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The Economic Value
Of Emotional Intelligence
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From Jeffrey's Desk...
In the field of management, there are trends that come and
go. It is our duty as management consultants to look into
those concepts and to inform our clients, associates and friends
of the good and not so good facts.
One of the most recent and popular concepts, Emotional Intelligence,
is the subject of this newsletter. We feel this concept is
worthwhile for improving your organization's effectiveness.
We hope this newsletter will make it easier for you to understand
Emotional Intelligence.
As an executive, if you were asked to rate the importance of
staffing your organization with people who:
þ Understand and
optimize critical work relationships
þ Resolve conflicts
and negotiate disputes with a win/win attitude
þ Handle job stress
to minimize its impact on their efficiency
þ Accept personal
responsibility for their decisions and actions
þ Lead or follow
with equal ease at the appropriate time
þ Build trust and
power through interpersonal effectiveness
þ Persevere in the
face of difficulty
....you would probably put a high value on each of these qualities.
Many organizations can assess an individual's technical skill,
business acumen and work experience with relative ease. These
same organizations often fail dismally at identifying employees
with EQ (Emotional Intelligence), the kinds of abilities listed
above.
Nowadays, experts recognize the economic value of attending
to your organization's EQ. The total EQ in an organization
represents the ability of people to effectively work together
toward a shared organization or group goal. Without a doubt,
the presence or absence of organizational EQ impacts both
your top and bottom lines. How efficiently you develop new
products or services, your cost of production, your sales
effectiveness, your overhead, and arguably most important,
customer satisfaction, are all directly affected. In short,
there's a big opportunity cost for ignoring EQ. Increasing
numbers of executives are using the concept of EQ to help
them hire and develop managers who lead through relational
as well as technical skills. Such managers build high performance
teams, foster creativity, increase efficiency, and reduce
employee turnover. Robert Cooper, Chairman of Q-Metrics and
co-author of Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
and Organizations, cites many stories of EQ's impact on an
organization's resiliency and its ability to survive and prosper
in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Chrysler, Hewlett-Packard,
and MenTTium are all exemplary models of organizations with
successful coaching and mentoring programs aimed at building
Emotional Intelligence. The ROI for focusing on an organization's
collective EQ is unmatchable competitive advantage.
Unlike IQ (Intelligence Quotient), EQ has fewer limitations.
Studies have shown that IQ develops only through adolescence,
and that it is clearly related to one's environment
Additionally, it is a poor predictor of an individual's life
success. EQ, on the other hand, continues to develop throughout
most of our adult lives; it holds up regardless of one's environmental
circumstances and is a strong predictor of success. Thus the
potential is vast: executives and managers of any age can
increase their Emotional Intelligence. It is never too late.
Coaching and mentoring programs are the best way to build
EQ in executives and subsequently throughout the organization.
Emotional Intelligence grows through an ongoing process of
reflection, discussion and experiential on-the-job learning.
MAGE's work in coaching executives to develop well honed and
savvy organizational EQs has shown how organizations use the
process to gain renewed vitality and competitiveness. Executives
learn to maximize their own and others' full potential and
motivation.
The bottom line is that relational attributes and skills
as well as intellect will have enormous economic value for
the organization of the 21st century. The winning organization
will foster both.
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