Leading Intelligently: What is it? Who has it? How can I get it?

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Author(s): Jean Walker is executive vice president of OI Partners (Portland)

Who are your top performers? Have you often wondered why the people with high IQ often end up working for those with high EQ?

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the key factor in achieving professional and personal success. The ability to recognize, understand and control your own emotional responses, and to help others manage their own, impacts your ability to handle disruptive situations, deal with anger and frustration, decrease stress, coach and discipline employees to enhance their performance and increase motivation. It means effectively directing your energies and the energies of others to achieve goals. Emotional energy is not finite; applying it wisely and effectively and not wasting it on inappropriate or destructive emotional reactions is key to high productivity and to getting the results that matter.

In a recent survey, CEOs were asked, "What are the top characteristics of successful leaders?" The number 1 response was empathy; number 2 was listening. It all boils down to Emotional Intelligence, interpersonal understanding that transmits the message that you care. The human element is the defining difference between doing the job and achieving outstanding outcomes.

Organizations are quick to evaluate performance. They establish goals and objectives and create multiple charts and graphs to show who is meeting expectations and who is falling short. The assessment results are typically based on objective criteria, focusing on the numbers. This is like putting out brush fires without asking why the flame is erupting in the first place.

Few organizations go beyond standard surveys to determine if employees are satisfied with their jobs, committed to the organization, feel valued and supported by their managers. Are they staying because they are afraid to leave or because they genuinely want to be there? Where are the gaps between what is possible and what is currently being delivered? The answer may well relate to the amount of emotional intelligence being displayed in your organization.

Critical areas that reflect high emotional intelligence include:

* Entrepreneurial spirit: willingness to take risks, to go beyond what is required, to dare to risk and explore, to ask "Why?" and attempt to find new answers.

* Integrity: trust that comes from being able to rely on each other without question, knowing you will hear the truth without rancor and can give the truth without fear of retribution.

* Optimism: belief in tomorrow and each other. The glass may be half empty, but it is also half full, and I'd rather be stretching for excellence than survival.

* Valuing diversity: recognizing that we each grow as we enrich each other. It is multi-cultural awareness and respect for differences based on who we are, not what we do.

* Self-control: managing our emotions and ensuring they do not negatively impact anyone else or affect our own performance. Anger management is one of the top growing areas of counseling. Why?

* Relationship building: interacting with people in mutual respect and building bonds that make life worth living and work worth doing.

* Flexibility: change is constant and a workforce that is not able to turn on a dime and adapt to new challenges is soon on its way to irrelevance.

* Achievement: striving for excellence for its own sake. The thrill of raising the bar and reaching it is a motivator that cannot be overestimated. How is it rewarded in your organization? What are the opportunities for personal and professional growth?

Organizations that encourage and support these characteristics of good emotional intelligence reap huge rewards. The collective expertise of your employee body is your greatest resource. Yet, you will not be able to capitalize on it if individuals are distracted by emotions that are out of control: theirs, their leaders or their co-workers. A leader's strengths or weaknesses in emotional competence are directly reflected to how the above characteristics are encouraged, recognized and rewarded.

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"Motivation is expending energy in a specific direction for a specific purpose. In the context of emotional intelligence, it means using your emotional system to catalyze the whole process and keep it going." Hendrie Weisinger, Emotional Intelligence at Work
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As you evaluate the EQ readiness of your organization, consider these three basic stages of emotional evolution. To what degree do your leaders reflect these stages? 1. Discerning: identifying and recognizing signs which impact clear thinking in an emotional situation.

2. Understanding: awareness of causes and affects of emotions. When do they occur? What are the signs that they are occurring or are about to occur? Which buttons will trigger them? What will be the impact?

3. Managing: taking control of your own reactions and helping others to take control of theirs in order to consciously make decisions to act or walk away.

We react to emotional stress in a variety of ways, but they basically fall into the categories of conscious, subconscious and unconscious. At our highest level of functioning, we respond consciously, using both emotion and intellect to evaluate the situation, determine how best to proceed, and then act in a manner most likely to further our goals. When we react subconsciously, we depend on our emotions and past experiences (positive or negative), which may have little relevance to the current situation. Unconscious reactions are strictly instinct. In these cases, we fight or flee, neither of which is likely to lead to a satisfactory resolution. Emotional intelligence requires you to objectively evaluate your feelings and then identify how they may be impacting your reasoning and decision making.

Be careful of falling into the trap of defense mechanisms! Most people have a preferred style of defense, an unconscious reaction designed to relieve anxiety. If you look back over difficult situations in your life, you may well see a pattern. These mechanisms often make you feel better for the moment but are unlikely to resolve the issue. * Projection: "It's someone else's fault." * Intellectualization: "There is a rational explanation." * Distortion: "That just goes to show he's out to get me." * Transformation: "That isn't really what she meant." * Adaptation: "It isn't that important." * Humor: "He who laughs last, laughs longest!"

Emotional intelligence is consciously using both IQ and EQ to manage the situation. Your ability to role model and lead others in an emotionally intelligent manner is critical to achieving excellence and, in today's marketplace, anything less is just not good enough.

Jean Walker is executive vice president of OI Partners (Portland). She has more than 20 years of experience in education, management and career counseling, and she is author of The Age Advantage: Making the Most of Your Midlife Career Transition. Jean also serves as one of 12 Board Governors from 7 countries of the Institute of Career Certification International. She can be reached at jwalker@oipartners.net or 503-221-8747.

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