Hiring and Developing Emotional Intelligence

A person holding a brain and a heart in their hands - Kathbern Management Toronto Recruiting Agency

Phil Johnson - Kathbern Management Toronto Recruiting AgencyThe following article was submitted by Phil Johnson, CEO and Founder of the Master of Business Leadership Program. With over 50 years and 50,000 hours of research, teaching and coaching, Phil created the program to address a fundamental gap in our education. He believes the lack of authentic, emotionally intelligent leadership is the root cause for the drama, chaos and conflict we experience everywhere.

You can contact Phil at philjohnsonmblcoach@gmail.com

 

The development of employees and organizations with emotional intelligence represents the greatest challenge and opportunity in the global economy. As we move forward during these rapidly changing times, emotional intelligence is proving to be a major factor in our individual and organizational success. The World Economic Forum has declared emotional intelligence will be a Top-10 career skill by 2020.

Historically, the market value of a company was often considered to be roughly twice its net asset value. Now, the market value of a growing number of companies is, in some cases, forty or fifty times their net asset value. Why the change? It is because the market is beginning to understand and truly value the importance of the human capital within an organization. The development of an organization’s authenticity and emotional intelligence is their key advantage in the marketplace.

We are replacing borders and politics with economic connection. To believe that we are in competition with another individual, organization or country drains us of our authentic energy. Our network of trusted relationships is the most valuable asset we have as individuals and organizations. The global economic value of these trust networks is growing much faster than the traditional economy. The current value of this new economy is estimated at over $10 Trillion per year which, if it were a country, would make it the 2nd largest economy in the world. The trust economy is going to get much bigger because 63% of the global population is not yet connected to the internet.

The following questions will provide some insights into an individual’s current level of emotional intelligence along with their willingness to do the emotional labour that the development of their emotional intelligence capabilities will require.

      • What is it about this role that energizes you?
      • How will success in this role help you to achieve what you want?
      • What makes you laugh?
      • What can you teach us?
      • When is the last time you were embarrassed?
      • What happened? How did you handle the situation?
      • What activities energize and excite you?
      • How do you have fun?
      • How good are you at accepting help from others?
      • How good are you at asking for help?
      • What is one of the internal battles to have with yourself?
      • What aspect of your work you are passionate about?
      • How could you create more balance in your life?
      • What bothers you most about other people?
      • How do you handle days when everything goes wrong?
      • How do your actions inspire others?
      • What makes you angry?
      • What are a few of your key strengths?

What do you want?  This is where change and better results begin. An ongoing sense of urgency is essential for better results. The greater your “why” (emotional labour) the easier the “how” and the “what” (intellectual labour).

Why are better habits necessary to achieve better results? Because our current habits are getting us our current results. They cannot get us better results. If we want better results, we need better habits.

Why is employee engagement so important? Gallup has shown a positive correlation between employee engagement and customer engagement. If your employees are not engaged neither are your customers.

Intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence are meant to work together. We need both, but intellectual intelligence is largely dependent on genetics whereas emotional intelligence is developed through our actions. There is no limit how emotionally intelligent we can become. Emotional intelligence has become a key consideration for personal and career success.

The development of emotional intelligence multiplies the effectiveness of intellectual intelligence. It produces better results while reducing the drama, chaos and disengagement often from within many organizations. The global acceleration rate of change and innovation has made the growing importance of emotional intelligence inevitable. There is a wide variation among individuals with regard to emotional intelligence. Intellect and depth of knowledge is not a substitute for a lack of emotional intelligence.

The accelerating rate of innovation and change has made the growing importance of emotional intelligence inevitable. Until recently, corporations have focused primarily on IQ and experience. There was little or no attention paid to emotional intelligence. As a result, there is a much wider range of variation in emotional intelligence among individuals within organizations. Increasingly, organizations are hiring, promoting and developing emotional intelligence.

We are living in a time when revolutionary, not evolutionary change is needed. The incremental approach of building upon current systems will no longer work. We need revolutionary new approaches to change that will require authentic, emotionally intelligent leadership.  We are seeing growing evidence that individuals, societies and cultures are beginning to move in this direction.

The continually accelerating rate of global innovation and change has made the need for greater awareness and emotional intelligence unavoidable. One day a system works, the next day it is under water. Incremental change will not succeed. Rapid, innovative change is now required. Revolutionary not evolutionary change is needed that will require the emotional labour of everyone. Fear has been holding us back from the risks that innovation and rapid change requires. Our minds have evolved in this way for reasons that are no longer serving us in today’s world economy. Incremental change is insufficient if we want to change our trajectory and embrace the new challenges and opportunities before us now.

Most companies have been on a race to the cost-cutting bottom of their industry in an effort to preserve profitability. The evolutionary approach most organizations have been using to embrace rapid change has not and will not work. We need a revolutionary new approach to change. The boards of directors, senior executives and government leaders must lead this revolutionary change initiative. They must own the ultimate responsibility for the change process.

 

 

Kathbern Management is an executive search consultancy based in Toronto, helping companies find the executives and senior managers who not only have the experience and credentials to fulfill their responsibilities, but also have the emotional and “fit” requirements that will enable them to be successful in a particular environment. We simplify the process and, through our deep research, are able to bring more and better candidates forward than would ever be possible through a do-it-yourself passive advertising campaign.

Contact us today for a free consultation about your key person search.

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