What's Your EQ?
Are you building an ‘emotionally intelligent’ IT organization, or are
you missing your opportunity to lead well? From a leading IT career
development guru, here’s how to boost your emotional intelligence
quotient—and that of your staffers, too.
ONE OF THE BEST descriptions of
emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) that
I have come across was devised by
Howard Hopkins, a retired Canadian high
school teacher:
Every response you give to another person
involves your intellect and your
emotions. The intellect composes the
message, and the emotions provide animation
and grace. Emotion is to the
message what music is to the lyric.
Without the tune, would anyone ever
remember the lyric? The skill to combine
intellect and emotion in this dramatic
and powerful fashion is emotional
intelligence, and it possesses the power
to elevate even the common exchanges
of everyday encounters from the base
level of me-and-you to the sublimity of
I-and-Thou!
The question is: What does this mean
to you, as an IT director or executive?
As IT professionals, both individually
and collectively, we invariably possess
the right “lyric”—the ability to find solutions.
After all, that’s what we are trained
to do. But as projects become more complex
and IT roles are distributed across
the institution, we often have a hard time reaching our
audience, the IT users. To them, our “tune” may sound offkey
and discordant; not in keeping with the expectations
and outcomes they envision. And it does not matter if they
are mistaken, for perception is everything. If the perception
is that your organization is not fully engaged in appreciating
your customer’s needs, then, to your customer,
that is the reality.
What’s more, greater organizational empathy—internal
and external—can benefit decision-making at the stakeholder
level as well as the front lines. So, think about your
organization: Where are you “in tune,” and where do you
need a tune-up?
Leadership Everywhere
Leadership is no longer just for people at the top. Common
sense tells us that leadership functions are accomplished
collectively through formal or positional leaders, but also through informal leaders. Technology professionals
at all levels have the opportunity to contribute to leadership
activity, such as influencing others, bridging groups to meet
shared objectives, and effectively communicating technology
options accross a wide variety of work groups and
departments.
True IT professionals recognize the challenges facing our
customers and the importance of forging collaborative relationships
to meet the demand for new projects. We know it
takes more than technical skills to meet campus expectations
for IT goals and services. It stands to reason, then,
that if we want people to be actively engaged in the success
of the institution, we need to commit to creating
a workplace and culture that
encourage leadership activity and
recognize developing these skills
as a core competency for every IT
staff member.
The emotionally intelligent organization
promotes a culture in which openness,
transparency, and respectful assertiveness
are the norm. In essence, an EIO is a
‘relationship-intelligent’ organization.
Understanding Leadership Activity
Research shows that emotions are
at the heart of effective leadership.
In Primal Leadership: Realizing
the Power of Emotional Intelligence
(Harvard Business School
Press, 2002), Daniel Goleman
popularized emotional intelligence
in the business realm by describing
its importance as an ingredient
for successful business careers
and as a crucial component for
effective group performance. He
explained that emotional intelligence
quotient encompasses qualities that go beyond technical
competence and intellectual capacity (IQ). EQ is the
capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others,
to guide our thinking and actions in two areas of influence:
personal competence and social competence.
Personal competence involves self-awareness, selfregulation,
and motivation. This area focuses on recognizing
how our emotions influence our work and those around
us, and on understanding our own emotional triggers. The
first step in self-awareness is accurate self-assessment,
which is key to superior management performance. A high
EQ score on this dimension means we know when to collaborate,
when to get help, and when we have something to
contribute. Self-regulation helps us adapt to change, utilizing
self-control to keep disruptive emotions at bay, and
helps us demonstrate trustworthiness through consistent
emotions and behaviors. Motivation is another personal
competence: The role of our leader is to create an environment
that provides opportunities and work experiences that
are conducive to self-motivation. Skills in this dimension
include the drive to meet our inner standards of excellence,
initiative to anticipate the need for action, and optimism to
see the upside in events.
Social competence focuses on empathy and relationship
management skills to read people and groups accurately.
