How to Coach Yourself and Others Influencing, Inter Personal and Leadership Skills | Seite 107

So while EQ may be an important talent, is it something that can be developed or is it
something a person is born with?
Research is available that clearly shows EQ can be learned. Dr. Fabio Sala of The Hay
Group found that workshop interventions are effective at improving EQ. A study at
Case Western University found that EQ training not only improves performance, but such
gains are retained over many years.
So the good news for business is that while there may be a genetic pre-disposition
towards Emotional Intelligence, these skills can be developed and they tend to be
retained for the long-term. There is certainly a need for practice and reinforcement to
build these skills. And finally, EQ skills won’t be improved without a sincere desire to do
so.
5. EQ and Leadership
While EQ is relevant in almost any work situation where people work collaboratively, the
use of EQ to improve leadership and managerial performance is of great interest to the
HR community. And the current challenging economy has everyone trying to achieve
more productivity with fewer resources.
Research indicates that effective leaders can improve the performance of their
organizations. Certainly different situations necessitate different leadership techniques.
And in practice a leader with good EQ skills is able to assess a situation and determine
an appropriate response. Without EQ, a person with high IQ, great experience and good
ideas will not become a great leader.
And the higher a leader advances, the more important Emotional Intelligence becomes.
But the potential for EQ problems also rises with more senior executives. Research
conducted by Fabio Sala showed that higher level executives consistently rated
themselves higher on EQ competencies than did their lower-level colleagues. They have
an inflated view of their EQ.
Sala suggested that the rating difference may be related to a lack of objective
information about their own skills, saying that senior executives typically have fewer
opportunities for feedback because of their position and that people are often less
inclined to give constructive feedback to people in positions senior to themselves.
6. Issues with putting EQ into Practice
One criticism of Emotional Intelligence that we often hear is that it sounds good in
theory but it’s difficult to put into practice. And some of the proponents of EQ don’t seem
to do a very good job of examining what it looks like in the day-to-day workplace, or
how it can be practiced and enhanced.
One of the real issues here is that Emotional Intelligence tends to be somewhat generic
in its focus. It assumes that all people can display these skills in more or less the same
ways. Goleman and his colleagues are clear that not all effective leaders possess all EQ
skills, and that much of the value of EQ is situational – certain situations will call for
some EQ skills more than others.
What’s often overlooked, though, is that there’s another dimension of behavior that
influences how people act and also how they interpret the behavior of others.
At TRACOM we’ve been researching these behavioral Styles for nearly 50 years and
we’ve found that each Style is predictably different in how they like to get work done,
communicate, make decisions, and use time.