EQ The New 3 Rs of Leadership, Part 1
Posted: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:01:38 +0000

brain science emotional intelligence leadership managing yourself primal leadership

Living In Interesting Times
EQ and brain based research shows that how you feel, think and act are intimately linked. In this two part series, we’ll look at the new Emotional Intelligence information and why you need to learn and practice the new 3 Rs, Research, Receptivity and Reflection, if you’re to achieve your career goals.

This article focuses on important EQ research findings.

What is Emotional Intelligence?
Daniel Goleman, author of the groundbreaking 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence, Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” defines Emotional Intelligence as: The capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.

In his 1998 book Working With Emotional Intelligence, Goleman argued that EQ was a far stronger predictor of superior individual and organisational performance than either technical competence or intellectual skills. He stated: The rules for work are changing. We’re being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other.”

EQ and Leadership Findings In the past, organisations sought to improve their performance either by developing intellectual capabilities (using the conventional three Rs, reading, writing and rithmetic (sic), or by boosting hard technical skills.

However, that is only part of the picture. Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, the authors of the 2002 book, Primal Leadership demonstrated that emotionally intelligent leaders produced better results for their organisations than those that lacked this master competence.
The authors found that our brains operate on an open-loop system. One worker’s emotions affect another’s. Workplace emotions are contagious.

Effective Leaders Manage Their Emotions
A 1990 Journal of Applied Psychology article studied the types of interactions that pitched workers into bad moods. The most frequently cited case was where an employee spoke to someone in a management position.
Interactions with bosses led to bad feelings about 9 times out of 10. In 2000 Barsade and Ward studied 62 U.S. CEOs and their top management teams to assess how upbeat, energetic, enthusiastic and determined they were. They found that those teams that had the more positive moods worked together more cooperatively and enjoyed the best business results. A 1996 study by MCBer, the management consultancy firm, found that between 50% - 70% of how employees perceive the organisations climate can be traced to the action of the leader. So, if emotions are so important to the modern day leader, can it be business as usual, or should you change what you’re doing? We’ll answer this question in the second, and final part of this series.

If you liked this article, you’ll probably enjoy the BrightIdeas presentation for July 2007
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership And The New 3 Rs: 10 Steps To A Brand New You.


EQ & The New 3 Rs of Leadership Pt.2
Posted: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:30:02 +0000
emotional intelligence leadership managing yourself primal leadership self awareness

The Trouble With The Old 3 Rs
In first part of this series, we learned that the traditional 3 Rs, Reading, Writing and “Rithmetic” won’t guarantee you career success. To achieve your career goals you must manage your own emotions so that you perform well and your team consistently achieves its goals. In the final part of this series, we look at how the new 3Rs, Research, Receptivity, and Reflection help you become an outstanding leader.

Research
Modern technology enables you to learn in a wide variety of ways, including blogs, E-books, audio books, podcasts, ipods, Internet radio and wikis, as well as conventional books, journals and newspapers.
• Do you compare the new EQ information with other leadership and management insights?
• Do you probe it in greater detail to check its validity?
• Have you experimented or tested this information in real work settings?

Receptivity
• How do you feel about EQ?
• Can you afford to ignore it?

As you move up in your organization, your colleagues tend to become increasingly unwilling to tell you the truth about your own performance and that of the organisation.
The authors of the 2005 book, Resonant Leadership described this syndrome as CEOs disease.
• Are you open to receiving truthful insights?
• Do you actively seek diverse views as part of your personal development?
• Do you believe that only a weak leader would do such things?

Success Story #1 In How To Transform Organisation Failure Into Superior Results, the leader was able to get beyond a state of denial about the challenges that her organisation was facing. She researched the problems in depth and actively involved team members in identifying problems and novel solutions. The team was able to implement over 60% of desired improvements despite encountering severe finance and staff constraints.
Reflection
How are you going to turn this information into useful knowledge that you can act on?
In his 2005 book The 8th Habit, Stephen R. Covey reminds us that to know and not to do is not to know.
If you adopt a regular practice of personal reflection, you’ll become a more efficient and effective learner.
Jeanette Campbell, who shared her Emotional Intelligence Story In the “You Can Improve Your Emotional Intelligence” E-Book, showed how writing a journal can be so effective: I keep my daily journal very faithfully . I actually have one at home, coloured markers, and in the last five months, and one on the computer because at work I felt the need to process stuff, and I do it best by writing .
Here are some useful questions to help you put the new EQ and leadership information to use:
• What does this information mean to me?
• How does it relate to my current world view?
• Is there a part of my current world view that I need to change based upon this information?

What Next? You can improve your emotional management competencies. If you follow the new 3 Rs, you’ll become a more effective leader. So what will it be? Research, Receptivity, and Reflection or business as usual?
Download The You Can Improve Your EQ E-Book If you liked this article, you’ll probably enjoy the BrightIdeas presentation for July 2007Emotionally Intelligent Leadership And The New 3 Rs: 10 Steps To A Brand New You.