emotional intelligence at work

Interpersonal ineptitude, especially in leaders, lowers everyone’s performance: It wastes time, creates animosity, destroys motivation and commitment, and builds hostility and indifference.

In all jobs, in every field, emotional competence is twice as important as purely cognitive abilities. For success at the highest levels, in leadership positions and otherwise, emotional competence accounts for virtually the entire advantage.

Finding people who have these abilities and nurturing and developing them in existing employees, adds tremendous financial value to a company’s bottom line.

In a landmark study in 1990, John Hunter, Frank Schmidt & Michael Judiesch, at the Universities of Michigan State and Iowa, discovered that the value to the company increases with the complexity of the job. The most complex, such as doctors, and lawyers, when compared with average (not even bottom) performers, were found to bring an added value of 27% to the company.

People who can recognise their own emotions and the effect they have on other people:

• Know which emotions they are feeling and why
• Realise the links between their feelings and what the think, do and say
• Recognise how their feelings affect their performance
• Have a guiding awareness of their values and goals

Employees with Emotional Intelligence, recognise and can comfortably talk about their strengths and limitations. They actively seek out constructive criticism and act on it, to improve their performance. They are self-confident and likely to ask for help rather than struggle on their own. The risks they take are calculated risks, and are less likely to cause problems, but to solve them.

All workplace competencies are learned habits, but only if the person has enough emotional competence to recognise the impact of poor performance on themselves and others, and seizes the opportunity to improve their performance. The biggest problem, therefore, is lack of self-awareness.