The Importance of Developing Your Emotional Intelligence

As a Business and Life Management Coach for over two decades, my national coaching practice specializes in the development of human potential and personal effectiveness for professionals and individuals. More now than ever, organizations are focusing on their future leaders Emotional Intelligence abilities. Executives, business owners and entrepreneurs all need to develop their EQ beyond their IQ in order to be successful, increase productivity and/or gain promotion within their chosen fields. 

Emotional intelligence (EQ), as it is known today, came into the spotlight when Daniel Goleman published his book “Emotional Intelligence, Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” in 1995; however, the study of different forms of intelligence began long before that book, with some research papers dating back to the early 1900's. Since that time, many researchers, training and development professionals use tools to implement EQ concepts and to build individual EQ.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand and effectively apply emotions to facilitate higher levels of collaboration and productivity.

 

Intrapersonal Skills refer to the ability to understand oneself, form an accurate concept of the self and apply that concept to operate more effectively. There are three pillars that make up the intrapersonal side of EQ:

• Self-Awareness is the ability to recognize and understand your own moods, emotions and drives as well as their effects on others.

• Self-Regulation is the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods. This includes the propensity to suspend judgment and to think before acting.

• Motivation is a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status and to pursue your goals with energy and persistence.

Interpersonal Skills refer to the ability to identify and understand how to effectively relate to, work with and motivate others. There are two pillars that make up the interpersonal side of EQ:

• Empathy is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people and the skill to treat people according to their emotional reactions.

• Social Skills is the proficiency in managing relationships, building networks and the ability to find common ground to build rapport.

Emotions are carried down an organization’s hierarchy, basically affecting everyone. If you want to positively affect or even change an organization’s culture, it’s vital to start developing the EQ of its leaders. Enable them to be more self-aware and empower them to manage the emotions of others.

Working with individuals that are primarily business-focused, I offer coaching and consulting designed for leaders, managers and executives striving for promotion. Mentoring is geared towards people who set the tone for interpersonal interaction within the organization or within a team. Training develops communication effectiveness, conflict resolution, sales effectiveness and relationships to name a few topics. It is often paired with Behavioral Modification techniques that add the behavioral component to emotional intelligence development.

To learn more about how you can improve your professional career and skills through developing your EQ, book a complimentary session at www.denisedema.com.

Become invaluable and keep your job!

A big part of my coaching practice involves working with senior executives who want to find new employment, change their career direction and/or improve their skills for professional advancement.

Today, organizations are faced with rapidly changing environments, competitive pressures globally, ever-changing technological advances, and more. The need to be more innovative, productive, flexible, and sustainable has never been greater. Businesses are constantly evaluating the core competences of their employees to determine their value.

Knowing if you are valued in your position sometimes is not thought about until a negative event takes place like being let go or being passed up for a promotion. Realizing you are replaceable jump starts the desire to learn what you can do in the future to become invaluable.

Here is a list of the Six Invaluable Factors anyone can develop to make themselves truly irreplaceable.  This is adapted from the book, Invaluable: The Secret to Becoming Irreplaceable, by Dave Crenshaw.

Invaluable Factor #1 – DEMAND

Demand represents how well your skill set matches the current needs and wants of the market.  You have little direct control over demand, so the only way you can improve upon this factor is to increase your understanding of current and future market trends and work to align your actions with those trends.  Consider:  What is the current and future market demand for your personal skill set?

Invaluable Factor #2 – ABILITY

Ability represents how well you do what you do or how much value you actually provide.  It is important to continuously deliver progress and results; it is not enough to just know what your position is supposed to be or how to do what is required of you.  You must also seek to continually improve on that ability on a daily basis to become more and more invaluable.  Consider:  What are you doing daily improving your ability to perform for the unit you work for and the organization as a whole?

Invaluable Factor #3 – IRREPLACEABILITY

This measures how difficult it is to replace you and is a function of two things:  the available completion for your position, and how deeply you understand the unique needs of your current employer.  To stay irreplaceable, you must commit to ongoing research and reevaluation.  Consider:  What is the biggest thing keeping your boss from firing you right now? 

