The ancient admonition to know thyself is increasingly relevant for business people today. Research shows that emotional intelligence (EI) factors like self-awareness and social skill can be three times more important than IQ or technical ability for job success. On other hand, lack of people skills is a leading cause of executive derailment and employee turnover.

Emotional intelligence can be broadly defined as an individuals ability to understand and manage his or her own emotions, and to respond empathically and authentically to others. Daniel Goleman popularized the concept in two hugely popular books, Emotional Intelligence and Working with Emotional Intelligence. He identifies five EI categories (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill) that enable people to develop a host of specific competencies, including self-confidence, initiative, achievement drive, service orientation, and persuasiveness. 1

EI capabilities become more critical as job complexity increases, and intangibles like leading and motivating become key requirements. Goleman found that 67% of the abilities needed for effective performance were EI competencies, and that IQ accounts for only about 25% of job success.2 Hallmarks of emotionally savvy managers are things like being able to accurately assess ones strengths and weaknesses, develop trust and get buy-in from others on projects, think before taking action, and other characteristics commonly associated with seasoned and effective leaders.

Boorish or disengaged managers, on the other hand, do a lot more than generate boss from hell stories to trade over drinks at the local watering hole. A poor relationship with a supervisor is consistently ranked as the top reason that people leave their jobs.

The good news is that emotional intelligence can be learned, although it requires commitment and courage to change long-standing personal patterns of interacting. Human beings naturally resort to what they know when confronted with challenging situations, wielding proverbial hammers in search of nails. The payback for devoting time and energy to increasing emotional intelligence is the ability to better discern nails from screws, hooks, and pegs, and select the best tools for working with each.

One way to start becoming more emotionally savvy is to pay attention to how your personality style influences the way you perceive and respond to events. For example, are your perfectionist tendencies keeping you from seeing the big picture? Do you procrastinate trying to weigh all of the options? Have colleagues accused you of being negative when youre trouble-shooting a project? (For more on personality, see The Personality of Business: Manage Your Style for Greater Success, available at no charge from Forward Motion Coaching.)

Be advised that because emotional competencies are governed by a different area of the brain than cognitive learning,3 traditional one or two day seminars are not effective for developing EI skills. Professional coaching is often helpful because it provides the on-going practice and reinforcement that is needed to learn new emotional habits.

Early steps up the corporate ladder are often predicated on hard skills, like technical acumen and track record. However, the inherent difficulty of not seeing ourselves as others do can become a real career liability. Insensitivity to others is ranked the number one reason for executive derailment.4

Clearly, organizations would do well to incorporate EI competencies into development activities for promising individuals throughout the ranks. Similarly, individuals would be wise to cultivate soft skills with as much fervor as they do hard line activities to help assure a smoother career climb and more satisfying view at the top.

Sources:
1 Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence, 1998, Bantam Books
2 Ibid
3 Cary Cherniss, Ph.D., Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., Robert Emmerling, Kimberly Cowan, and Mitchel Adler A Technical Report Issued by The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, www.eiconsortium.org
4 Morgan W. McCall Jr. and Michael M. Lombardo, What Makes a Top Executive? Psychology Today, February 1983