Employee Engagement and Emotional Intelligence
I recently read that Carnegie Institute of Technology have presented research that shows 85% of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering”, the way that you communicate, lead, negotiate and build relationships. This means that only 15% is down to your technical ability.
The last few years have seen businesses go through massive amounts of change. Living in austerity has meant that most have had to downsize the team while pushing forward and doing more with less. Employees have been asked to go the extra mile, and then another, and then another…
The most successful businesses of the last few years have been those that have a leadership team with a developed sense of their own emotional intelligence and the ability to use that to leverage the emotional intelligence of everyone around them. Building relationships, maintaining relationships and setting the example for the way in which they like to do business.
It is no mistake that those leaders who build these strong long lasting relationships, especially during the hard times, are those that develop high level of engagement in their organisation. Global research by Hewitt Associates established that employee engagement is significantly higher within companies that are enjoying double-digit growth. This is a view shared by ‘The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies’ who recognise that a more engaged workforce is a more successful workplace.
Leaders with a developed sense of emotional intelligence are able to understand themselves and manage the relationships they have with others. They are authentic, reliable and trustworthy, have a vision for the bigger picture and have the ability to inspire the people around them and influence them into wanting to be part it. By doing so they create strong working teams, tribes of followers, communities. They nurture the community and develop an environment that allows different individuals to work together breaking down barriers, working more efficiently, because they want to.
Engagement is not just an internal notion that that represents the culture of the organisation. It is external too. Every person in your business that interacts with your external customers shows the culture of the organisation. All those internal people help to build that culture too. Everyone is part of the success story of your business. People do business with people not the company, the company is the people.
Leadership and Emotional Intelligence go hand in hand. Emotional intelligence is now a well developed set of competencies that significantly contribute to the performance of an individual or organisation. Competencies such as Adaptability, Self Motivation, Relationships, Emotion Management and Empathy to name but a few. Every leadership role is different too, some of the competencies are more relevant depending on the type of role and organisation you work in.
A doctor in an Emergency Room needs to be able to make quick decisions, knowing that the control over their impulses needs to be at a good level to operate in this environment. The other side of this, accountants who need all the facts before moving forward need to be able to manage impulsive thinking at a much higher level.
So, organisations that are more successful, generate revenue growth and have high levels of engagement. Leaders who have a developed sense of their own emotional intelligence and that of those around them are able to develop high levels of engagement. There is no need to do the math, just look at the Management and Leadership team of your business and ask yourself this, Are we the Emotionally Intelligent Leaders that will grow this business and be successful in 2013?
