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 Intellectual
capability and technical skills are no longer the sole criteria
for a successful career. Your ability to handle emotions at the
workplace may determine your future. Emotional intelligence is relevant
not only for individual growth but also for the organisation’s
expansion. Successful companies understand the relevance of EQ when
it comes to recruitment, team formation, HR planning, and of course,
customer service. While hiring, most managers try to gauge the EQ
of a prospective candidate to know whether he or she is the right
fit for the collective organisational EQ. Sometimes even a shortage
of skills can be disregarded for a higher EQ level.
To quote John P Kotter, the well-known expert
on leadership from Harvard Business School, “Because of the
furious pace of change in business today, difficult-to-manage relationships
sabotage more business than anything else—it is not a question
of strategy that gets us into trouble, it is a question of emotions.”
Leading by example
In any organisation leaders are expected to set
standards for emotional maturity. It is the EQ level that differentiates
a great leader from an ordinary one. Shakti Sagar, managing director
of ADP, asserts that leaders are the catalysts in terms of providing
inspiration, developing and influencing teams within the organisation.
“The benefit of emotional intelligence to managers in organisations
is self-evident. In today’s competitive world, organisations
have recognised ‘human capital’ and aspire to people-orientated
organisational models. Teamwork, empowerment, diversity, communication
are all typified in the ‘learning organisation’, in which
people and emotions play a fundamental part. Leaders are constantly
grappling with challenges confronting their operational tasks and
deliverables and losing sight of the interpretive realm of human
relations.”
Leaders can set standards by encouraging and
implementing both internal and external research on EQ. Praveen
Kankariya, CEO and president of Impetus Technologies explains that
the process should:
- Understand EQ.
- Identify situations where people need
EQ skills in their type of organisation.
- Record each instance where EQ skills
are being used such as client interaction, performance appraisals
and team meetings.
- Identify needs for EQ training.
- Devise plans to bridge the gaps.
In the middle
It is generally believed that there is a serious
lack of emotional maturity at the middle-management level. Middle
managers need to develop their EQ, both for organisational and personnel
growth. Vinayak Kamath, senior vice president of HR, Kale Consultants,
on the contrary believes that the crisis exists at the leadership
level. “A system of focus on stock prices and Quarter-on-Quarter
numbers has made leadership of many companies myopic about such
‘soft issues’. Therefore, EQ development of leaders and
senior executives should be the first priority.”
The three elements of successful leaders are:
emotional intelligence, IQ or intelligence quotient, and skill and
knowledge.
“The third can be honed, the second often
disregarded, but the emotional savvy or EQ or emotional intelligence
is non-tradeable,” insists Kamath.
At the entry level it is the skills and qualifications
which are the basis of recruitment. Performance is the main
focus for any junior level employee. This changes
with subsequent promotions. Says Ranjan Acharya, corporate vice
president—human resource development, Wipro, “When a person
reaches middle management, he or she has to develop other qualities
such as the ability to motivate and empathise, and social skills
such as negotiation. These qualities are sometimes found wanting.
Companies like Wipro give a lot of importance to developing skills
in middle management through programmes like the New Leadership
Programme and Wipro Leaders’ Programme.”
At ADP, Gallup Q12 surveys are conducted to measure
the strength of the workplace in terms of the EQ level of its leaders.
Other initiatives include 360 degree feedback for project leaders
and managers. The leadership forums in the organisation analyse
the relationship with associates and clients. These findings are
openly shared and discussions are held for better management of
these relationships. “In today’s context, organisations
are dynamic and constantly evolving wherein ‘human capital’
plays a significant role and the challenge for leaders at the middle-level
is not merely leveraging their technical skills but also emotional
intelligence. While a significant amount of information, research
and education exists in the fields of technical skills and intellectual
capability, the area of emotional intelligence remains largely untouched
in the modern organisation,” says Shakti Sagar. B Balaji, director,
ADP adds that one of the solutions is to sensitise employees to
the importance of EQ through development programmes and outbound
learning programmes. These qualities are essential for sustaining
long-term business development and to build a strong corporate culture
that promotes high morale and prevents loss of talent.
Impact on team-building
People with high EQ are natural team-builders.