Empathy is critical for dealing with individuals and
organizations. It involves learning to interpret situations
objectively without the bias of our own assumptions; it
allows us to recognize political relationships, and develop
coalition-building savvy. Relationship management is our
ability, through a range of tactics, to influence and bring
about a desirable response in others. This dimension
includes developing others, initiating and leading change,
nurturing instrumental relationships at all levels, and conflict
management. Traditional leadership talents of inspiring
others to contribute to a shared vision, teamwork, and collaboration
find their skill base here.
EQ and Productivity
Does the development of individual EQ alone guarantee
productivity and better decision-making? No; to fully capitalize
on harnessing leadership capacity and the fruits of an
engaged workforce, two things are required: First, there
must be a commitment toward a workplace culture that promotes
an EQ culture and encourages EQ behavior. Second,
there must be structures and business practices—such as
guidelines for team autonomy and decision-making, internal
project evaulation, and end-user satisfaction critera—in
place, to channel EQ throughout the organization. These two
factors, culture and practice, guide the way leadership activity
can be woven into the operational fabric of the organization,
and provide the framework for professional development, peer supervision, project teams,
and up-and-down decision-making.
The emotionally intelligent organization
(EIO) promotes a culture in which
openness, transparency, and respectful
assertiveness are the norm. It also
encourages diversity, tolerates constructive
disagreement, and values
contained flexibility and multidirectional
communication. In essence, an EIO is a
“relationship-intelligent” organization.
Just as we perform individual EQ assessments
to identify the leadership strengths and weaknesses
of our organization members, the same can be done
for the organization itself.
10 Steps to an EIO Model
If you are looking for ways to increase
operational effectiveness and efficiency
and develop the next generation of
IT leaders, you will need to move
toward an EIO model. Follow these
steps to get there:
- Be a role model. The key ingredient
of a successful EIO is a leader
whose own EQ drives the emotional
intelligence of the organization. It does
not imply that the leader is fully competent
but, rather, that he or she is
willing to embark on a shared learning
experience with the management
team and staff.
- Actively assess not just individual
but organizational EQ. Apply
each of the personal and social competency
dimensions to your organization,
as well as to its members. For
example, terms such as “building
coalitions,” “energizing project teams,”
“involving people,” and “understanding
the politics of change” map to the
EQ components of empathy, motivation,
relationship management, and
political awareness. Just as we perform
individual EQ assessments to
identify the leadership strengths and
weaknesses of our organization members,
the same can be done for the
organization itself. For instance: Is the
organization perceived as coalitionbuilding?
Is it constructed to involve
people, or does it promote exclusivity
by keeping meetings small, formal,
and on a “need-to-know” basis only?
- Envision the EIO. In open candid
discussions throughout the organization,
identify the desired outcomes
of the new emotionally intelligent organization,
and explore the idea of developing
an EIO in order to generate
energy, obtain buy-in, and build understanding.
Articulate how progress will
be measured.
- Design and articulate the new
structure. Examine the existing organizational
structure and add an EQ
dimension, which should include:
organization charts, role descriptions,
performance criteria, project management
methodology, lines of accountability
and authority, and formal channels
of communication up and down
the organization chart.
- Pay attention to culture. Emphasize
relationship building, empathy, and
teamwork practices, in order to build
trust, a safe environment to learn in,
commitment, and a pervasive sense of
personal and professional accountability.
Update hiring, feedback, and evaluation
procedures, in order to put these
values into operation. The EIO structure
and culture should combine as a
framework to balance employee contributions
and organizational constraints,
innovation and risk, distributed leadership
and fragmentation, as well as
when to lead and when to follow.
- Foster learning. Integrate tools
and techniques for personal/team EQ
assessments and professional development
plans. Education programs
should link EQ, technical skills, and IT
practices. And don’t neglect the critical
success factor of informal learning
via peer coaching, feedback, and mentoring.
Then…
- Measure, 8) Celebrate, 9) Learn,
and 10) Re-assess!