Forging forward: Leading with emotional intelligence
Your destination is the 25th floor of the office complex. Do you take the stairs or the elevator? You likely choose the elevator.
As you envision your career trajectory, much like heading to the 25th floor of the building, you likely prefer to fast track, rather than trudge up the career stairs.
As we chart the skillset needed to soar toward our career goals, we may undervalue, dismiss, or not even be aware of the primary currency that positions us to reach our destination – emotional intelligence (EI). In his seminal work on EI for the workplace, Goleman defined EI as our “ability to perceive, access and generate emotions as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth." (1995). According to Goleman, EI is the largest single predictor of our success in the workplace.
Why do we need to be intelligent about our emotions?
EI is earmarked as the signature attribute that positions us well to navigate through our personal and professional lives, especially during a crisis, whether it be COVID-19 or other crises we encounter. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2018), EI is rated one of the top 10 job skills that contribute to career success. EI is recognized as more important than traditional cognitive skills when it comes to our effectiveness in problem-solving and decision making, relationship management, conflict resolution, and stress management. Higher EI is linked to faster career advancement, and every point increase in EI results in higher salary (Bradberry & Greaves, 2019).
Is it possible to enhance our emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is a muscle we can develop. However, emotional intelligence can be somewhat elusive, leaving us with many questions about whether we have emotional intelligence and what courses of action we can take to build capacity in this area.
On Tuesday, November 24 at 12 noon PST, join Dr. Carolin Rekar Munro and Ross Porter in a conversation about EI. In this third episode of the Insights for Action webinar series, we shatter myths about EI, examine the building blocks of EI and explore how we can harness emotional intelligence to forge ahead.
Our goal is to equip you with your own EI toolkit so that you can take the elevator rather than the stairs to your career destination. Register today!