One Action Leaders Could Start Doing Immediately to Build an Emotionally Intelligent Workplace “ Culture is the internal brand that ultimately affects the external brand of the company, its services and its products.” - Judy Bell By HARVEY DEUTSCHENDORF
By now the majority of leaders have heard of emotional intelligence and appear to have bought into the notion it is important to have it in their organizations. In a survey by Career Builder, 71 percent of employers stated that they valued EQ over IQ and technical skills. Research by Talent Smart found EQ to be the strongest indicator of performance in the workplace. Yet, with all the challenges faced by leaders in the today’s rapidly changing workplace, the idea of building emotional intelligence can seem overwhelming. But what if there was one idea, that could be easily implemented, which would make a major difference? Ken Blanchard, author of “One Minute Manager” recently updated his classic book. Although there were major changes due to technological advances, the one thing that remained the same was his advice to catch people doing things right. Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company, wrote in Harvard Business Review, “Leaders who engage in relentless fault-finding can’t help but lead to a culture of bloodless execution. Leaders who celebrate small acts of kindness (and) who reward moments of connection, give everyone permission to look for opportunities to have a genuine human aspect." "I couldn't agree more", says Judy Bell, President of Judy Bell Consulting in Memphis, TN. http://judybellconsulting.com/. Employees live up to or down to our expectations, so we should always encourage and expect the best! The best thing for leaders to do to build an emotionally intelligent workplace is to focus on their people doing well and recognize and appreciate them for it.
What To Watch For When it comes to recognition and appreciation, one size does not fit all. Many organizations have a staff appreciation day where everyone is involved. The hardest working, creative, high performer receives the same recognition as the employee who is just there to receive a paycheck. This approach can breed mediocrity and even resentment from those who feel they are going above and beyond and giving their all for the organization. Recognizing employees based on their merits and as individuals requires time, effort and commitment from leaders. One way that leaders increase their awareness of what their people are doing well is to spend more time working with them. Leaders must be engaged with their employees, says Judy Bell. This is what sets Leaders apart from Managers. Managers typically do better with tasks. Leaders inspire employees on the human side, says Bell. The best people to do this are the managers that the staff report to directly. They are in the best position to know the actual work that the person is responsible for. While this takes time away from other tasks, it is well worth the effort. Employees learn to respect and appreciate managers who are willing to step up and keep themselves involved in their everyday work. Make an ongoing commitment to find people doing something right. There will be times that leaders have to point out to their people when they need to change something. The problem is that staff will get the impression that they only receive attention when they do something wrong. The important thing is to continually look for ways to give people positive feedback. According to research, teams with high performance get over 42
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five times more positive feedback than negative. That is well worth keeping in mind when it comes time for doling out feedback. Everyone loves to be appreciated and recognized. When staff see that happening to them and around them, they quickly pick up that this is a healthy supportive workplace. Feeling better about themselves and their colleagues, they put in more discretionary effort resulting in higher performance for the organization. Discretionary effort is the work employees give above and beyond and this is priceless for the culture, says Bell. As an added benefit there would be less turnover and a decrease in the cost of recruiting and bringing new staff on board. Witnessing recognition being a serious focus of the organization increases the number of employees turning their attention on recognizing each other. Those who are looking to be promoted and move up in the company will be more aware that their actions in recognizing colleagues will be one of the considerations. In this way, recognition from the top will spiral and lead to an increase across the organization. While it will still be necessary to catch mistakes and correct them, it will become known that catching someone doing something right is what will be encouraged and rewarded within the organization. Not only will this make for a happier, more engaged workplace, the organization will gain a reputation for being a good place to work. Says Bell, “Culture is the internal brand that ultimately affects the external brand of the company, its services and its products.” Make it count!
Harvey Deutschendorf is an emotional intelligence
expert, internationally published author and speaker. To take the EI Quiz go to theotherkindofsmart.com. His book THE OTHER KIND OF SMART, Simple Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence for Greater Personal Effectiveness and Success has been published in 4 languages. Harvey writes for FAST COMPANY and has a monthly column with HRPROFESSIONALS MAGAZINE. You can follow him on Twitter @theeiguy.
