Earlier this week, HRDQ-U and Dr. Steven J. Stein hosted a free webinar called, The EQ Edge. Stein is a clinical psychologist and founder and CEO of Multi-Health Systems Inc., a leading psychological test publishing company. He is the co-author, with Dr. Howard Book, of the international bestseller The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success, and the author of Make Your Workplace Great: The 7 Keys to an Emotionally Intelligent Organization.
Over 500 people registered to listen to the webinar live. Luckily, if you were not one of them, or if you were and you want to hear it again, you may listen here.
There was much to cover so we started promptly.
We started with the top. One is a leader if he or she has one or more people reporting to them.
So what do we look for in our leaders? The answer was pretty standard across the board.
- Academic/Education
- Background/Experience
- Skill Set
- Personality
Good intelligence goes hand-in-hand with cognitive abilities. Being smart and having a high IQ helps, too.
Next we looked at logic versus emotion.
Spock was a character that was purely logical and rational and devoid of all emotion. Many people frown upon emotion and therefore see Spock as the ideal type of leader. We tend to dismiss leaders that are overly emotional. The key to this character, though, was the ability to balance emotion and logic and that is why the character was so successful and perhaps even why the show, Star Trek, lasted as long as it did.
“I view emotions as organizing processes that enable individuals to think and behave adaptively.” Peter Salovey, Ph. D. of Yale University.
Emotional Intelligence is:
- The ability to identify emotional information in oneself and in others.
- The ability to manage emotional information in oneself and others.
- The ability to focus emotional energy on required behaviors to get things done.
“In the fields I have studied, emotional intelligence is much more powerful than IQ in determining who emerges as a leader. IQ is a threshold competence. You need it, but it doesn’t make you a star. Emotional Intelligence can.” Warren Bennis said.
Emotional Intelligence is an important part of leadership training. Often when dealing with a crisis, one will face fear, grief, panic, uncertainty and sadness. If you can perceive your audience and recognize, attend to and understand emotion, you are that much more prepared to deal with a crisis and thus be a better leader.
How well do you understand emotions? Can you look at these faces and determine what each one displays?
Happiness Anger Surprise Disgust Sadness Fear
Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication are also very important in Emotional Intelligence. The percentage of information we take in is:
- Words – 7%
- Tone of Voice – 38%
- Body Language – 55%
For much more information, case studies, stories and exercises, listen here. The webinar is just over an hour long, but it is time very well spent.
For more information on or or to purchase the Emotional Intelligence Skills Assessment Facilitator Set, click here now.
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