Link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2061242,00.html

Corporate culture has long ignored the fact that we can't check our feelings at the office door. Why it's high time to get rational about emotions in the workplace. This is a good Time magazine article on Emotional Intelligence and the workplace. While it touches mainly on the display of emotions at work, that is one key component of Emotional Intelligence Skills. This is the final post of a 3-part series on Emotional Intelligence and Business Impact.

In our last post, we looked at the subject of Emotional Intelligence by defining it, and showing how businesses have started developing and measuring Emotional Intelligence (EQ) skills in key positions in their workforce. We also gave some examples of the business results organizations realize when they emphasize EQ skills.
In this post we want to describe for you a project we recently completed with a Fortune 120 Pharmaceutical firm that involved the use of assessments, executive coaching, and customized training.
The project centered on key positions involved in the clinical trial pipeline, and touched over 80 individuals. The objective was three-fold; to build a greater awareness of the importance of EQ skills; provide an understanding of where each individual had strengths and gaps related to their skills; and provide development opportunities for individuals to grow skills and acquire new ones in managing their emotions and managing their relationships with other people. Our client was committed to the idea that EQ behaviors were integral to the success of this important team, and that increasing skill would also increase productivity and results.
The project consisted of four phases:
1. Attendance at a Foundations of EQ class that explains fundamental concepts and explores core behaviors of EQ success
2. An EQ360 assessment where the individual rated their skills, as well as their manager, colleagues and direct reports providing an assessment as well
3. Individual coaching to each participant based on their assessment results
4. Customized training based on the overall strengths and skill gaps discovered in the assessment results
From launch to completion took 6 months for all 80 people and each of the four phases. Within a month of completion of the project, each individual was asked to participate in an evaluation of the project. The results show the participants are convinced this program will make a difference in their business lives, and interestingly, in their personal lives as well.
• 87% agreed they gained knowledge and skills they can use on their job
• 85% agreed they will use this knowledge and skill in their personal lives
• 85% said it was the best combination of training and development they had received at their organization, or from any other organization
• 87% were satisfied or very satisfied with the investment of time and effort as compared to the results of the training.
What is the main lesson to be gained from this information? Soft skills matter. In fact, as people grow in their careers and responsibility, soft skills overwhelmingly become the criteria for organizational and personal success. Our ability to influence people in a positive way is what separates the winners from the also-rans. As your business competes in a slow-growth economic recovery, how skilled are your people in Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) was first introduced to the business world in 1998, when Daniel Goleman¡¦s article on EQ was first published in the Harvard Business Review. Goleman was one of the primary researchers on how to define Emotional Intelligence, as well as what behaviors indicated skill or lack of skill in using Emotional Intelligence. Simply stated, Emotional Intelligence is how well we understand and manage our emotions as individuals, as well as how well we establish and maintain relationships with others.

This idea of Emotional Intelligence created a lot of buzz and publicity at the time of Goleman¡¦s article (which remains to this day the most reprinted article in the HBR archives). Yet business was slow to figure out how to use this knowledge, and in some cases even rejected the concept as too touchy-feely to apply to business situations.

But not anymore! As the field of neuroscience has matured our knowledge of how and why the brain does what it does, so has our knowledge of the importance of EQ skills in not only producing business success, but as a key predictor of individual success as well. Today we have scientifically validated behavior assessments that help us understand our skill strengths and skill gaps in managing our personal emotions, and managing our professional and personal relationships.

Even more exciting is we have reams of data that show the direct impact these skills have on business results. Consider the following examples:
„« Coca-Cola saw division leaders who developed their EQ skills outperform their targets by 15%.
„« The U.S. Air Force reduced recruiter turnover from 35% to 5% annually by selecting candidates high in emotional intelligence.
„« Fortune Brands had 100% of their leaders who went through EQ development exceed their performance targets, compared to just 28% of leaders who failed to develop their EQ skills.
„« New sales people at an insurance firm who scored high on an EI test sold 37% more in their first 2 years than those who scored lower

These are but a few examples of companies who can measure the difference the development of EQ skills makes in the production of their teams.

In our next blog post, we will share with you a recent project where we worked with a Fortune 120 Pharmaceutical firm in assessing the EQ skills of 80 of their leaders, including coaching provided around the assessment results and customized training to further develop EQ skills. We will tell you what the objectives were for the project, and how success was measured.

Link: http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aID=125643.54928.137767&k=Tanzania

Please click on the link to read my guest commentary featured in this week's issue of Arkansas Business magazine. The article concerns my observations about the competition between China and America for influence in Tanzania.

Having lived overseas for 2 years in the late 80’s, I brought back a curiosity about world affairs and the perceptions of world citizens when it comes to America and Americans. This curiosity was sufficiently satisfied in Tanzania with the many tea breaks I shared with my client. It seems this was the natural time to discuss world events, and my hosts were as curious about my world view as I was about theirs!

In fact, they were the ones who asked what I thought the impact would be of the election of Scott Brown of Massachusetts to fill Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate. People overseas follow us closely, and my client in many ways was more informed on current American events than much of our home population.

I took advantage of these discussions to feel out how my hosts felt about America, and American politics. As you may imagine, there was a lot of interest in President Obama. What became clear was the obvious fondness of Tanzanian leaders for America and her citizens, and the undercurrent of mistrust for our government and its policies.
In East Africa, we are considered “Johnny-come-lately”. In fact, tongue in cheek, one of my clients mentioned that the last 2 countries we visited in that part of the world, ended up in war, referring to Iraq and Afghanistan.

That humorous jab served as a perfect contrast to the opinion of governments and countries that have had influence in East Africa for much longer than the U.S. China and India are both influential in Tanzania, and by extension, East Africa. After all, Tanzania has a thousand miles of coastline on the Indian Ocean, and a large community of Indian expatriates living in Dar es Salaam. And you may remember me blogging about all of the construction sites and towers I saw in Dar. Turns out many of those are Chinese investment projects. The Chinese model of free-market totalitarianism as a government model is looked on with great interest, for both advantages and disadvantages, by leaders in Africa. And America is compared, both favorably and unfavorably.

For more on the Chinese influence strategy in Africa, go to: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2000110_2000287_2000276,00.html. This is an excellent article that lays out clearly China’s strategy, and its implications for America in a shifting world of resources and allegiances.