Emotional Intelligence Leadership

Sometimes in the midst of being busy with an overwhelming number of things to do, I attempt to speed up my pace, thinking that will help me accomplish more faster. Mistake. More often than not what happens is I end up making careless errors and having to do double-work. Rather than saving time, precious time is wasted and I get very frustrated in the process.

I once heard that the elite Navy Seals train with the philosophy of Go Slow to Go Fast. Slow is a relative term. The idea is that if we focus on doing something correctly and thoroughly the first time, it actually allows us to go faster in the end. It makes sense that when you only have one chance to get it right, you better be or lives may be lost.

I can’t say whether the Navy Seals do live by this idea, but it has made a positive difference for me. When I am self-aware and focus on slowing down, being more thoughtful about each moment and action and step, I get more done and feel less  stressed. I repeat “go slow to go fast” in my mind and my breathing becomes less shallow, more full-in-the-belly breathing which health experts tell us lowers stress hormones.

Research shows that leaders directly influence the work environment, the emotional climate of the workplace by about 70%. That in turn affects bottom line results in the range of 20-30%. You have the capability and responsibility to be self-aware and to make a positive impact on those you work with (not to mention those you live with).

Leaders can get more done, be less stressed and set a good example by going slow to go fast.

Let me know if it works for you.

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Leaders, think about your optimal performers. It’s very likely that they have and demonstrate each of these in abundance: knowledge + ability + skills + motivation. Conversely, if you have an employee who isn’t meeting performance standards, one or more of those elements is missing.

In a previous post, I talked about the importance for leaders to have an early warning system. Ideally, a leader anticipates, is proactive and also has an early warning system. This combination enables a leader to have foresight and be ahead of the curve, and can be the saving grace for those situations where the leader did not anticipate as well as she could, to assess and act quickly. An early warning system is a tool. But having one isn’t enough. The leader needs to use the information to weigh the situation or issue and take action which can impact the person and team’s optimal performance.

A business owner and I were talking about an employee that isn’t meeting the leader’s expectations. One of the pieces of this leader’s early warning system is sales goals. The employee we were discussing has not met his sales goal for two months. Month one of missing the goal was a yellow flag. Month two was red flag.  Now, the employee is potentially going into dangerous territory. He has to turn things around.

Th leader explained that at the end of month one, he asked the employee what he could do to help. They agreed on some specific steps they each would take and checked-in with each other over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. At the end of month two, sales had not improved and the two met again. The employee said he’d try harder. The leader said he was there to help. Again, that was not enough change.

I recommended that the leader and employee discuss and assess the four areas: knowledge +  ability + skills + motivation to understand what is happening.  I think of knowledge as the  knowing why, what, how, when and with whom, it includes the theoretical and book learning parts. You can have knowledge without ability or skill or motivation. Ability is sometimes innate, sometimes developed; it usually is demonstrated by a person being able to do XYZ.  Just because you have an ability does not mean you have a high level of skill. In using skills here, I am referring to a person having a high level of skill in executing a strategy or action; the person does something well or very well. Motivation used here is about whether a person has the motivation to take action, whether intrinsic or because of an external reason. He wants to apply what he knows, using his ability with a lot of skill.

The conversation will require self-awareness on both the leader and employee’s parts. And depending on what comes from the talk, they then can fashion an appropriate action plan quickly.

What are your thoughts or experience?

Come back to see what transpires next.

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A tickle that develops into a sore throat is my early warning system for a cold. My response is lots of hot tea with honey. Usually I can catch it in time so that the cold doesn’t materialize.

Most of us have early warning systems for various aspects of our lives. They may be so automatic, we don’t think about them. But developing them isn’t always automatic.

As leaders, we also need to have reliable early waring systems. And they need to be developed and nurtured. And, we need to pay keen attention to them. Two that work for me (and that I’m still developing) are:

1) my intuition

2) asking big picture and then progressively more detailed questions

Intuition experts say we all have this ability, some of us use it more than others. And it turns out the more you use it the better it is, like a muscle. My intuition has become more reliable over time as I pay attention- become more self-aware, trust it and consciously call it to action.

