those that lacked emotional competencies under-performed those who did by almost 20% (McClelland, 1999).

What are your thoughts or experiences regarding the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace? The leaders of your company could benefit from working with an experienced executive coach can help to improve their emotional intelligence and social intelligence and ultimitaely your bottom line .......