EQ and Its Impact on Your Bottom Line
Business is serious. The success of business affects stakeholders both inside and outside any organization. We use general terms when describing these stakeholders like, the Board, the community, the employees, the customers, the vendors, the management, (the insert yours here) __________. Yet, each of these collective nouns consist of individual people with individual characteristics, talents, attributes, skills, needs, wants, and goals. Without these individuals, in their collective noun categories, we have no business and consequently no stakeholders. Which has more impact on business, the skill of these individuals or their EQ?
When we were small children, our parents thought we didn’t need to do it, so they did it for us. In school, our teachers tried to help us understand it and teach us how to do it. When we were teenagers, no one thought we did it at all! Even as adults, it is an enigma to many. As leaders, we need to do a lot of it, and we need to do it well. What is this that both follows us and seemingly escapes us throughout our lives and careers?
Individuals who take pride in not having opened a book since high school or college, may need to rethink their priorities. Granted, there is a difference in people in that some love learning and could devour books, research, and webinars all day every day. Others only want to learn about topics when they need to know something to accomplish a task or complete a project. Still others think they know everything already and learning is not necessary, and they can skip this article. However, being a lifelong learner does seem to be a trend now. Why is that?
Most articles on blind spots are written about leaders and their blind spots. OK, in the interest of transparency, even I’ve written a couple in that same vein 
Both individual and team coaching enjoy a rich history. Despite its widespread popularity, coaching remains an enigma for leaders. Despite its effectiveness for many, leaders remain hesitant to implement this tool. Further, adding to the confusion, even though many individuals and teams report an improvement in productivity, focus, and even life-changing breakthroughs, there are a lack of studies to help support these important claims. What’s the difference between team and individual coaching? How does a leader determine whether to implement individual or team coaching? In addition, how does a leader know if any coaching is worth the ROI?
Using “the little gray cells” is an expression the legendary detective Hercule Poirot, created by Agatha Christie, was often fond of using. A more “modern” example of this comes from management consultant, the late Peter Drucker, “We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process…” So, if we know that we should keep “the little gray cells” active and that learning is important, what difference does it make whether that learning comes via training or development?
Simply put, high performing teams (HPTs), need members who are high performers. While this may appear to be a blinding flash of the obvious, what may not be so obvious is ensuring that your hiring system has the components it takes to attract high performers. High performers are not just going to come beat your door down. The truth is that high performers are not that easy to find and finding them will become even more difficult because the United States population growth is dropping. The fewer people, the fewer high performers. What can your organization do to help attract the best of the best out of a dwindling supply?