A quick story. I serve as President on a local board of directors for a not-for-profit organization for women business owners, NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners). Our term started in July and most of the board was staying on for another term. We have a couple new members also. Recently, I had a feeling that one of our new board members was going to resign. It was a “gut” feeling. Over the course of the next three weeks, I touched base with this person a few times to see how things were going and how I could lend support. There wasn’t anything specific she asked of me. But last week she resigned for some personal reasons. I wasn’t surprised. I was disappointed to see her go, but I know this is what is best for her.

Here’s the learning in this example. I had an intuitive feeling something was going to change, but I didn’t pay enough attention at the time. Had I done so, I would have been three steps ahead in having the back-up plan ready to execute. I had somewhat of a back-up plan. Not solid enough. I should have really listened and trusted to my intuition when it started to give me the sense that something was about to happen and then prepared to set plan B into motion.

Plan B has now been put into place, but it took three days longer than it should have.

If you are a leader (and everyone is on some level) what is your early warning system?

Stayed tuned for more…

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Don’t let your emotions get in the way of your leadership or bottom line business results will suffer.

A business owner, my client, was mad. He felt disrespected by an employee. He knew he had to address the behavior, because if he didn’t, his silence would condone what the employee did and in the end it would negatively affect business.

This leader knows that what he permits, he promotes.

First thing first. He had to get control of his emotions. By self managing, he could he maintain his leadership based on integrity and set a good example. We all get mad, upset, frustrated. How you manage those emotions impacts your leadership.  Calm down and focus. That’s what he did. Then he had to get all the facts (there was evidence of wrong doing, but more facts were needed) and then determine next steps on how to discuss the inappropriate behavior with the employee.

Don’t let you emotions get in the way of your leadership. And be clear on what you permit because that is what you promote.

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Yesterday I heard part of an interview on Smart City Radio with Larry Beasley founder of Beasley and Associates, an international planning consultancy.  Larry talked about planning cities based around an emotional response…love.

He is advocating that love is the key force to building great cities (and suburbs), suggesting that we need to tap into people’s emotions and what they want, what will make them happy. If we do this, people will invest back into the city and that will feed the economy. He calls it experiential planning.

This piqued my interest from a leadership perspective as we look at community, what that means and how each of us can contribute. Larry says  it’s as easy as coming together and starting a discussion about one street, one park and it’s design. Creating an environment that we enjoy being in and part of shifts our attitude about it and then the image of our city shifts as people identify their city as very livable, happiness increases. That is what differentiates cities – those that are vibrant draw and create wealth vs. those that simply exist.

Larry points to going beyond the basic economic development model and look to include right from the start, fundamental beauty – the things that evoke a strong positive emotion. A complete vision for what we want, combined with experiential planning and involvement create smart cities.

He urges that we be brave – to step beyond the limitations, safety and security that exist now. This is leadership.

Go to http://www.smartcityradio.com/show/2605/All-for-Good to hear the whole interview.

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Now that I am past a certain point in life I find myself thinking more about my legacy. My leadership legacy. I am using the somewhat broad definition of leadership as being in a position to positively influence others toward a goal.

I woke up today as I do rather often these days, thinking about what positive influence I will have with those I interact with today. My goal is  to be that positive influence to help others be the best they can be toward whatever goal they have for today. Given that one of my mantras is to take baby-steps, I apply that philosophy by deciding what small step I will take today to take action.

I decided to start here and write this blog entry.

Like many, I can be bowled over with the to-do list that seems to grow by the minute, but I choose to focus my energy rather than give-in to being overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed doesn’t serve me or those I hope to assist.

In focusing myself on my goal: to be a positive influence ~ to help others be the best they can be toward whatever goal they have for today, I start to leave my leadership legacy.

I invite you to share your leadership legacy. Let’s start a conversation.

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Grüße aus Berlin!

We are visiting family in Berlin, Germany as our nephew was born on June 27.

