by Holly Seaton
Really smart people are not always successful. This really is not surprising is it? How often have we referred to somebody as brilliant, but lacking common sense? The business vernacular has a difficult time describing this wanted “sense.” Researchers in the field of neurology, intelligence and business sometime ago began the quest to identify what contributes to success in the workplace, because time after time really smart people failed to deliver. What were those intangibles that had not been measured? Over the years I have heard these qualities referred to as “soft skills.” Companies were hiring bright people but not getting the management and leadership results they wanted.
The typical response was to send them to training seminars or get management coaching. We have all seen examples of where training doesn’t get to the heart of the matter, because it did not encompass the individual’s own issues.
Researchers continue to quantify those intangibles that appear in high performers. As with the personal best research in The Leadership Challenge®, certain competencies and characteristics have emerged that define higher success and performance, moving from the idea of soft skills to a stable of talents and capabilities that we call emotional and social intelligence.
IQ helps us to collect and sort, and analyze certain data, The EQ (Emotional Quotient) dimension of intelligence is about collecting data from our internal world of emotions and recognizing that of others. It’s what regulates the timing of when we express ourselves. It‘s the foundation of social expertise. It helps us to read others with accuracy and allows us to cope with the demands and pressures of our personal and professional lives.
Fortunately, our brain has an amazing quality called “plasticity.” Just as exemplary leadership behavior is learnable, so too is emotional and social competence. Choosing to give “focused attention” to emotional knowledge can lead to the development of an established trait. An effective emotional coach can facilitate activities that enhance wanted empathy and foster accountability in leaders who desire to improve choices in effective expression of those emotions.
Emotional and social intelligence is no longer a set of soft skills, but the tangible bedrock of effective leadership.
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