Avionics News December 2016 - 49

IQs outperform their "smarter" colleagues. That's probably because it provides the foundation for key business
competencies, such as the ability to recognize what other
people are feeling, which drives influence.
Altogether, it comprises five factors, according to the
Harvard Business Review. The first of these, self-awareness, represents the ability to recognize and understand
your individual moods and emotions - and, in fact, identify and name them, according to Runde. This allows you
to recognize and adapt to how you're feeling.
The second is self-regulation, or the ability to manage
impulses so you can think before you act, according to
James Runde, author of Unequaled: Tips for Building
a Successful Career Through Emotional Intelligence. It
suggests that while you can't control when you feel emotions, you can choose how to react. Instead, you're able
to manage these feelings so you continue to think clearly
and reasonably.
The third, internal motivation, represents your desire to
achieve, your commitment, and your drive, as well as the
joy of working toward your goals and vision, the pleasure of immersing yourself in a task, and the optimism to
overcome challenges. When it's high, you procrastinate
less, feel greater self-confidence, and focus your efforts -
so you do more, better.
The fourth is empathy, or the ability to understand
the emotions of other people and consider them in your
words and actions - either because you recognize the
feeling or you've put yourself in their shoes, according to
Runde. Without it, you become callused to other peoples'
problems, according to Justin Bariso of business consultancy Insight, which leads to communication problems,
relationship damage and more. But with it, you're able
to listen actively, encourage people to share their worries
and concerns, and build trust.
Lastly come social skills, or the ability to manage relationships, according to Runde, which allows you to find
common ground and build rapport. These "people skills"
allow you to understand and negotiate with others to
direct change, manage conflict, and encourage collaboration and cooperation, according to psychologists Michael
Akers and Grover Porter.
Sensing change
Put together, these skills allow leaders to manage the
ebbs and flows of their jobs and people. To develop
them, though, it may help to understand the problems
with low-EQ leadership, the benefits that improving EQ
bring, and how you can help your leaders - and yourself
- do just that.

Of course, it's easy to say we possess high EQ, but it's
another to actually apply it to everyday work, according
to Bariso, and here, there appear to be some potential
gaps. According to research by the Center for Creative
Leadership, the primary cause of C-suite mismanagement
is emotional incompetence - in particular, failure to handle change, or work well in a team, or relate successfully
with co-workers, according to Harvey Deutschendorf,
author of The Other Kind of Smart.
At the same time, the Carnegie Institute of
Technology suggests that most individual success comes

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE,
OR EQ, IS THE ABILITY TO

RECOGNIZE AND
UNDERSTAND
EMOTIONS...

directly from our personality, communication and negotiation skills, and leadership abilities, all signs of high
EQ, according to Deutschendorf. This shouldn't come as
a surprise; we've long known that both customers and
employees would rather work with someone they like
and trust.
But it pays other dividends, too. Foremost, it assists
with stress management. Indeed, in retail store managers,
the ability to handle stress predicted higher performance
scores for the store, including net profits, sales per
square foot, and sales per employee, according to Cary
Cherniss of the Graduate School of Applied Psychology
at Rutgers University. But left unchecked, stress can
also affect both physical and mental health. Without the
self-awareness and self-regulation to address and dispel
anger, stress can bottle up and lead to outbursts, burnout
and depression, according to wellness consultant Royale
Scuderi. In the long term, it only gets worse.
Likewise, higher EQ correlates with a positive outlook - call it the "roll with it" effect - which, in workplace research, allowed optimists to deliver higher
Continued on following page
avionics news

december

2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News December 2016