He is a lovely reminder that our actions (or in-actions) are part of our leadership legacy. And that whatever we choose to do sets an example and influences others through our human connections and relationships.

Here’s to the celebration of life!

Cheers and aloha,

Alison Zecha

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Too often I meet leaders who have the view that being successful and getting business results is primarily about being task oriented.

I disagree.

Being successful in getting business results is combining all the elements of Emotional Intelligence with focusing on achieving the business goals and objectives. Today, being a leader means paying attention and putting energy and effort into relationships and nurturing relationship management. By now I hope you recognize that even though you may want to do everything yourself, it just is not possible. That’s where relationships matter. If you hope to accomplish all the priorities, you need to collaborate with those in your team and influence them in a positive way to meet those demands.

In order to do this, think about how much of your effort as a leader is on relationships. How much emphasis do you put on tasks? Rough numbers, I say you should spend 70% give or take a little on relationship building and maintaining those relationships.

How do you start spending 70% of your energy on relationships? Start with learning about EI and yourself. Then once you have an idea about where your EI competencies are, you can develop a plan to strengthen and refine them.

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Trust is on my mind. I’ve talked about it here before, but lately it seems to be everywhere. In a recent blog post, I wrote “I Trust Too Much!?!” Then I happen to pick-up the June 2009 Harvard Business Review (HBR), and the cover is “Rebuilding Trust.” Then Walter Cronkite passes away. He was known as the most trusted man in America. I then catch part of an NPR story about trust. My fascination with trust continues.

One of the articles in HBR is “Rethinking Trust” by Roderick M. Kramer, a social psychologist and the William R. Kimball Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in CA.

Kramer starts by sharing evidence that to trust is really part of being human. But he claims we can’t always rely on our judgment. This makes me nervous. Even though I’ve been told I sometimes trust too much, most of the time (98%) it works out OK, actually it works out well. This means what has worked for me so far is pretty comfortable and I’m likely to continue doing that. Kramer says that can be dangerous. He points out that we need to revisit the trust issue and check-in every so-often or we may put ourselves in a grief-causing situation.

He outlines seven rules for trusting wisely:

1) Know yourself

2) Start small

3) Write an escape clause

4) Send strong signals

5) Recognize the other person’s dilemma

6) Look at roles as well as people

7) Remain vigilant and always question

The first rule is a great tie-back to emotional intelligence. Knowing yourself is the starting point in both arenas. Without this knowledge and I would say self-honesty, you could be setting yourself up for abuse by trusting too much, or on the other end, hold yourself back from developing deeper relationships by trusting too little.

I, therefore, must be ever conscious of correctly interpreting the clues I get from other people or, I may put myself in a position of unwanted vulnerability. Finding the balance where I can trust (and of course be trusted), so we can build the relationship is of great interest to me. And also of great interest is not being taken advantage of.

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Alice Trexler, Associate Professor and Director of Dance, at Tufts University was a very influential leader in my life. I don’t know if she realizes the hugely positive influence she had on me, my thinking about the world in many respects and my outlook on life. In fact, I don’t think I fully realized this myself until I read today in the NY Times about Merce Cunninham, the choreographer, passing away on Sunday.

Merce Cunningham was a leader. Not only in the world of dance and the arts, but in a much larger context as he explored and experimented with ideas beyond the then-accepted boundaries.

Alice introduced me to Merce Cunningham and his work while I was a student at Tufts. I was quickly taken-in by what he pursued and embraced:  experimentation,“But” and “What if?” questions about what dance and choreography are or could be, pedestrian movement and its place in dance, independence, ambiguity and humor, dance as the expression of the nature of change itself, “…he showed how people can be intensely involved and isolated at the same time in a relationship, both cooperating and independent.”

All of these concepts and elements are somehow intertwined into my leadership and emotional intelligence work today.

“You have to love dancing to stick to it,” Cunningham once wrote. “It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”

With gratitude and aloha to Alice Trexler and Merce Cunningham, leaders.

Alison Zecha

NY Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/arts/dance/28cunningham.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp

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