Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

It’s common knowledge that you must have a fairly high IQ in order to handle the load of running an organization. Just as important to the success of leaders and employees alike is emotional intelligence or EQ. There was a time when building EQ was thought of as unconventional in the business lexicon. Through first-hand self-improvement and coaching, the benefits to our business have become crystal clear. And the great news is that while IQ is pretty much static, EQ is a set of learnable competencies that can grow and change with training, coaching, and prioritizing it within our company culture.

Building EQ competency activities and training into our organization helps accomplish things that we may have been held back from before. The primary concept of EQ is productively and positively managing ourselves, managing our relationships with others, and reaping the natural successes and benefits that come from that.

Building teams that show EQ competency boost performance, provide a culture where people are willing to learn from each other, willing to grow and collaborate, and willing to show their own leadership. EQ awareness helps with productivity, profitability, employee engagement, and a reduction of employee conflict and stress. There is a decrease in apathy, poor communication strategies, and a lack of confidence.

Prioritizing growth of EQ within our organizations is not about having fewer negative events occur. Look around- there will always be negative, uncontrollable events occurring in the world. But learning strategies for having resilience helps us to get through negative events and come out stronger.

Awareness is foundational to EQ. Emotional intelligence is the awareness of our emotions and the emotions of others in the moment. It strengthens the ability to manage those emotions appropriately. Taking a self- inventory about how you're feeling in a particular moment, and how it is impacting you and others helps you immediately manage your relationships with colleagues, clients, and people involved with your organization.

While technical skills are key to business success, soft skills like discipline, drive, and empathy helps us reach a point of serving others well- which is the pinnacle of our organization.

Recruit and train the right kind of employees and then have the ability to retain them because they are working within a business culture that values them and pushes them to better themselves. We have had employees leave the organization and come back because of the strength of the positive culture.

Studies have shown that the impact of fellow employees that have lower EQ awareness causes undue stress on the people within the organization. Emotionally immature people tend to alienate others by passive-aggressive behaviors, bullying behaviors, rigidity, and being unable to think collaboratively.

Leaders with lower EQ show an inability to listen (a huge point of contention for me), they can be micromanagers because there is no culture of trust within the organization, and they tend to keep things to themselves- including the positive things going on. That is frankly a formula for disaster, and it is nearly impossible to keep talented, motivated, and loyal people within your organization when you haven’t built opportunities for EQ growth.

So how do strong organizations do this? I always say keep it fun, but really, it’s not just about being fun and having people enjoy being around you: Showing integrity, trustworthiness, and reflecting a personal knowledge that you can handle the negatives are the cornerstones for building the same resilience within your team members.

Investing in training and activities related to building this within your company increases productivity and you get major returns on your investment- Improved performance and achievement, more innovative problem-solving strategies, flexibility, resilience, and overall better decision making. There are several case studies on how large corporations have seen major gains from EQ investments for their employees.

Build EQ competency into the expectations of the workplace. Find ways to assess or measure EQ and bring awareness of where our strengths and limitations lay. Then make time for training and exposure to ways to build capacity. 

What are the major capacities of Emotional Intelligence? It starts with our own emotional self-awareness and understanding personal strengths and limitations. From there, integrity is at the top of the list, as well as innovation, intentionality, stress management, coping skills, and empathy.

All of these competencies build into the Service Orientation of our organization. We pride ourselves in recognizing the needs of others and taking steps to help fulfill that need. Building bonds and trust within the organization through teamwork, collaboration, mentoring and effective communication ensures that we will be here to serve others for a long time.