Shakti Sagar points out that despite different theoretical approaches,
all researchers in the field maintain that being aware of yourself
in terms of ‘who you are’ and ‘where you are going’
is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence. “People with
high EQ tend to have a strong understanding of their values and
beliefs, possess clear goals and visions, self-confidence and acceptance
of both their strengths and vulnerabilities. Furthermore, they use
their emotional experiences to better manage relationships and to
guide their own behaviour. Consequently they are better able to
regulate and express their own emotions, and are less likely to
be overwhelmed by stress. They are also more capable of reading
the deeper emotional meanings of others with whom they interact.
This awareness helps in building successful teams.”
The EQ skill of a team leader and team members
determines the EQ of the team or organisation. Accord-ing to Kanka-riya
it directly affects the performance on a day to day basis: by helping
improve relationship management, motivation, communication and establishing
an open culture.
Focus on soft skills
IT organisations today realise that the strength
of their company does not just depend only on technical skills but
also on soft skills. “Though as individuals we are responsible
for our behaviour, the ability to be effective and successful, resides
in our ability to coordinate with others. Teamwork is the core of
middle management and organisational EQ is a critical aspect,”
says Kankariya, adding that an individual’s emotions such as
anger, fear and love take on extreme and exaggerated qualities in
corporate life. The absence of emotional intelligence in a group
can result in apathy, fear or the classic “mob mentality.”
How training helps
Training programmes that help develop the emotional
intelligence of employees can go a long way in improving employee
productivity and team spirit. Most Indian organisations do not have
training modules for developing their employees’ EQ level.
A few like Wipro have taken the lead. Ranjan
Acharya points out that training can help make people more self-aware
and understand the blocks of interpersonal effectiveness. Wipro
has a comprehensive one-day module on personal mastery which is
conducted for middle management. It helps people get in touch with
their feelings, learn to balance their emotions and handle stress
effectively.
Conceding that growing one’s competency
in EQ is not easy or quick, Shakti Sagar asserts that it takes perseverance
to conduct critical self-evaluation and make a commitment to improvement.
Significantly, that competence in emotional intelligence does not
necessarily increase with age as one might expect. “Some people
may learn from life’s experiences, but many do not,” points
out Sagar.
Vinayak Kamath gives the example of Rosenbluth,
one of the leading travel companies in the world, whose operating
philosophy is “Putting people first, even before the customer.”
“Their hiring philosophy is “Hire nice people”, and
believe that people who are innately nice, can be trained in service
and will deliver an excellent customer experience. “There is
a cliché, hire for attitude and train for skills. To that
I would like to add, hire people with high EQ and groom them for
leadership jobs.”
| Ranjan Acharya, corporate vice president—human resource
development, Wipro: Emotional intelligence refers to the ability
to be aware of one’s own emotions and the ability to regulate
them. However, like individuals, organisations too have their
own personality. Every personality not only has an analytical
side to it but also an emotional side. Organisational EQ can
be thought of as the collective emotional intelligence of its
leadership team and of significant individuals in the organisation.
Praveen Kankariya, CEO and president,
Impetus Technologies: In an organisation the only living resource
is human beings, therefore, EQ though a very individualistic
subject may be treated as the overall capacity of organisations
to recognise and regulate their collective emotionality. It
can be defined as the collective EQ of top managers, supervisors
and team members in the organisation.
Shakti Sagar, managing director, ADP
and B Balaji, director, ADP: Organisational EQ can be described
as the social skills, interpersonal competence, psychological
maturity and emotional awareness of the organisation in managing
human capital. The organisation EQ plays an important role
in determining the strength of the workplace. Emotional intelligence
is divided into the four clusters of self-awareness, self-management,
social awareness and relationship management (often been referred
to very broadly as “people skills”).
Vinayak Kamath, senior vice president—HR,
Kale Consultants: There is no difference between a definition
of organisational EQ and the classic definition of EQ as advocated
by Daniel Goldman. EQ is very relevant for the organisation
because that is the factor which translates the company’s
knowledge into meaningful interaction and delivery for customers.
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The EQ test helps in gauging a person’s
strengths and weaknesses in emotional intelligence. It should
be made an essential part of the recruitment process and other
HR activities. Interview panels should be trained on EQ. Furthermore,
there should be standards for setting role expectations for
various job profiles. Many competency assessment tests can be
a good surrogate for EQ, especially those which measure the
following:
- Empathy
- Self-confidence
- Leadership skills
- People-orientation
- Conflict-resolution
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sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com
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