Success as a leader in today’s globally competitive, complex and fast changing business environment increasingly rests upon our ability to get the best from ourselves and the people around us. This requires personal qualities and skills including vision, self-belief, enthusiasm, resilience (the ability meet and overcome challenges) and the ability to listen, learn and adapt. It also requires the interpersonal skills to influence, persuade, manage conflict and solve problems and contribute effectively to a leadership team.

These “common-sense” Emotional Intelligence (EI) skills are not common-practice in every leader and in all senior teams. The difference is significant. Examples of benefits to business of high EI include:

• Software developers with higher levels of EI can develop effective software three times faster than others.
• Sales consultants with high levels of EI generate twice the revenue of their colleagues
• Experienced partners in a multi-national consulting firm who were assessed on their levels of EQ delivered $1.2million more profit on their accounts than did the other partners – a 139% difference
• Managers of an oil refinery who participated in an EI development program over two years showed a 20% increase in performance compared to similar employees who did not participate. (Goleman 2002)

The results of low EI are equally dramatic and include:

• Poor relationships: Disdain for collaboration or teamwork, offending others with general arrogance, being too harshly critical, insensitive, or demanding, alienating colleagues, team members, collaborators and clients generates employee disengagement and turnover, and unhappy clients and suppliers.
• Rigidity: Inability to listen, learn and adapt to feedback, slow in adapting style to fit changing organisational culture, leave leaders out of touch and lacking in credibility and influence.

Such behaviours hold back the leaders themselves, their people and the business: They impact on the ‘top line’ of business reputation and bottom line profit. They are a luxury few businesses can afford.

The good news is that EI skills can be developed and improved. An important first step is to benchmark leaders’ EI skills to identify strengths and development areas. Knowledge of the strengths brings comfort and confidence, knowledge of the development areas allows personalized, focused, cost-effective and time-efficient development to be offered. Benchmarking also allows progress to be measured quantifiably.

The Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) is a world-class research-based instrument for assessing EI in leaders and senior managers. Developed by the Hay Group in conjunction with Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis, leaders in the field of EI research and writing, it is a tool for all leaders and all organisations who are serious about leadership and management development. ECI is an online 360° feedback tool allowing any number of respondents in up to five groupings. The comprehensive 30-page report contains an outline of EI concepts, an overview of results, details statistical information on feedback in each competence area and also verbatim comments to bring colour and depth to the feedback. The report is designed to be fed back by a trained and experienced coach.

Future Positive Consulting Limited are accredited and experienced facilitators of the ECI and offer additional leadership development training and coaching. To find out more or discuss your requirements please contact us.