Have you ever wondered why seemingly intelligent people can find it so hard to work successfully with others? The symptoms may include poor communication, domineering behaviour, an inability to control anger or perhaps a lack of empathy for others.
Psychologists describe the ability to understand how emotions affect yourself and others as emotional intelligence – which is often abbreviated to EQ or EI. The problem for smart people is that IQ is poorly correlated to EQ.
In the workplace people skills are essential. It’s said that you’re hired for technical skills but fired for soft skills. The good news is that EQ can be developed but it requires a healthy dose of objective self-awareness, combined with a willingness to do something about it.
But it’s often hard to know where to start, particularly if ego is allowed to get in the way. As qualified practitioners, we can help individuals and teams to become more emotionally aware and ultimately more emotionally intelligent. The benefits of this include:
- Increased leadership effectiveness
- More effective teams – better problem-solving and decision-making
- Identification of management and leadership potential
- Improved staff retention
- More effective staff selection
Our methods include a combination of coaching and workshops, underpinned by the EBW emotional intelligence diagnostic – for which we are advance facilitators and team facilitators.
The insights from these interventions can be profound but they will only work if there is a real willingness and desire to become more emotionally intelligent.