This blog was written after an interesting conference organized on November 6, 2019 by the Webster University in Geneva on the theme of emotional intelligence.
Human Resources often relies on specific technical skills and knowledge tests to analyse candidates for important managing positions. For several years now, emotional intelligence has become an increasingly important part of these interviews, which can be welcomed naturally. What are we talking about actually?
The definition indicates that emotional intelligence - or emotional quotient (EQ) - is a concept (…), which refers to the ability to recognize, understand and control one’s own emotions and to deal with other people’s emotions. It is close to the concept of social intelligence. The concept was popularized by Daniel Goleman in 1995.
To be challenging a little bit, it can be said that many senior leaders are not the best armed in this field, their ambitions, their egos but also their goals - personal or not - often distance them from empathy and listening, parameters of emotional intelligence among others.
In a work environment, collaboration, ethics and caring are excellent foundations for personal development and excellent performance. However, it is necessary for the physical environment to allow this. It is therefore important to put in place concepts that combine both human aspects and technical and office elements.
For example, there is no point in advocating collaboration while creating individual offices in which each chef “lives his life”, blithely ignoring what is happening in an open office space a few meters away.
Few chefs can claim to have “made themselves” without help and support of others, especially their collaborators. It is often through a healthy and constructive partnership approach that the best results are achieved. Emotional intelligence is without a doubt the best foundation.
Finally, it is interesting to know that several studies show that the best performing publicly traded companies are those with CEOs and CFO’s with excellent cognitive abilities, a very high emotional quotient and conveyor this spirit throughout the organization. That should make some people think, shouldn’t it ?