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Tuesday, 02 Dec 2008
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Your
Career And Emotional Intelligence
by
Freda Turner, Ph.D
Paul was one of the youngest CEOs in the banking industry.
Through Paul's leadership, his bank was the 3rd highest in the
nation for asset performance.
He was shocked when the board of directors demanded his resignation.
His shortcoming was poor emotional intelligence.
Paul had tried to force out employees he did not like, selectively
invited employees to social events, played favoritism with choice
assignments and unfairly divided the workload. The Board of
Directors had challenged Paul on several occasions regarding
his treatment and management of employees but Paul never changed
his behaviors.
6 months after Paul's forced resignation, the federal government
hired him to turn around a failing savings and loan. Paul, as
the new CEO and president, took the institution public and within
four years had created a model turnaround with $1.5 billion
in assets.
However, once again Paul was confronted by the Board of Directors
for his management style.
Paul was only 41 years old when he was forced from the corporate
world because of his inappropriate interpersonal skills.
A former head of Simon & Schuster was unable to stop publicly
degrading and humiliating subordinates despite cautions from
the CEO. Even though earnings increased under this leader, he
was eventually fired when employees continued to resign due
to his treatment and emotional outbursts.
A young engineer from an Ivy League school with an academic
record of 4.0 was terminated after 14 months. The reason?
"He was brilliant at his work," the manager stated,
"but he displayed poor judgment by having inappropriate
relations with a married client. Despite advisement regarding
the importance of presenting oneself professionally, the engineer
continued to date the organization's clients."
News involving the firing of Coach Bobby Knight provided another
example of how poor emotional intelligence can negatively influence
one's career.
After warnings for his inappropriate emotional conduct, Coach
Knight lost control of his emotions when a student said, "Hey,
Knight, what's up?"
Coach Knight's reaction to the student was inappropriate and
unprofessional. The university finally realized they had been
"managing around a problem", and the Coach, while
excellent on the playing field, simply had poor interpersonal
skills and the university terminated him.
Emotional Intelligence Can Be Learned!
After the Center for Creative Leadership published that 27%
of individuals display poor emotional intelligence (EQ) in the
work environment, many organizations launched employee awareness-training
programs in order to build an awareness that no matter how professionally
or technically skilled an employee might be, if they practice
ineffective workplace behaviors, they simply rob the organization
of productivity.
In the book "High Five", Dr. Ken Blanchard weaves
a parable of Alan, a top producer with a need to always be the
star. Alan is terminated because as his boss put it, "Alan,
we need good producers who are good team players, too."
While Alan looked for a new job, he helps coach his son's hockey
team. After 2 star hockey players are unable to play, Alan sees
that for the team to win consistently, every player on the team
is essential.
He finally understands winning teams need ALL players for competitive
success.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the ability of an individual
to deal successfully with other people, to manage one's self,
motivate others, understand one's own feelings and appropriately
respond to the everyday environment. In essence, EQ is about
interpersonal skills.
Researchers and management scholars have found that individuals
with high EQ are better at creating positive outcomes. A decrease
in productivity occurs with each claim of harassment, incident
of temper flair ups, and/or any inappropriate workplace conduct.
Organizations That Have Launched EQ Training
During the year following EQ training, American Express managers
increased business by 18.1% compared to 16.2% for those who
had not received the EQ training.
The U.S. Air Force also found that by using emotional intelligence
measures to select recruiters, they increased their ability
to predict successful recruiters by nearly three-fold. The immediate
gain was a savings of $3 million annually.
In jobs that involve sales and mechanical skills, employees
with high EQ are 12 times more productive than employees with
low EQ. According to research, insurance sales professionals
and account managers with high emotional intelligence are 127%
more productive.
Studies indicate that emotional intelligence accounts for 15%–45%
of one's job success whereas one's IQ is said to account for
less than 6%.
One test that measures EQ is called the Reuven Bar-On, costs
about $30–$35, and takes about 40 minutes to complete.
The results can point to aspects of one's social and self-management
skills. Another instrument to help develop employee's awareness
of shortcomings is the 360 degree multi-rater instrument.
The effectiveness of any instrument, however, is dependent
on the recipient's willingness to change.
More careers derail due to poor emotional behaviors than lack
of technical skills. Developing employees should be a top priority
of any company, and by incorporating emotional intelligence
into the training culture, the organization can enjoy higher
productivity and less employee turnover of talented workers.
Dr. Freda Turner is currently the Chair of 3 Doctoral Programs—in
Management, Leadership, and IT—with University of Phoenix,
the USA's largest private university. She previously worked
for the U.S. Navy where she managed, developed, and delivered
worldwide executive training. After her retirement from the
Navy, she worked as a consultant with Fortune 500 executives.
She is known nationally for her executive development publications,
e-learning, and creation of employment suggestion programs.
She has published extensively and may be reached at fjturner@cox.net.

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