Over the past few years, we seem to be cursed with a torrent of natural and man-made disasters – economic volatility, earthquakes, floods, fires, drought, famine, tornadoes, hurricanes, and more. All these misfortunes contribute to people’s anxiety. Then, of course, there’s the 2012 prophecy related to the Mayan calendar and we have all the ingredients for a box office hit – oops! That’s been done!
And those of us fortunate enough to have jobs are faced with mounting pressures as we are challenged to do more with less because companies are cutting people, budgets, salaries, healthcare costs and more. With the increased workload, everyone within an organization (leaders, managers, workers) is confronted with complex, almost insurmountable, issues on a minute-to-minute basis.
Job insecurity and workplace chaos cause people to experience negative emotions and stress. We find that we wake up every morning (if we were able to sleep) already drained and with little energy to confront another day. These negative emotions and anxiety cloud our thinking. We become rattled under the pressure, unable to accomplish our goals and maintain our productivity. We make poor decisions and tend to work ineffectively with our peers. People at all levels are prone to submit to the stress.
Leaders and executive, must recognize the tremendous drain on their people. First, leaders must understand that stress results when an individual perceives he or she cannot cope with the demands of his or her environment. The simple solution is to help people enhance their Emotional Intelligence skills.
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize and use one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others to help determine what to do (or not to do). The competencies include…
- Emotional Self-Awareness (knowing what you are feeling),
- Emotional Self-Management (choosing your emotions – transforming negative emotions into positive emotions),
- Emotional Self-Motivation (using positive emotions to persist under pressure),
- Empathy (awareness of other’s feelings and using that awareness for successful solutions), and
- Nurture Relationships (creating a cooperative and collaborative climate)
The ability to stop and transform negative feelings in any given moment helps us to stop much of the stress that we might have otherwise experienced. The benefits of reducing stress are enormous. Every year 80{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} of employers’ health problems and medical costs are related to stress.
Reducing stress is certainly an impressive benefit of enhancing Emotional Intelligence skills. However, the payoff is even greater. Participants from a variety of backgrounds (including high potentials, managers, and executives) have shared the following average improvements as a result of attending an Emotional Intelligence Workshop:
- 23{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} Increase change flexibility
- 32{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} Increase work life balance
- 28{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} Improvement in resolving conflict constructively
- 26{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} Improvement in teamwork
- 35{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} Increase mental clarity
- 27{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} Increase personal productivity
- 31{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} Stay motivated in spite of people and events
- 27{44f93193654ee8e357ba54f38b49cfc3563b7d623a8103b2d4e387aa181f7fed} Increase self-confidence
Organizations claim that they have a competitive advantage when they help their leaders and executives develop their Emotional Intelligence skills. What significant advantage would an organization who developed all their people have based on the data above?
