Daniel Goleman defined EI as:
Emotional Intelligence (EI): “The capacity for recognizing our own feelings, and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and our relationships”
Why is it so important? Consider these statistics:
• “The research shows that for jobs of all kinds, emotional intelligence is twice as important an ingredient of outstanding performance as ability and technical skill combined. The higher you go in the organization, the more important these qualities are for success. When it comes to leadership, they are almost everything.” - Daniel Goleman
• 75% of careers are derailed for reasons related to emotional competencies, including inability to handle interpersonal problems; unsatisfactory team leadership during times of difficulty or conflict; or inability to adapt to change or elicit trust (Centre for Creative Leadership, 1994)
• 85-95% of the difference of a “good leader” and an “excellent leader” is due to emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1998)
• The reasons for losing customers and clients are 70% EQ related (e.g. Didn’t like that company’s customer service) Forum Corporation on Manufacturing and Service Companies
• UCLA research indicates that only 7% of leadership success is attributable to intellect; 93% of success comes from trust, integrity, authenticity, honesty, creativity, presence and resilience (Cooper and Sawaf)
Emotional intelligence consists of a range of skill areas including:
Conflict management
The ability to build relationships
Optimism
Self- confidence
Trustworthiness
In fact, most EI models include more than a dozen competency areas. For more on this, take a look at the Emotional Intelligence Consortium's website.
Emotional Intelligence is a skill set we want to cultivate in all team members, not just team leaders. With a shift in paradigm to flatter organizational structures, agile approaches, remote work teams and an ever changing environment, it is critical that we also equip our team members with skills. In the next few posts, we’ll be looking at several of the EI competencies which may be important to develop, including Conflict Management, building trust and others. Over the next few weeks here at the TEams365 blog, we'll be looking at many of these areas.
Have a great Tuesday,
Jenifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
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