How EI is the secret sauce of leadership
Emotional Intelligence is the undisputed secret sauce of the greatest leaders. Just like adding chocolate sauce to an ice cream transforms plain vanilla ice cream into something extra special.
EI (Emotional Intelligence) is exactly that. It is the set of skills that can catapult managers into the stratosphere, turning them into change-makers and leaders.
So what exactly is this secret sauce?
Mary-Anne Murphy
Emotional Intelligence is the undisputed secret sauce of the greatest leaders. Just like adding chocolate sauce to an ice cream transforms plain vanilla ice cream into something extra special.
EI (Emotional Intelligence) is exactly that. It is the set of skills that can catapult managers into the stratosphere, turning them into change-makers and leaders.
So what exactly is this secret sauce?
EI is a framework of skills, a toolkit, that helps leaders realise their ultimate potential through a lens of deep empathy, self-awareness and empowerment that far outweighs any traditional leadership knowledge base.
“(IQ & TQ) x EQ = Leadership Potential. Leadership potential is the product of cognitive intelligence (IQ) and technical skills (TQ) and is maximised by high emotional intelligence or EQ.” Dr Martyn Newman, RocheMartin
Social-emotional agility
If we look at the tennis player, Roger Federer, he is a prime example of how someone uses their emotional agility to their advantage. His vast technical knowledge and level of skill in the field of tennis is undeniable.
Armed with natural talent, combined with a good education, intellect and the very best tennis coaching, he is very easily in a class of his own.
But possessing an impressive level of TQ (technical skill) is by and large not the only thing that sets him apart. It’s his emotional agility and high level of EI that have directly contributed to him being one of the best tennis players in history.
His heightened level of self-awareness and adaptability along with his ability to control his emotions through an exceptional level of self-management, means he can get the best out of himself under pressure, using his social-emotional agility to create the outcome he wants.
IQ vs EQ
59% of hiring managers said they wouldn’t employ someone with a high IQ and low EI.
71% of employers say they value Emotional Intelligence over IQ. CareerBuilder Survey, 2011.
Think about the most recent job interview you have been in and what kind of questions they asked you. You might have had more questions about problem-solving and how you approached difficult situations or challenging personalities than questions about the actual technical skills required to do the job.
While technical knowledge, experience and expertise are an important part of specific roles, being able to work effectively as part of a diverse team is becoming critically important.
Companies know that they can teach people the skills they need to do a job, so they favour hiring someone with a higher EQ over someone with a higher IQ.
Building Confidence in Leadership with EI
Confidence is plain and simply a learned skill.
Confident people trust their intuition, rely on their internal framework, and lean into it as a resource. It helps them make decisions, take initiative, assert themselves with clarity and communicate boundaries.
They’re in tune with a high level of self-awareness, can understand and regulate their emotions but above all else, have a strong bond of trust within themselves.
“You can’t lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” John Peers, CEO & Chairman at Lightfleet
It will be impossible to lead a team to the next level if leaders are riddled with self-doubt, can’t have difficult conversations without regulating their emotions or cannot create and communicate boundaries with difficult people.
EI skills are a sought-after and valuable asset for anyone in a leadership role and it’s never too late to develop them.
Work with Us
Momentum Learning has been supporting Leaders, Teams, Teachers, Rangatahi and their Whānau to develop their social and emotional intelligence since 2020. Talk to us about exploring this for your organisation.
Let’s work together.
Importance of social-emotional capability development for teams
Diversity in practice means that leaders work with a wide range of personalities, temperaments and people of all ages from every type of background. It’s no longer just strength in numbers, there’s demonstrated evidence that diversity brings resilience and perspective to teams.
Which makes social-emotional intelligence skills a critical element for all leadership and team capability development.
Mary-Anne Murphy
Diversity in practice means that leaders work with a wide range of personalities, temperaments and people of all ages from every type of background. It’s no longer just strength in numbers, there’s demonstrated evidence that diversity brings resilience and perspective to teams.
Which makes social-emotional intelligence skills a critical element for all leadership and team capability development.
“Today’s best companies get it. They’re generating every form of value that matters: emotional, experiential, social, and financial. And they’re doing it for all their stakeholders. Not because it’s politically correct, but because it’s the only path to long-term competitive advantage.
Companies that people love doing business with, partnering with, working for and investing in. For them, loyalty isn’t just real, it’s palpable, and driving unbeatable advantages in everything from marketing to recruitment.” Firms of Endearment - Raj Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, Jagdish N. Sheth.
Emotional Intelligence for Leadership
Traditional leadership development training had previously focused on modules such as strategic analysis and knowledge-based capability, which left leaders falling short when it came down to the heart of any leadership role.
Emotional intelligence or EQ, once perceived as a set of optional soft skills, is now respected as a strategic toolkit at the core of leadership development. With teams more diverse than ever, the skills required to maximise growth and help teams reach their fullest potential can no longer be learned simply as a knowledge-based curriculum.
