Most of us have undoubtedly heard of the term ‘emotional intelligence’ (EQ), usually in relation to us as people or individuals. Daniel Goleman defines it thus: “The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.” He goes on to define the four key domains of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.
But what if we take this thinking and apply it to an organisation context, developing our organisations to become emotionally intelligent places to work and exist within? Our workplaces could be transformed into safe, inclusive, supportive environments where not only do people enjoy being a part of them, but they are motivated to perform at their best because they feel understood and seen.
So, what does it mean to be an emotionally intelligent organisation? The underpinning principle is that we would see emotions as useful organisational information – as indicators of how the workplace is being experienced and felt. The emotionally intelligent organisation becomes curious about and attuned to what their staff feel and regularly seeks to understand what these indicators reveal about the work environment.
This isn’t to say that organisational leaders can do something with every emotion or experience (particularly as we know these can be highly subjective), but it’s another way of collecting insight and indications that may offer depth to the diverse experiences across your workplace. Emotionally intelligent organisations also find ways to codify what it means to be an emotionally intelligent member of staff, embedding systems and processes that support this and growing a consistent culture and ‘feel’.
Since this piece is intended to be a short overview to introduce the concept, I won’t dive into all the detail about why understanding lived experiences at work is critical and how understanding it can directly support higher levels of happiness, wellbeing, belonging and performance at work. This is something I can provide more insight on should you wish to get in touch to work together.
Instead, I will jump into some reflective questions that can help to build an emotionally intelligent organisation. These can be used as a personal reflection exercise as an organisational leader, as a team development exercise or tailored to create additional questions for staff surveys. Again, in keeping this a short overview, this is not an exhaustive list, rather the ‘tip of the iceberg’ to get you started.
Building emotionally intelligent organisations – some reflective questions for organisational leaders
- What emotional tone do I/we set as a leader(s)? Does this change when the organisation is under pressure? (Tip: consider all your communication routes – 1:1s, presentations, social media posts, newsletters, emails etc – and the messages/tone you present within these)
- How do I/we respond publicly and privately as a leader(s) when someone challenges me, delivers bad news, or admits a mistake?
- Do people across the organisation feel safe speaking honestly to me/us and showing emotions (where appropriate)? What evidence supports this answer?
- How consistently/regularly do I/we listen to understand – taking time to quietly listen/observe around the organisation? What have I/we picked up through listening to cues such as verbal tone, body language, conversation themes etc.?
- When did employee feedback last lead to a visible change, and did we explain what we could not change? Did we ask about staff’s feelings and experiences about the workplace within this?
- Are there some voices that are heard most often and whose perspectives may be missing, overlooked or heard less?
- How are line managers selected and how are they trained? Are they assessed for their emotional and interpersonal capability as well as technical performance? Do they receive training to support them to develop their emotional intelligence?
- Do our performance systems and processes reward results regardless of how they are achieved, or do they reinforce the importance of respectful and inclusive behaviour?
- How do we address conflict, incivility, exclusion, or harmful behaviour, regardless of a person’s seniority or performance? How do we know what we do is effective?
- Do our workloads, priorities, and ways of working support sustainable performance over time, or do they unintentionally contribute to stress and burnout? How do we know?
- How well do we balance empathy and support as an organisation with clear expectations, fair accountability, and appropriate consequences? How do we know?
- How do we help leaders and employees to build practical skills in self-awareness, emotional regulation, listening, feedback, and conflict resolution? How do we ensure this is regularly revisited and progress is measurable?
- How humane, transparent, and respectful are our most difficult processes, such as restructuring, redundancy, grievance, and performance management? How are we measuring (and holding ourselves accountable for) people’s experiences of these?
- What indicators tell us whether trust, psychological safety, belonging, and wellbeing are improving and which groups may be having different experiences? If we measure through staff surveys and/or focus groups, how do we reach the smaller percentage who don’t respond or engage?
- What is one behaviour I/we can change, and one organisational practice I/we can improve, to strengthen emotional intelligence over the next 90 days? (Tip: the answer can’t be nothing – no organisation is perfect!)
Fundamentally, at its heart, being an emotionally intelligent organisation links directly back to Goleman’s four key domains for individual level emotional intelligence, just tweaked slightly. How self-aware are we as an organisation? How do we self-manage or regulate to ensure emotions are used helpfully and not just repressed? How socially aware are we so we accurately perceive, understand and respond to the needs and emotions of our people? How do we manage relationships well – building connection, managing conflict and communicating clearly and fairly?
As with building EQ in individuals, building EQ in organisations takes time, commitment and investment. Some organisations, as with individuals, naturally have it in-built (through virtue of having some highly emotionally intelligent leaders and staff within the workplace) but it’s rare. For most organisations, there will be developmental work needed but when the work happens, it can be transformative to leaders and just as importantly, to the staff they lead. A good place to work becomes a great place to work.
“Emotional intelligence can be learned, and it can be improved at any point in life. Unlike IQ, which changes little after our teenage years, emotional intelligence seems to be largely learned, and it continues to develop as we go through life and learn from our experiences.” ~ Daniel Goleman
Should you wish to explore building an emotionally intelligent organisation in further detail (or any other aspects to organisational or leadership development), please get in touch at alice@elevatingleadership.co.uk
