Leadership and EI, The Keys to Driving ROI and Organizational Performance

“Empathy is an interesting and essential concept in EI and leadership. Leaders today have to respectfully and empathetically respond to situations. You don’t necessarily agree with who you are speaking to, but you understand their perspective and can have a respectful dialogue about that. This is a crucial skill when you have to have difficult conversations, and the more empathetic you are, the more likely you are to seek to find a solution or response that produces a win-win situation.”

—Roger Pearman, Founder and CEO, Leadership Performance Systems

Use of Emotional Intelligence in Organizations

Emotional Intelligence is commonly integrated as a topic in leadership development
courses, or as an objective in organizational coaching. Nearly half of organizations
report that EI is a topic of Training & Development courses, as well as an objective
for leadership/executive coaching (see Fig. 7.) As Dr. Margareta Sjölund from
Kandidata Asia said, “Emotional Intelligence is intrinsically related to other people
and the way business is changing. The advent and growth of globalization requires
interaction between and among people and companies on a different level than
just 10 years ago. EI provides that critical information about how to navigate
internally with leaders and employees, and externally with other organizations.”
Despite its role as a powerful driver of effective leadership, our research found
that Emotional Intelligence remains an untapped resource for many organizations.
Nearly 1 in 3 survey respondents (29%) report that Emotional Intelligence is not a
focus in their organizations.

“An EQ report [from an Emotional Intelligence assessment] functions like a blueprint for success—not only for the individual leader, but the organizational culture too. It is scientifi cally robust and identifi es the strengths and weaknesses that a leader brings to the table. Assessments make EQ more real and more applicable for leaders and show that it’s more than soft and fuzzy feelings.”

—Dr. Margareta SJÖlund, Chief Psychologist and Founder, Kandidata Asia

Among the many different leadership development methods available, we explored
which are rated as most effective by survey respondents. Given their modest cost,
Emotional Intelligence assessments can deliver significant and effective value in
helping develop organizational leaders. Although they are not as widely used
as other methods, Emotional Intelligence assessments are rated very highly by
HR practitioners. Our data find that 60% of managers whose organizations use
Emotional Intelligence assessments rate them as “effective” or “highly effective,” on par with methods such as executive coaching, global assignments, and formal mentoring (see Fig. 8).

“What does it cost you when your employees are in survival mode rather than thrive mode?“

Whatever the initial cost is for implementing Emotional Intelligence, Bob Anderson from 1Hero Sports said the investment is advantageous—especially if leaders consider the impact of neglecting it. “What does it cost you when your employees are in survival mode
rather than thrive mode? What does it cost if they have no access or support to be courageous and creative? Emotional Intelligence assessments address these questions and help identify key areas where you can improve. That information can be painful, but so well worth it in the end.”