Social-emotional intelligence and DEI
The arrival of diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) policies have rapidly evolved. Initially, as a politically correct metric, one of those paper-only KPIs to keep the stakeholders signing on the dotted line.
But the balance quickly shifted.
Companies that really wanted to lead change needed to attract the best talent and align themselves with policies that lived and breathed their values through their people.
Today it is talent that selects companies to align themselves with. Not the other way around.
People seek out employers of choice who actively demonstrate their DEI policies in real time. They select teams to work with, led by change makers with high EQ skills, where they know they will be valued and be able to grow in an environment that creates space to empower everyone.
The foundations of DEI and SEI are intrinsically linked. Organisations with a vision for future-proofing their long-term goals and live these skills as a mantra. Enabling them to attract and retain the best talent in the world, setting them up to be in a class of their own.
The Casel Framework - casel.org
How EQ equips leaders for challenges
A toxic company culture, disconnected teams and disgruntled employees all have a direct impact on team productivity and ultimately company performance and profitability.
Leaders who are equipped with EQ skills have the tools they need to navigate difficult situations while building strong and capable teams.
They use EQ skills as a compass, to build and lead cohesive teams that are set up and prepared for long-term future success even when navigating the roughest seas.
And it all starts by making social-emotional skills development a core element of all teams and leadership capability training.
Work with Us
Momentum Learning has been supporting Leaders, Teams, Teachers, Rangatahi and their Whānau to develop their social and emotional intelligence since 2020. Talk to us about exploring this for your organisation.
Let’s work together.
How social-emotional intelligence can help your career success
Emotionally intelligent people are by nature flexible, adaptable and resilient. They are inspiring as leaders with a high level of self-awareness. Their emotional intelligence (EI) skills help them to effectively balance compassion and empathy, with the ability to assertively set and communicate healthy boundaries.
EI is now not only considered a critical leadership skill set, but it is also a highly sought-after one. No matter what your career goals are, investing and developing a social-emotional intelligence toolkit have become imperative for every level of career success.
Mary-Anne Murphy
Emotionally intelligent people are by nature flexible, adaptable and resilient. They are inspiring as leaders with a high level of self-awareness. Their emotional intelligence (EI) skills help them to effectively balance compassion and empathy, with the ability to assertively set and communicate healthy boundaries.
EI is now not only considered a critical leadership skill set, but it is also a highly sought-after one. No matter what your career goals are, investing and developing a social-emotional intelligence toolkit have become imperative for every level of career success.
“It all starts with self-awareness. It’s not all about you, but it all begins with you. As a leader, if you’re not in a good place, not stable and not clear about what’s unique about you, then nothing’s going to flow from that.” Jeremy Darroch, Group CEO Sky.
Emotional Capital
Emotional intelligence is not a personality trait, but rather a set of emotional competencies that are developed to enhance leadership, nurture relationships and confident social skills.
Every personal interaction you have, and every decision you and your business make, is likely to be built on emotion. RocheMartin, Inspired Emotional Intelligence
Think of emotional capital as a type of skills bank. By developing these skills, you are investing in your own emotional capital bank. When you need to access these skills you can use them to transact with. Whether you are leading your team to success, getting buy-in from stakeholders or nurturing loyal relationships.
So if emotional capital was currency, have you thought about how you are spending it?
Optimism as a Strategy
People with high emotional intelligence skills are inherently optimists.
Optimists frame issues differently, they see opportunities and can adapt quickly to changing circumstances and environments. They strategically access their emotional capital, drawing on strong relationships with teams they’ve built and nurtured.
A great example of how optimists leverage their framework was during the global pandemic. They were the ones who identified silver linings and mobilised a response that would not only see their organisation survive but outperform their competitors in the end.
Empathy vs Sympathy
One of the biggest attributes of EI is empathy. Empathy requires a very deep understanding of what the other person is going through on an emotional level. While sympathy is relatable more on an intellectual level. While we can sympathise with another person's lived experience, sympathy gives us no real emotional understanding of it.
Empathy requires us to put ourselves in another person's shoes and dig deep into the emotional experience they are having.
This is done through things like being an active open-minded listener who can respond without bias in a validating and deeply genuine way.
EI competency can be learned, developed nurtured and used to improve your relationships with others, strengthen networks, broaden perspectives and ultimately clear the pathway to career success.
Do you want to know more about how to access the EI toolkit for yourself or your team? Get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you.
Work with Us
Momentum Learning has supported Leaders, Teams, Teachers, Rangatahi and their Whānau to develop their social and emotional intelligence since 2020. Talk to us about accessing this essential curriculum methodology, through Regionally Allocated PLD and other funding pathways.
Let’s work together.
Is your child struggling to make friends? How SEI skills can help.
Making friends is not something that comes naturally to all children.
