WHY DIGITAL STORYTELLER IS INVESTING IN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TRAINING

The dynamics of a startup culture are unique and pose various challenges that larger businesses are less likely to experience on such a significant level. Being a new business barely past its first anniversary of operation, our goal at Digital Storyteller is to combat these challenges and come out even stronger. And if we do say so ourselves, we’re doing a d*mn good job at it.

Now that we’ve already begun to surpass some of our initial goals, we’ve been forced to tackle an unexpected rate of growth. While our team has stepped up to the plate to continue to surprise and delight our clients, we’ve taken it one step further.

We’ve recognized that a necessary attribute in our continued success is an investment in emotional intelligence. What is emotional intelligence? It doesn’t mean being smart enough to prepare for a bad day by having ice cream in the freezer at the ready. Emotional intelligence focuses on one’s capabilities to recognize their own emotions and those of others and adjust and adapt to the given situation.

We have recognized the strength of emotional intelligence of our staff members yet we still strive to improve every day. CEO Andrew Marr’s goal for our team is that if and when the day comes that one of us walks away from Digital Storyteller, it will be as better marketers and better people. One of the ways that our founders have decided to make this goal a reality is by partnering with Possibilities Consulting.

The experts at Possibilities Consulting aim to support team development by conducting PREP profile analysis and team and individual debriefing sessions. The sessions take a deep dive into who team members are both through their own views and through the eyes of those around them. They assess the difference between these views and uncover the meaning behind that difference. Once identified, they point participants in the right direction to be their truest and best selves.

The purpose of Possibilities Consulting is not to instruct team members to change or to be anyone other than their truest selves. Rather, the goal of the session is to identify one’s strengths and challenges and find a position that meets those skills.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid.” -Albert Einstein

The Possibilities team preaches that training team members in the disciplines of high-performance will dramatically improve their effectiveness. They identify the path to high performance as requiring the following characteristics:

• honest communication
• diversity of thought
• passionate yet civilized disagreement
• fact-based problem-solving
• complex decision-making
• organizational influence

When taking a look at our business’s goals for the future, the investment in this team training felt like a no-brainer. The dedication to enriching an individual’s emotional intelligence aligns directly with the previously mentioned motto from Andrew; creating better marketers and better individuals. What better way to invest in the company than by investing directly into the people that have made it what it is today?

Our personal experience with the Possibilities Consulting team has already proven greatly effective within our business. Their guidance has led our team to reach outside the box towards goals that might have previously felt unattainable. We are proud to be building a business as we go. The personal adaptability of our team members was directly proven in the outcome of our PREP profiles and is witnessed in real-time in the daily actions completed by each team member.

Our team debriefs served as an opportunity to slow down and look closely at the puzzle pieces that we’ve recognized fit together so well to make us the company that we are. That being said, we’ve also partnered with the Possibilities team to support us as our team grows. While our puzzle seems perfectly put together at the moment, we recognize that to reach our goals, we need to add more pieces.

Our partnership with Possibilities is aiding us in ensuring that the pieces that we add to our puzzle are the right fit to add on. This is not just in terms of fitting what already exists, but adding to the greater picture as well.

Overall, the investment in the bettering of our team was a necessary decision to provide guidance and direction as we continue to move full steam ahead into the future. The Possibilities Consulting team has shone a light on our team in all aspects and has left us with a refreshed determination to continue breaking down barriers and taking our next steps.