In basic terms, Emotional Intelligence (or EQ or EI) can be understood as:
- The capacity to be aware of, understand, and effectively manage one’s own emotional state, and
- The ability to engage judiciously and empathetically with others, in part by being able to appreciate their emotional states.
While the textbook definitions can be a bit dry, we’ve all felt the impact of EQ. When you’re not in a great place and you don’t understand why, and your mood gets in the way of you performing your best. When somebody else’s bad day causes them to behave in ways that mean everybody else has a bad day. When a tense moment or a point of conflict devolves into shouting, aggression, or complete disengagement.
Over the past decade most managers have come to recognize the importance of EQ for generating followership and spurring performance. Catastrophic leadership failures are very often caused by lack of self-management, empathy, or the ability to engage or influence: recent stand-out examples are Travis Kalanick of Uber, Adam Neumann of WeWork, and Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos. (Of course, in some cases basic ethics may also play a role.) Steve Jobs, whose greatest accomplishment as a leader might have been managing (after a few tries) to build a company that could tolerate his caustic brilliance, may be the exception to the rule that CEOs cannot deliver results without a solid sense of EQ.
The importance of Emotional Intelligence is not going to diminish anytime soon. How will we ultimately assess the records of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Elon Musk of Tesla, and Mayor Bill DeBlasio of New York City, each of whom seems to have a hard time grasping how to engage key stakeholders or manage their own public personas in an admirable manner?
But leaving aside major figures, the world has shifted on its axis during this tumultuous year of 2020 in such a way that Emotional Intelligence has become even more critical capability for all leaders and managers at every level in both public and private organizations.
Even in the best of times, managing yourself and staying emotionally connected to your team can be a challenge. As we layer on the new realities of the post-Covid-19 world, it’s gotten much tougher. The stresses of working remotely, which adds new and confusing pressure and friction to our lives. “Social distancing,” a profoundly unnatural condition which makes maintaining and deepening bonds (or even just reading others) so much more difficult. The constant news cycles of spiking infection rates, social discord, and failing businesses which create existential angst for all of us.
In these times more than ever employees want and need to be heard and understood. They crave feeling safe and valued. They are looking for a deeper connection with their bosses beyond just “the numbers.”
The good news about EQ is that we can all become more emotionally intelligent. You can take assessments, read books, or enroll training classes. Or, as an even simpler step, you can accept that you will be a better manager if you strive to be a more emotionally one. Intent counts more than technique, and if you authentically reflect that you are aware of your own emotions, and desire to understand the emotions of others, you will find that people gravitate more toward you, your teams will perform better, and you’ll motivate and retain your key performers. Your EQ is a difference-maker—remember the old saying, “People join companies; people leave bosses.”
Here are a few simple things you can do to develop stronger emotional competence for both yourself and your organization:
1: Ensure that senior executives talk openly and authentically about the importance of EQ—including those same leaders demonstrating more EQ.
2: Measure and reward emotional intelligence via company feedback, assessments, and performance reviews. Stop rewarding people who get results but break relationships in the process.
3: Honor your managers for their EQ as much as their IQ and technical/functional skills and knowledge. This can be as simple as call-outs at company events, e-mail recognition from senior leaders, and so on.
4: Master “virtual EQ”—learning about how to create greater engagement and deeper connections via Zoom or other video platforms.
5: Provide training and tools for people to deepen their emotional capability in the workplace: if you don’t have the basics, you’re not going to excel post-Covid.
6: Make an extra effort to check and manage how you’re coming across—and go out of your way to engage with others on a personal level. One thing we’re all really missing in the strange times is a little human connection, and it can be a huge positive boost.
We are not going back to the way business used to be conducted, and certainly not anytime soon. Emotional Intelligence will continue to be a critical element of great leadership, and arguably the most important one in the coming year as we all try to identify “the new normal.” EQ creates stronger engagement, which in turn leads to better focus and productivity, enhanced collaboration between departments, lower turnover, and organizations that can be nimbler in the marketplace. And those things are all true whether employees are together in the office or “virtual.”