It’s hard to see your child being left out and not included, but it doesn’t mean your child isn’t likeable, has anything wrong with them or doesn’t get invited to events because of their personality.
It just means that they need some help building social skills. Social-emotional intelligence (SEI) is a toolkit that can help.
Mary-Anne Murphy
Making friends is not something that comes naturally to all children.
It’s hard to see your child being left out and not included, but it doesn’t mean your child isn’t likeable, has anything wrong with them or doesn’t get invited to events because of their personality.
It just means that they need some help building social skills. Social-emotional intelligence (SEI) is a toolkit that can help.
Skills kids need to make friends
Making and keeping friends is a skill. Even kids who are shy or who are struggling with impulse behavioural issues and things like delayed speech or ADHD can make friends. SEI provides children with a tangible framework they can use in everyday situations to help them make friends.
Such as:
How to pick up on and respond to social cues
How to listen attentively to others so they can understand what is being said
How to share and take turns
How to start a conversation
How to disagree appropriately
How to label their emotions to effectively communicate their feelings.
With a bit of encouragement and validation, every child can find the confidence to use their new tools and start practising their friendship skills.
Why do some kids struggle to make friends?
Sometimes children struggle to make friends simply because they haven’t met another child they feel that they can connect with.
It could also be that a child has had a negative experience or two and now feels too anxious or nervous to be the first one to reach out. Some children get as far as starting a conversation but might not know how to keep one going. They sometimes personalise responses from other kids that might not be familiar to them.
For example, if they say hello to a child but the other child doesn’t say anything back. They might feel as if they have done something wrong, not knowing that the other child might have a hearing disability and simply didn’t hear them.
Basic communication and language skills become a bigger barrier if kids don’t know how to navigate through them.
This is something that SEI is perfect for, it helps kids be more confident with their friendship-making skills and gives them tools to explore different dynamics and be brave in new situations.
"A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees." Amelia Earhart
Is it normal for my child to not have friends?
Every parent wishes for their child to be socially adept, happy and curious, open to finding a commonality with anyone.
But in real life, kids can be shy and nervous, feel overwhelmed and overstimulated and become reluctant to work their way through their hesitations. If they haven’t had much experience socially, they might not have a reference to draw from.
This is why developing good SEI skills can have a hugely positive impact on your child's overall social well-being and happiness.
SEI skills that can help your child make friends
These are just some of the social-emotional skills that can help your child make and keep friends.
Empathy
Helps kids connect emotionally
Interpersonal skills
Helps kids to establish social awareness
Assertiveness
Helps kids to communicate feelings and set boundaries
Conflict resolution
Helps kids to develop confident problem-solving solutions
It will help them to:
Better understand themselves and others
Have the courage to persevere even if it doesn’t go right the first time
Learn how to invite other children to join them
Have the confidence to accept an invitation from others.
Friendships need a good level of social and emotional competence to thrive and social-emotional learning skills can help children to develop these concepts in their younger years, setting them up to be well-rounded, happy adults.
As caregivers, we can answer the call for compassion. For us to bring the heart back into our humanity. It starts with us, and our children will lead the way.
If you would like to know more about how to support your child or students access these skills, get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you.
Work with Us
Momentum Learning has been supporting Leaders, Teams, Teachers, Rangatahi and their Whānau to develop their social and emotional intelligence since 2020. Talk to us about exploring this for your organisation.
Let’s work together.
What's in a word?
Each year people set themselves goals. To get fitter, spend more time with family and friends, get to that next level at work, grow their own veggies - the list is limitless.
James Clear says “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress”, and so I have set this intention as the screensaver on my phone and laptop. It is also present as a card in my house. I keep it in front of me so it remains front of mind. It’s like a lens through which I see and operate with the world.
Each year people set themselves goals. To get fitter, spend more time with family and friends, get to that next level at work, grow their own veggies - the list is limitless.
I tend to, however, choose the path of setting an intention for the year. This intention is not a destination, it is more like a quality that I wish to lean into.
It is an intention that permeates my whole world and is ever present in my mind as True North.
A 2022 article in Time magazine by psychologists Jay Van Bavel And Dominic Packer states that “… by some estimates, as many as 80% of people fail to keep their New Year's resolutions by February. Only 8% of people stick with them the entire year”.
James Clear says “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress”, and so I have set this intention as the screensaver on my phone and laptop. It is also present as a card in my house. I keep it in front of me so it remains front of mind. It’s like a lens through which I see and operate with the world.
My word for 2024 is Joy.
Incorporating joy into your daily life isn't just about surface-level delights; it's about creating a wellspring from deep within you. Not only will it build your own well-being, but the ripple effect will impact positively on those around you.
As I journey through 2024, I will ask myself the question “What would Joy do, think, say, feel or be?”. It is the touchstone I will continue to come back to throughout 2024.
Perhaps this idea is something you too would like to take up. If so, what quality would you like to lean into this year?
Mary-Anne Murphy