The Ultimate Guide: Creating an Emotionally Intelligent Organization

If you do a quick Google search for EI, it’s overwhelming to sift through the endless results. Figuring out where to begin can be challenging.

Similarly, there are a lot of different ways to measure EI, and each one varies depending on which context you plan to measure EQ.

It definitely requires a lot of mental fortitude to read through all the research articles just to figure out which questionnaire measures EQ in which situation.

To keep things simple, I’ll use the Bar-On model which sees

An emotionally intelligent person can understand their own and the emotions of others.

Fortunately, anyone can develop their EI skills at any age.

EQ-i 2.0 Framework

Intrapersonal intelligence is essential for the first two domains (Self-Perception and Self-Expression); while the remaining three domains (Interpersonal, Stress Management, and Decision Making) require interpersonal skills.

Using EI in a business setting is incredibly valuable. For instance, over 80% of the skills that separate top performers from average performers are found in the EI domains.

This makes sense – businesses are made of people. Your clients, vendors, investors, employees, and stakeholders all have emotions, which means managing emotions well is essential.

As you travel up the hierarchy, EI becomes even more important. Executives with higher EI are more likely to be highly profitable.

It literally pays to promote EI within your business.

So, what exactly is an EIO? It means promoting EQ skills in every part of your business until they become part of the culture. Start at the top and work your way down. The CEO must fully believe in the value of EI and model this way of being to employees.

• An emotionally intelligent CEO knows their strengths and is perfectly accepting of their weaknesses (Self-Regard).
• They know how to manage and use the right emotions to make better decisions (Problem-Solving)
• How they react to stress and have various ways to relieve stress (Stress Tolerance).
• Finally, they care about and try to help their employees reach their full potential (Social Responsibility).

These are the skills you want your leaders to embody as well. Only then can leaders help employees develop these traits, which will then spread throughout the business culture.

It’s important to point out that this transfer will only work if you take the time to get all of the leaders buy-in.

If one leader doesn’t see the value in developing EI skills, this could impede a departments progress, which could make it more difficult to work together.

You need to figure out your EI scores in each EQ competency to get a good idea of where you are and how to improve.

Self-awareness is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, and learning about your EI strengths and opportunities is a big part of that.

If you don’t know who you are, you can’t accurately figure out how you feel and what caused you to feel that way. It will also be challenging to learn how to express your emotions and have empathy for others.

Learning your EQ skills can give you great ideas for new ways to use them.

For instance, you might start a mentorship program at work because you have a high EI score in Social Responsibility and want to give back.

After you become aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, the next step is to figure out which EQ skills will result in star performance for each job role.

Let’s say that you want to encourage more innovative leadership in your business. Innovative leaders are those who:

• Set high standards for their employees and inspire them to exceed expectations (Self-Actualization)
• consider different ideas from different angles (Independence)
• reframe how they think about problems and come up with new ways to solve them (Problem-Solving).
•  also speak their minds and decisions respectfully (Assertiveness)
• think outside the box (Flexibility)
• keep their spirits up when setbacks happen (Optimism).

A great example is using EI-based interview questions. This technique can reduce turn over

Instead of focusing on traditional methods of interviewing, such as focusing on experience and IQ; EI-based questions assess what each candidates value, their motivations, and how well they fit into the job.

There is a better chance of spotting a poor fit early on if you ask more EI-based during interviews.

Using EI during training, hiring, and job profiling can help your business save thousands of dollars from turnover.

Lastly, you need to do to ensure EI is embedded in your culture is to encourage and reward employees who regularly practice EI skills.

Leaders will only be able to foster an emotionally intelligent culture if they consistently acknowledge and support employees who are receptive to the change.

Leaders might want to think about promoting EI skills by initiating a performance management system that looks for and rewards EI skills in a specific job role.

For instance, it was found that intrinsic motivation has a more long-term effect on EI implementation than extrinsic motivation.

Leaders can help motivate their employees by tying rewards to employee values. This requires an authentic leader who genuinely wants to learn more about employees.

Leaders will find that just the act of wanting to learn more about employees’ will likely make them want to go above and beyond.

If leaders consistently support and reward employees that practice EI skills, the cultural norms will support EI as a way of work life. 

Only with this knowledge will they be able to support employee EI development.

Every leader must see the value of implementing EI in the culture.

This is done by making a business case of EI’s positive effects on leadership, performance, and revenue.

If you would like guidance on how to make a business case for EI or have questions about taking the EQ-i 2.0, please leave a comment.

You can also check out my podcast that has applicable strategies that you can start implementing today to work towards being an emotionally intelligent organization.