In the table of contents for the December 2013 Harvard Business Review is the following teaser: "The Focussed Leader. Great leaders have learned to focus their attention in three ways: on themselves, on others, and on the wider world."
Isn't that pretty much everything! So, great leaders have learned to focus on everything? I am confused by the word 'focus' in this context. What is it supposed to mean? Having read the article I still unclear as to why the word 'focus' is used.
This is a Daniel Goldman article. He is one of the chief proponents of the essentialness of emotional intelligence. He assumes that people with high emotional intelligence are good for business and people with low emotional intelligence are bad. He says "People who lack social sensitivity are easy to spot - at least for other people. They are the clueless among us." He points out that if they just put some effort into it, they could develop emotional empathy. I've known plenty of people who fit this description. They are almost never clueless. Actually, these geeks are often extraordinary problem solvers who have an astonishing capacity to stay focussed. But they just don't care what opinion you happen to have, or how you feel. Those things are irrelevant to the problem they are solving. They are after facts not feelings.
What a truly great leader does is put into place a process for operating the business that recognizes the extraordinary value of having different types of people engaged. The process enables the people to be highly effective by dealing with their shortcomings and leveraging their talents and differences. That is precisely what we deliver with Behavioral Advantage. We give leaders the tools to implement this sort of process.
Showing posts with label emotional intelligence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emotional intelligence. Show all posts
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Teaching Emotional Intelligence
I received two email announcements related to Human Resources yesterday that sparked this blog post. One post announced that an HR magazine is launching a new feature to recognize outstanding HR Problem Solvers. Whatever the problem and solution are, HR needs to have been the principal driver of the program or initiative.
The second email from an HR association announced a speaker, a Dr. Bakal who claims the good news about Emotional Intelligence is that everyone can learn these skills.
HR has such a poor reputation that one could contemplate that Dr. Bakal might be recognized as a HR Problem Solvers. He has solved the problem that some people lack Emotional Intelligence. They just need training.
Emotional Intelligence (EI), skills help a person to know how to read their own internal cues as well as the social styles of others.
The notion that everyone can learn these skills is nonsense. Moreover a company that invests in training designed to solve this problem is barking up the wrong management tree. The fact is, some people cannot learn these skills. Certainly, people who are Autistic will not learn these skills. But evidence suggests that there is a continuum between neurotypicals and autistics, like there is a continuum of gradient between blue and yellow. At one end are those who naturally possess high EI skills, at the other are those who naturally lack them.
While it is true that at the top of corporate organizations you will likely find people with the ability to understand other people, to work well with others and to influence people, HR would serve the company better by understanding that not every valuable employee needs to be that kind of person. Great leaders know how to maximize other people’s potential. Great corporate leaders also know that the company’s greatest asset, and the thing most necessary to competitive advantage, is diversity of mind. Being able to lead individuals who each think differently is the key corporate leadership asset. Hire CEO’s Presidents, and Division Heads that can do that, and you’ll have a healthy bottom line. (See the book Advantage: Business Competition in the New Normal)
The right problem to recognize is that the geek in the engineering department delivers incredible value to the company as a thinker, but won’t see any relevant value to becoming more emotionally intelligent. When it comes to effective use of training dollars, train those in leadership roles to deal with the reality that a healthy company is made up of both high and low EI types, by creatives and methodicals, by artists and administrators, and each has a valuable contribution to make.
The second email from an HR association announced a speaker, a Dr. Bakal who claims the good news about Emotional Intelligence is that everyone can learn these skills.
HR has such a poor reputation that one could contemplate that Dr. Bakal might be recognized as a HR Problem Solvers. He has solved the problem that some people lack Emotional Intelligence. They just need training.
Emotional Intelligence (EI), skills help a person to know how to read their own internal cues as well as the social styles of others.
The notion that everyone can learn these skills is nonsense. Moreover a company that invests in training designed to solve this problem is barking up the wrong management tree. The fact is, some people cannot learn these skills. Certainly, people who are Autistic will not learn these skills. But evidence suggests that there is a continuum between neurotypicals and autistics, like there is a continuum of gradient between blue and yellow. At one end are those who naturally possess high EI skills, at the other are those who naturally lack them.While it is true that at the top of corporate organizations you will likely find people with the ability to understand other people, to work well with others and to influence people, HR would serve the company better by understanding that not every valuable employee needs to be that kind of person. Great leaders know how to maximize other people’s potential. Great corporate leaders also know that the company’s greatest asset, and the thing most necessary to competitive advantage, is diversity of mind. Being able to lead individuals who each think differently is the key corporate leadership asset. Hire CEO’s Presidents, and Division Heads that can do that, and you’ll have a healthy bottom line. (See the book Advantage: Business Competition in the New Normal)
The right problem to recognize is that the geek in the engineering department delivers incredible value to the company as a thinker, but won’t see any relevant value to becoming more emotionally intelligent. When it comes to effective use of training dollars, train those in leadership roles to deal with the reality that a healthy company is made up of both high and low EI types, by creatives and methodicals, by artists and administrators, and each has a valuable contribution to make.
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