Leaders, you are powerful human beings complete with amazing minds, feeling hearts, strong bodies, and healing souls. How is it possible to bring only “half” of who you are to work and to “life” for that matter? Is it effective? Efficient? Productive? Rewarding? Satisfying? What’s unfortunate is that some leaders are not coached on how to use or manage emotions effectively, so they can lead others authentically. According to Joshua Freedman & Todd Everett of Six Seconds: “Emotions can lead to our worst decisions or our best ones: the difference is emotional intelligence.”
What is EQ?
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a set of life and business skills worth learning and applying if you desire personal effectiveness, health, powerful relationships, and overall quality of life. These skills are learnable, measurable, and are valuable at work and in life. The journey to EQ begins with your commitment to learning and a willingness to look within, the courage to face discomfort, and openness to feel, listen, and take action. As defined by Six Seconds, “Emotional intelligence (EQ) is about being smart with feelings and learning how to use emotional data to direct behavior and performance.”
Wired to Feel First
Emotions play a huge part in our everyday thinking and decision-making processes. Our brains are wired to help us “feel” things first then we rationalize; hence the flight or fight syndrome when we face danger or experience fear. Rightfully so, our focus as a society is on gaining knowledge and technical skills. There is a myriad of intelligence assessments to measure knowledge and brain capacity with plenty of schools and programs to complement them. However, the demand for emotional intelligence is huge now– more than ever – with plenty of research to substantiate it. In fact, Dr. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People states, “Research shows convincingly that EQ is more important than IQ (intelligence quotient) in almost every role and many times more important in leadership roles. This finding is accentuated as we move from the control philosophy of the industrial age to an empowering release philosophy of the knowledge worker age.” Freedman and Everett say that Fortune 500 companies — AT&T, US Air Force, MetLife, L’Oreal, to name a few– are realizing bottom-line results from employees trained in EQ.
You’ve heard the adage, “it’s not what you know, but who you know” to move up in your career. While that may be true for some, given the state of our world and even personal affairs, let’s rephrase it to say, “it’s not what you know, but who you know AND how you interact and react that makes the difference.” If your IQ got you this far in life, then EQ can take you farther by leaps and bounds.
As your “guide-on-the-side”, I’m here to support you. Take the EQ test and I will coach you through the rest. Let’s explore together what’s most important to you? What challenges are you facing? What would you like to improve? Contact me today to schedule a discovery session.
Are Your Emotions Preventing Your Growth? How Would You Know?
Anita, the Passionista, Torres, is co-author of the bestseller “Experts & Influencers: Leadership Series, compiled by Rebecca Hall Gruyter. As a Certified Executive Leadership Coach and Consultant, Anita guides entrepreneurs, business and corporate leaders to communicate simply, to engage teams powerfully, to create inclusive cultures, and to be leaders worth following using the powers of Passion in the Workplace, Emotional Intelligence, and Conversational Intelligence®.