What Makes Star Employees Shine?

Emotional Intelligence:

What Makes Star Employees Shine?

By Thomas J. Haizlip, M.A.

© 2007, Skills For Success, Inc.

(336) 664-1100

Being Smart Is Not Enough Anymore

If you had to pick just one thing that separated a star employee from an average performer, what would you choose? Far too many people think that being the smartest person in the room is the key to business success. After all, no one would ever trust their taxes to an accountant who was lousy at math?

Being a star performer is not about being the brightest. In fact, most research shows that intelligence accounts for only about 25% of your overall job success. While ability and talent are the keys that open the door to opportunity, they are poor predictors of which employees will become the star players.

A new type of intelligence has been identified that is much better at predicting superior performance. Called Emotional intelligence, it describes a set of competencies that used to be called “people skills” or “soft skills.” Unfortunately, these “skills” are viewed by many managers as little more than the “warm fuzzies” that have no place in business world. Why should businesses spend money teaching mangers to learn skills that are poorly defined, difficult to measure, and seem to have little impact on productivity or profits?

A New Recipe for Success

Led by a better understanding of the need to define, measure, and demonstrate how emotional intelligence can impact a company’s bottom line, Daniel Goleman identified five key emotional competencies associated with high performing employees. These include:

1. Self-Awareness: An accurate self-assessment of one’s own feelings, strengths, and weaknesses.

1. Self-Regulation: The ability to manage strong emotions and impulses so they facilitate rather than interfere with job performance.

1. Motivation Drive: The ability to be proactive in problem solving, working toward goals across time, and strive toward self-improvement.

1. Empathy: Accurately sensing how other people are feeling, being able to see things from someone else’s perspective and being aware how your actions and decisions will impact the feelings, needs, and concerns of customers and coworkers.

1. Social Skills: Handling emotions well in relationships, having good communication skills to calmly manage conflict, influencing and persuading people, and promoting cooperation and teamwork.

EQ Boosts the Bottom Line

In contrast to traditional intelligence, emotional intelligence may account for as much as 60% of job success. It also adds has direct impact on the bottom line. One study at Met Life Insurance showed that new hires with high levels of optimism (motivation drive) outsold average agents by 27 percent. When standard hiring methods were used by a large beverage firm to hire division presidents, 50% left within two years. This resulted in recruitment costs of approximately $4 million. But, when the same company added hiring criteria to include emotional competencies, turnover of division presidents dropped to 6%. L’Oreal Cosmetics found that retention levels of sales agents selected with high emotional intelligence was much higher than agents chosen without regard to emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence plays an even greater role in the success of high-level executives who must manage the job performance of other employees. Financial advisors at American Express whose managers had completed emotional intelligence training showed significantly higher increases in their sales as compared to an equal number of advisors whose managers had not received emotional intelligence training.

Low EQ Often Means Poor Performance

The lack of emotional intelligence seems to explain why technically gifted people often fail once they are promoted to management and leadership positions. Three primary problems associated with executive career derailment have been identified by the Center for Creative Leadership: difficulty handling change, not being able to work well with team members, and poor interpersonal relationships.

EQ Can Be Assessed and Improved

Far from being just “warm fuzzies” emotional intelligence describes a set of competencies made up of specific skills and abilities that can be assessed and improved with training and coaching. Assessments already exist that can measure emotional intelligence and identify areas where professional development is needed. The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I) is a widely used instrument that measures emotional intelligence. It is based on seventeen years of research and has been administered to over 19,000 people worldwide. The results show no significant gender or racial differences in emotional intelligence. The one consistent finding is that women tend to score higher on empathy and social responsibility while men tend to score higher on stress tolerance.

EQ and Future Business Trends

As companies become leaner and more competitive, they will continue to reduce layers of management and move to a team model. Companies that recognize the need for emotional intelligence and help employees and managers develop these skills will be able to hire the best people, reduce turnover, cope with rapid change, successfully create strong teams, and increase employee productivity.

As that great leader Teddy Roosevelt remarked, “The real secret of success isknowing how to get along well with other people.” In addition to technical skill and ability, the star employees in this new workplace will need high levels of emotional intelligence to be able to work closely with people in small groups, solve interpersonal problems, and lead people more effectively.

About The Author

President of Skills For Success, Inc, Thomas Haizlip was a clinical psychologist for 14 years before becoming an executive coach and management consultant. He specializes in helping managers and executives learn how to become emotionally intelligent and how to lead others by inspiring people to work together to achieve mutually beneficial goals. He is available for executive coaching, speeches, and workshops and seminars. Call him at (336) 664-1100 or find him on the web at .