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Progress! Leading with Emotional Intelligence E-Zine - Issue No. 2/ March 2006

Dear Reader,

Ever since my partner Sebastien Henry started focusing on Emotional Intelligence (EI) for leaders, we have been asking a number of executives about their opinion on EI. What we noticed is that most of them either had no or only a vague idea what EI is all about. Frequently we sensed som doubts if EI is a valid approach in the context of leadership.

This realization motivated us even more to look for ways to measure the success of our leadership approaches. We decided to make this one of our key objectives for the coming months as it will equally benefit our clients and us. We will keep you posted on our progress in this matter.

In the meantime, enjoy learning more about EI through Sebastien's articles.

Let's keep progressing!

Charlie Lang
Executive Coach and Founder of Progress-U Ltd.
Author of The Groupness Factor

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"Why do you want to allocate money for this touchy-feely garbage?"

By Sebastien Henry, Executive Coach & Trainer,
Emotional Intelligence for Leaders Expert for Progress-U Ltd.

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According to the book "Promoting Emotional Intelligence in Organizations" by Cary Cherniss and Mitchel Adler , this was the question often heard by the senior vice-president in charge of life insurance at American Express Financial Advisors in the United States. It came up after he decided to roll out a program for advisors based on Emotional Intelligence.

Have you considered taking some initiative to promote Emotional Intelligence in your organization? If so, did you have to face such questions? How did you respond?

This compact and very valuable book provides a list of conditions for an Emotional Intelligence-based program to be successful and truly beneficial to an organization. They all make sense, but one seems to me even more crucial: link Emotional Intelligence (EI) to business needs .

This, of course, is common sense.

Still, there are companies that embark on EI-based programs without taking this very important step, or just after a very light analysis of business needs. They just hope that people will gain some insights from the program anyway, and that skipping this step will do no harm.  

For instance, I was in Beijing a couple of weeks ago where I met people from a local company that specializes in leadership development and uses EI-based programs. They reported that half of the prospects that came to them didn't take this important step of linking EI to business needs.

One reason is that it's still a rather new approach for many people. Moreover, it isn't that easy. Linking EI to business needs requires some effort. Personally, I think that it takes even more effort than other approaches do.

Another reason is that some people are more demanding when it comes to EI programs. It sounds touchy-feely to them and they won't hesitate to shoot it down at the first opportunity. It is important to have these people on board, and the best way to do so is to show them how an EI program can translate into tangible results.

The case at American Express Financial Advisors is really interesting in this aspect. The goal of the program was clear: increase the sales of life insurance products.

The company estimated that only 28% of the clients who should have bought Life insurance actually did so. Upon studying the case, the firm realized that the feelings of the advisors were actually getting in their way of selling. The company then came up with a program to develop the empathy of the advisors. According to the same book, the end result was a 200 M USD increase in sales of life insurance products (relative growth figures are unfortunately not available)

Obviously, this approach is a little easier in the area of sales, where results are so tangible. But it is also possible in other areas.

One area where I think that EI-based programs can be particularly useful in Asia is in the promotion of more engagement and achievement of higher retention in multi-cultural teams. In my opinion, and from my own experience in working with Japanese and Chinese teams, it is in multi-cultural teams that there is the greatest tendency for misunderstanding and underground tensions. I have observed that this can lead to a serious reduction in motivation among local team members.  

Is this an issue for you? Do you feel that promoting Emotional Intelligence in your team could bring results? If yes, how can you make sure that an EI-based program would be linked as closely as possible to your business needs?

This is where Progress-U can help you. We can be at the heart of your process from the very beginning.

Once the business needs are clearly identified, the question of how to measure results comes in. I will cover this important question in the next issue of "Leading with Emotional Intelligence".

By then, I'd be happy to hear your comments or answer your questions.  

Let's keep progressing !

Sebastien Henry

For more information related to Progress-U Leadership Training and Coaching, please click here.

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