Post by John Counihan

Good Morning All, Rarely a week goes by that we don't encounter an article about emotional intelligence (EI) and its importance in a leadership and indeed in a human context. We talk about EI a lot in the realms of talent identification, career progression, leadership development etc. and often times we make career defining decisions on individuals based on our subjective impression of their EI, with subsequent positive and negative outcomes. The days of subjective impressions are no longer required as regards EI. We can now measure someone's EI quite accurately using an objective tool such as the EQi (overview in the image below). The tool explores EI through 5 macro-factors and 15 sub-factors and can compare these to a leadership norm group. This gives two things, a baseline EI for your candidates and a comparative leadership benchmark which can help shape a development plan subsequently. Research tells us that our IQ is quite difficult to grow but on the other hand our EQ or EI is definitely an area that we can develop through awareness, focus and commitment. High IQ has been linked with better academic and job performance and higher salaries whereas high EI has been linked with increased job success, more satisfying relationships and improved resilience and wellbeing. It is my opinion that any modern leadership development programme or coaching intervention must contain a focus on EI, it's a critical skill for the leadership of today and will reap rewards for those who partake, not just in the workplace but in their personal lives also. Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to discuss leadership development in your organization, I'd be delighted to chat with you.