Some hard facts about Emotional Intelligence
While most managers appreciate the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EI) to performance at work, few realise that numerous studies have been conducted analysing the benefit that employees high in EI bring to the company in terms of ‘hard numbers’ .
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand emotions within yourself (‘Know Yourself’), to enhance your ability to choose the emotions that are most positive and useful in any situation (‘Choose Yourself’) and then be able to apply these abilities to be better able to fulfil your talents interpersonally (‘Give Yourself’).
So we thought it might be helpful to list some of the standout benefits companies can expect by both hiring employees high in Emotional Intelligence, and training them in EI.
1. Task Execution & Productivity
In tasks of medium complexity, a top performer is 12 times more productive than those at the bottom and 85% more productive than an average performer (Goleman).
2. Sales Effectiveness
At L’Oreal, sales agents selected on the basis of certain emotional competencies significantly outsold salespeople selected using the company’s old selection procedure, selling over $91,000 per person (Spencer & McLelland).
3. Teamwork & Change Capability
The Center for Creative Leadership found that the primary cause for derailment among executives involved a deficit in Emotional Intelligence. The three primary areas of problems included difficulty in handling change, not being able to work well in a team, and poor interpersonal relations.
4. Staff Turnover
At American Express, two control groups of managers – one which underwent EI training and another group which did not – discovered that after one year the first group had less than half the staff turnover than the group of managers who did not participate in the EI training.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that not selecting and training your managers based on Emotional Intelligence is likely to have a major impact on your business results.
Other research has shown that employees much prefer working with managers high in EI / EQ than those high in IQ, and that this relates to areas such as
→ Motivation
→ Leadership
→ Communication
→ Teamwork & Collaboration
→ Attitude
If you’re interested in finding out more about how EI can transform your business in Thailand and Asia, feel free to contact us here, or check out our Emotional Intelligence programme here.
