'What Are You Thinking?' Emotional Intelligence Separates Top Performers from the Pack

Changing times demand adaptability. 

Times are undeniably difficult for everyone right now.  Americans are stressed and angry. Fluctuating oil prices have caused unprecedented gas prices and the housing market is in the tank for many areas of the country. A credit crisis looms, and Wall Street and the stock market are out of control. We have seen billion-dollar government bail-out packages and some Americans’ retirement funds have been reduced by nearly 40 percent. Retail sales are down and unemployment rates are rising. Should I stop?

Business owners must be doubly stressed, as they need high-performing and engaged employees now more than ever. We’re all expected to interact intelligently, to think and behave rationally and logically. However, when emotional stress is at an all-time high, sometimes even the slightest irritation or misunderstanding can get blown out of proportion.

Merriam Webster Online defines intelligence as the ability to reason or “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.”  Since life is constantly evolving or changing, one can reason that the human race has survived throughout the centuries due to its intelligence abilities.

But wait, isn’t there more to life and working than merely surviving? How do some humans adapt in ways that make them shine above the rest of the pack? 

Top performers usually rate high in emotional intelligence, research says.

Early in my career, a new term — emotional intelligence — started gathering attention and earning recognition. Now research shows that emotional intelligence plays a bigger in role in business than the intelligence quotient (IQ) and it significantly affects the bottom line.

Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of the book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (which was on the New York Times Best Sellers list for over a year-and-a-half) found that 80 percent to 90 percent of competencies that differentiate top performers are in the area of emotional intelligence. When the CEO of Johnson & Johnson read an article about Goleman’s book in the Harvard Business Review, he was so impressed that he sent 400 copies to senior executives in the company worldwide.

What started all this interest in emotional intelligence? This year (2008) marks the 25th anniversary of Professor Howard Gardner’s groundbreaking “Multiple Intelligences” theory published in Frames Of Mind: The Theory Of Multiple Intelligences. On May 5, 2008, Gardner was honored by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as one of the top five influential business thinkers. The article can be read here. He was also honored, for the second time, in the May/June 2008 issue of Foreign Policy and Prospect magazine as one of the world’s leading public intellectuals. 

Gardner’s theory asserts that human beings have a number of autonomous intelligences in addition to the intelligence commonly measured with an IQ test. He identified seven areas of intelligence that affect human behavior. Two of the seven areas are interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, now popularly coined as emotional intelligence. 

What are the characteristics of emotionally intelligent people, and how do they make a difference in the workplace?

Emotionally intelligent people are smart with their feelings. According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.”  Basically the concept of emotional intelligence focuses on:

• self-awareness
• self-management
• motivation
• empathy
• social skills

Businesses need people who know how to identify and use their feelings in smart and productive ways. Emotional intelligence means more than simply being nice and it does not mean giving free rein to our feelings. Coming from a place of self awareness, emotionally intelligent people see the bigger picture. And they don’t have to park their feelings outside when they enter the workplace. They are better able to resist instant gratification for the greater good and goals of the team or organization. They work to understand customer needs and empathize with other perspectives. They take a long-term approach with customers and co-workers, because they are interested in long and meaningful relationships. To emotionally intelligent employees, customer and team loyalties are just as important as a paycheck or a big commission.

So how do employers find and develop such people? Look for my next HRTools Insight to learn more about how employers can attract, find, hire and further develop emotionally intelligent employees. 

This series is dedicated to a former boss and mentor (SH), who consistently epitomizes an emotionally intelligent life.  

Emotionally intelligent people are smart with their feelings. Changing times require adaptable, engaged and high-performing employees more than ever.