According to research conducted by Gallup, emotionally intelligent employees and leaders are much more engaged and are less likely to leave an organization. They also have higher customer ratings, prompt more profitability for an organization, have higher rates of productivity, report fewer theft and safety incidents, and have lower rates of absenteeism.
marekuliasz / iStock / Getty Images Plus
In addition, employers in every industry are starting to value employees’ rates of emotional intelligence (E.I.) over their IQ scores because of its high-impact potential for their organizations. So, if you want your organization to remain a competitive force, you’ll have to begin training your employees to be more emotionally intelligent moving forward whether you like it or not.
Here’s how to train your employees to be more emotionally intelligent, step by step.
1. Uncover All the Benefits of Emotionally Intelligent Employees
Before developing a course that trains your employees how to be more emotionally intelligent, you’ll want to truly understand why E.I. training is important for both your employees and your organization. And you’ll want to uncover the benefits of such training behind the hype of other passing trends. Otherwise, your E.I. training might end up falling flat or you might end up losing motivation to fully promote and implement it once it’s developed.
Here are just a few of the many benefits of more emotionally intelligent employees that you’ll want to keep in mind.
- They foster better communications across an organization.
- They help mitigate and alleviate workplace stress and disagreements.
- They stimulate better collaboration inside and outside an organization.
- They nurture happier customers and grow your organization’s profits.
2. Understand the Science Behind E.I.
It’s important to understand that there is real science and data out there to support the effectiveness and mechanisms of E.I. and that it’s not just a passing trend. Extensive neurological and psychological research has identified the various components of E.I. and has indicated that although it’s possible to learn E.I., it’s certainly not easy. And other scientific research has indicated that high levels of E.I. can contribute to a person’s mental and physical well-being because it helps to restructure the brain.
Overall, understanding the science behind E.I. is important when developing E.I. training because you’ll need to know that it will not prompt instantaneous change or yield immediate results. And you’ll want to know that you’ll be undergoing efforts to change individuals’ neuro pathways and deep-seated behaviors.
3. Use the 4 Basic Components of E.I. When Creating Learning Materials
E.I. consists of four basic components:
- Self-awareness
- Self-regulation
- Social awareness
- Relationship management
As you’re creating your learning materials and activities for your E.I. training, make sure that they focus on one or more of the components listed above. Otherwise, they might lose their effectiveness.
Essentially, it’s important to remember that E.I. isn’t about being emotional but about learning how to positively reflect on and manage one’s behavior, navigate multifaceted social situations, and bring about positive personal decisions and achievements.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, which will highlight the remaining steps you’ll want to follow when you’re training your employees to be more emotionally intelligent.