Invaluable Factor #4 – FOCUS

Focus requires you to avoid anything that gets in the way of you spending time in your most valuable activities.  These are the activities that have the greatest impact on the bottom line, both for you personally and for the organization as a whole.  The more you spread yourself out in many directions, the less valuable you become.  As information and available options continue to explode, so does the temptation to engage in many less valuable activities.  Consider:  How well do you focus your actions on your most valuable activities?

Invaluable Factor #5 – CONNECTION

This assesses your ability to connect personally with others, both in terms of quantity and quality.  The value that you bring is directly affected by your ability to work well with others and to share resources with others.  Connection is an absolutely essential part of becoming invaluable.  In order to increase connection, you must not only master the art of face-to-face interaction, but digital interaction, as well.  Consider:  How many people feel personally connected to you? 

Invaluable Factor #6 – AUTHORITY

Authority evaluates how strongly the current market considers you to be the top expert in your field.  An authority is someone others look to when they make decisions.  An employee who is recognized both inside and outside of the organization as a leading expert dramatically improves his or her value.  Consider:  Do my peers, both inside and outside of my organization, consider me to be a leading expert in my field?  Am I regularly consulted on matters at work?

Achieve your full potential! Work with a Business and Life Management Coach with over 20 years’ experience empowering people to attain self-defined success in their professional and personal lives. Book a free session at www.denisedema.com today.

Become Valuable in Your Career

When dealing with an extremely difficult economic climate where thousands of people lost their jobs, it’s important to try and put yourself in the strongest position possible to remain in employment in such a situation.

Here are a few powerful ways to make you indispensable at work. Next time there is a restructuring; you want to make yourself “restructure-proof” to ensure that you keep your job.

Focus on developing yourself

Managers love it when they can see that a member of their team is constantly developing and learning new skills. Those who are able to rise in the midst of a crisis and can be lent on heavily often become invaluable.

We live in a digital age and there are literally thousands of blogs and resources that you can read to help widen your understanding on particular areas. A good habit to get into is to set aside an hour each day to keep up to date with the latest industry news. You’ll find that you start to develop new skills in no time!

If, through continued development, you can establish yourself as someone that your manager can rely on, you’ll find that you’ll become indispensable should the company have to go through a restructuring.

Build strong relationships with key decision makers

As the old saying goes, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It is not unheard of for someone to be able to climb up the ladder if they have built strong relationships with higher-level management.

With this in mind, make sure you are sociable and if there is a chance to help a key decision maker within the business, grab it with both hands! It again goes back to making yourself seen as someone who can be relied on; it is through this that you can be seen as truly indispensable.

Use your initiative

One thing that many employees fail to do is use their initiative. If you can see that your manager would benefit from your help on something, don’t be afraid to use your initiative and knock on their door to present an idea.

Let’s say that your company is going through a restructuring and they need to find a new office. Why don’t you go in and suggest that they look into serviced offices. Serviced offices are fantastic if you are looking for a sociable space that comes fully furnished. Your manager won’t need to worry about having to find Internet providers or search for a maintenance man; the office is ready for your company to move into.

Treat your colleagues with respect

This could seem like an obvious one, but if you don’t show your colleagues respect and are potentially detrimental to the success of the team, you can guarantee that your name will be one of the first on the list if the company has to think about making redundancies.

No manager wants their team to be unhappy and if you are seen as the person who is causing the boat to rock, you won’t be seen as indispensable at all. Learn to show others respect while being accountable and it will come back to you in more ways than one. Treat people like they matter, what they say and do and your business relationship will improve immensely!

Show a passion for the company and what you do

If you are working in a position that can be considered more of a career than just a job, it is important to show that you are passionate about what you do and that you genuinely care about the well being of the company.

If there is the opportunity to do a bit of extra work that will benefit the company, don’t shy away from staying a little later that evening to get it done. Even if your manager doesn’t come over and tell you, they will notice that you are staying late and appreciate the extra input. Good people who are genuinely passionate about the company they work for are hard to come by, and your manager will know it. Therefore, it is essential that you show your boss how motivated and passionate are, it will certainly help you in your goal to become indispensable.

If you make a conscious effort to implement the things mentioned within this page, you’ll put yourself in a strong position to become indispensable in the workplace.

Expand your knowledge and enlighten your mind with tools to help you excel in life. Complimentary Coaching Session at: http://www.denisedema.com/