For years, I grappled with how best to grow leaders. Did you know leadership development is a billion-dollar industry? And yet, after all the trainings and resources provided to organizations, companies continue to struggle with this thing called leadership.
Why is that?
Leadership starts as a deeply “personal” journey.
Leaders are each very unique and thus, the “cookie-cutter” training approach in leadership simply doesn’t work. I love the Latin phrase, tu primus, which means “you first”. In order to see deep change, transformational change, leaders need to take a journey within themselves first, to understand what drives them and what’s holding them back from being their best self.
What’s Missing
The key to living a life of ease and high performance as a leader is actually quite simple, and something I am so very passionate about: You have to grow your emotional intelligence (EQ) aptitude.
There’s real power in living an emotionally intelligent life, with rewards such as more grace, ease, gratitude, and joy.
Imagine yourself:
- navigating any situation with optimism, clarity, and purpose
- engaging with everyone in meaningful ways that fully support and inspire them to be their best selves
- knowing you made a real difference each day
- feeling truly rejuvenated and ready to enjoy your free time when the day is done
Sounds good, doesn’t it?! That’s EQ at work.
Better Living, Better Performance
So, what is this EQ that I am enticing you with? It’s the capacity to blend thinking and feeling to make optimal decisions, which is key to having a successful relationship with yourself and others.
Leaders were once told to leave their emotions at the door, but why would you do that when emotions are your own very important internal guides? We now know that when emotions are used in conjunction with the cognitive process, leaders ALWAYS achieve better results.
Research continues to support the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace. One study showed that EQ competencies can predict 47% of a manager’s performance. Even more impressive, the study showed that 76% of organizational engagement was predicted by the manager’s level of EQ.
Not only do EQ competencies improve performance and engagement (i.e., organizational culture), they also help to mitigate stress! Leaders with a high degree of emotional intelligence are better able to create a climate of psychological safety, build trust, and promote optimism. All of which help increase individual, team, and organizational performance! And another wonderful bi-product of all of this is a reduction in turnover!
Even knowing this as well as I do, I am still impressed by what EQ can do for leaders and their organizations! And if you have really been paying attention, you’ll notice EQ is woven through everything we do here at Drive!
EQ preview
EQ-in-Action begins with three important pursuits:
- To become more aware (noticing what you do)
- To become more intentional (doing what you mean)
- To become more purposeful (doing it for a reason)
A big warm welcome to our very own EQ whiz!
This blog was written by Veronica Barber, EdD –Drive’s newest Consultant and EQ Coach! We are thrilled to have Veronica on our team! She brings so much to the Drive family and has expanded our client offerings through her expertise. We can’t wait for you to work with her.
Stay connected with Veronica on LinkedIn and keep the conversation going with her at [email protected]. More on EQ and our new EQ offerings in an upcoming blog!
How you can work with us right now!
- The Culture Assessment — get to the bottom of what’s really driving your organizational culture and all of your outcomes in this highly insightful yet simple to execute assessment! Shoot us a message at [email protected] and we can tell you more about it.
- Fearless in the Face of Crisis — the ONLY leadership training you need — incredible content in bite-sized, on-demand lessons, with 7 CEU credits and live monthly support to keep you on track and accountable! Check it out here!
- Inspirational Speaking — in-person, virtual, board meetings, annual conferences…you name it, we are booking it right now! We have a multitude of presentations that are packed with action items and inspiration! Just drop us a line to discuss what your group needs at [email protected]!
