RocheMartin Blog

Emotional Intelligence in the Work Place

Posted by Tash Newby on Thursday, June 23, 2011

“No doubt emotional intelligence is more rare than book smarts, but my experience says it is actually more important in the making of a leader.” Jack Welch

So what does emotional intelligence have to do with your work place? Is it relevant in all work places and for all roles or just leaders? Is emotional intelligence something that can be taught or trained? These are the common questions that generally arise when the topic of emotional intelligence comes up.

So does emotional intelligence have any impact on your workplace and is it relevant for all roles? “Research shows convincingly that EQ is more important than IQ in almost every role and many times more important in leaderships roles” (Stephen Covey). We have all at some stage experienced that Manager that just seemed to be an “exceptional leader”; they lead with passion, integrity and an apparent clarity of decision. But more importantly they ignited in you these attributes. There is no arguing that these skills are invaluable in every workplace; what business owner wouldn’t want their team to be more passionate, driven, innovative and stay in the business?

Until recently these such leaders seemed a rarity, they seemed to possess a skill that you either had or didn’t, and the focus was on holding onto these people, rather than developing a whole team of “exceptional leaders”. Thanks to years of rigorous research and case studies, it seems that these skills - while rare naturally in individuals, can be developed. Martyn Newman gives us more than just theory, he gives us practical tools to develop these skills.

Newman has distilled his years of research in emotional intelligence relating to leadership into 10 core competencies:

Self-knowing
Self-confidence
Self-reliance
Straightforwardness
Self-Actualization
Relationship skills
Empathy
Adaptability
Self-control
Optimism

Lets expand on one to make more sense of it all. ‘Self-knowing’, what is the relevance of this in a work place? Self-knowing encompasses emotional awareness, behavioral awareness and non-verbal communications. Typically someone who is low on self-knowing is often not good at recognizing or verbalizing their own emotions and is generally unaware of their impact of behavior on others. Now imagine this person as a manager in a work place, undoubtedly you have encountered them before, maybe they tend to ‘act out’ emotional experiences and then are surprised by your reactions; or perhaps you have come across someone who you found ‘hard to read’, as they kept their emotions & thoughts close to their chest. Both of these examples can lead to a lack of trust in the team and a general disengagement to their leadership, which is detrimental to all relationships and the working environment.

So where to from here? Well the Emotional Capital Report (ECR) focuses on these clear, tangible competencies and highlights an individual’s strengths and areas for improvement in leadership, and also gives simple coaching strategies to help develop these skills. For example, with the above illustration of self-knowing, a coaching strategy may be to:
• Introduce a brief pause before responding/reacting to check your emotional pulse
• Pay particular attention to other people’s emotional reactions to you and consider our behavior in light of the feedback.


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Leaders With A Life!

Posted by Stacey Newman on Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Leaders With A Life is fast becoming one of Australia's most exciting annual business events. Described by delegates as a life changing learning experience, this world-class conference provides delegates with the energy, ideas and inspiration needed to take the leap from good...to GREAT! 

RocheMartin are proud to announce that Dr Martyn Newman has been chosen as one of the keynote speakers. 

This conference has been organised by the Proteus Leadership Centre 
Find out more here and download a copy of the conference flyer

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Motivating Employees

Posted by Stacey Newman on Tuesday, November 03, 2009

With an almost daily focus on unemployment, job losses and uncertainty about the future many people are left struggling to motivate themselves in the workplace but is there anything you can do to make a difference?

The answer is yes. Our own Dr Martyn Newman answered this question on a recent TV interview on IrelandAM

Watch it here...

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