DANIEL PATTERSON: Okay. Well, hello, and thanks for joining us today for the next in our 2025 GCR series: Applying emotional intelligence to improve business outcomes.
Now before we begin, just a, excuse me, just a few housekeeping items to take care of.
Today's presentation is both SHRM and HRCI certified for one hour of general credit. We'll be sharing the program IDs at the end of today's session, and this presentation is being recorded and will be sent out to all registered attendees by the end of the week.
Okay. But before we get into today's content, we'd like to take a moment to introduce ourselves for those who may not have met us yet. I'm Daniel Patterson, and joining me today is Cristen Dalessandro.
Cristen is one of our top senior researchers and sociologists at the O.C. Tanner Institute who specializes in the study of social inequalities as well as qualitative and quantitative research methods.
As a part of the O.C. Tanner Institute, Cristen works on researching workplace culture and the employee experience using a social science lens.
She has a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Utah.
She has published over thirty articles in peer reviewed journals, and her book, Intimate Inequalities, Millennials' Romantic Relationships in Contemporary Times, explores how millennials navigate social and identity differences in their relationships.
So welcome, Cristen.
CRISTEN DALESSANDRO: Thanks, Daniel. And, of course, I'm here with Daniel Patterson. Daniel's a research manager here at the O.C. Tanner Institute who specializes in the psychology that shapes the employee experience.
In addition to his research, he regularly leads client assessment projects as well as tailored client initiatives that analyze business impact and ROI, specifically with an eye to helping organizations improve their workplace culture. He specializes in mixed method research and holds a Master's degree from the University of Utah with advanced studies in research and theory. Welcome, Daniel.
DANIEL: Thank you very much.
CRISTEN: Alright. So now that you know a little bit about us, let's take you through our agenda for today.
So first, we wanna talk a little bit about what we are calling the EQ dilemma, EQ being the shorthand for emotional intelligence. So emotional intelligence is a well known concept, but for reasons that we'll discuss, it might be underutilized in the workplace today.
Next, we'll shift to talk about what O.C. Tanner research has found when it comes to emotional intelligence in the workplace. And after we cover our model, we'll then turn to the real impact of EQ on key outcomes at work, including some hot button topics like trust, integrity, and conflict management.
Fourth, we'll talk more about specific strategies that support the development of EQ, and this will bring us to our broader recommendations for how to move forward and wrapping everything up, including some time for any questions that you all might have.
But, Daniel, before we get into the EQ dilemma, would you mind telling everyone about the Global Culture Report, which is where we source all of our information for today?
DANIEL: Absolutely. So the Global Culture Report is O.C. Tanner's annual report that provides industry leaders with a rigorous look at the evolving shape of work. Every year, our team here at the Institute, tracks, analyzes, and chronicles the latest trends and insights in the workplace using both qualitative and quantitative data to develop a framework of a thriving workplace culture, specifically from the employee perspective.
Through interviews, focus groups, and surveys, this year's report engaged more than thirty eight thousand employees, leaders, and HR practitioners across twenty four countries to better understand the state of workplace culture around the world. And a key theme that emerged from this exploration was the idea of generative care. That is the principles and practices that empower both leaders and employees to care for others in ways that both benefit and transcend the organization.
So with that background, Cristen, why don't you tell us a little bit more about the EQ dilemma?
CRISTEN: Sounds great, Daniel. So, you know, EQ is an interesting concept because those of you out there listening have probably heard it before. You know, it's something that, well, there's a lot of research that already exists on this topic. And along with that, we've also found that this research demonstrates the effectiveness of EQ behaviors on business outcomes.
In fact, there's actually so much research that sometimes it can be confusing when it comes to discerning what might be the most useful advice to follow when it comes to EQ.
And turning, yeah, turning to the, looking at this slide, here's just kind of an example of what I mean. So this is a screenshot of different EQ models that turned up from a simple Google search. And there were a lot more than just these, by the way. These are just the ones that fit on the slide, and they don't even really fit on the slide as you can see.
So you could probably see where I'm going with this. You know, when it comes to EQ models, there are many, many to choose from. A lot of people out there have done a lot of great work on this concept.
But because of this, it can sometimes be overwhelming. So how in the world can we make sense of all this information in order to get at, you know, the real heart of EQ and how we can use it?
So it's important that we do figure out how to make sense of it because EQ can be really useful for some of the top issues in the workplace today.
For instance, here's just a few headlines that illustrate some of the major concerns that are happening right now. And these are, of course, not an exhaustive list, but just a few that I grabbed.
So first up, you know, folks are concerned about conflict in the workplace. This isn't a new problem, but as the headlines show, it's something that's been heating up in recent years, and people are looking for strategies to help navigate it at work.
Another major issue is organizational trust.
You know, in some places, trust between employees and organizations feels like it's at an all time low. It's possible for this trust to be regained or to prevent the loss of trust in the first place, but, you know, really, how do we actually do this?
And then lastly, you know, one other headline that we uncovered is, just talking about the general state of the workplace right now. You know, people generally seem just really unhappy at work even more so than they were during the thick of the pandemic, believe it or not, according to this headline.
So, you know, looking at all of these, it's important again because EQ is a potential solution here. We need to figure out how to make sense of it. You know, EQ might be uniquely positioned to address some of these concerns.
But because there are so many models and iterations to choose from, making sense of EQ is something that last year when we conducted our culture report research, this was something that was really top of mind for us.
You know, in order to cut through the confusion, we wanted to ask, how do employees themselves actually define EQ? You know, what does it mean to them? What are some ways that employees are thinking about EQ and using EQ to solve these issues and problems in the workplace effectively?
You know, again, getting to the root of this answer can help us sort through all the models, you know, all of the advice and get to the real heart of what EQ means in the workplace today and, you know, by extension, how it might solve some issues.
So, you know, keeping that in mind, we set out to do our culture report research on this topic. And here's just, you know, a couple of examples of some of the things that we found. So here's one quote. You know, when we were asking employees in our focus groups about what EQ means to them, here's just one quote that came up, from one of the focus groups, and I'll read it.
This is specifically talking about EQ. "I feel like innovation happens when you care to improve, and emotional intelligence is all about caring, I think, for me. Because I love my job, I care to improve. And people who are high in emotional intelligence care a lot about everything that's happening around them. That's my understanding."
DANIEL: Well, I really like this quote, and it, I mean, obviously, it kinda indicates that emotional intelligence is, at least in part, really about kind of caring, understanding, support, really being invested at an emotional level in the work.
CRISTEN: Exactly, Daniel. So, you know, this quote gives us some clues as to where employees are thinking, when they're thinking about what emotional intelligence means to them and how it can be useful. But, you know, if we wanna switch to the next slide, there's even more evidence that it's not just this way that it's being defined, but there are other ways employees are defining emotional intelligence too.
So this example actually comes from a pharmacist that we interviewed in one of our focus groups.
She said, "I worked with mostly doctors and nurses, and it's always a matter of emotional intelligence for us as pharmacists. We really need to know when and how to deliver our message. Is it a good time to talk to the doctor about this matter or not? No, this doctor looks like he's not having a good day. Like, he just lost a patient, for example. So it's important, I think."
So here, you know, this quote, what really kinda stood out to us was that communication and awareness are really important components of emotional intelligence.
So with all of this in mind, you know, I sometimes joke that, you know, there's all these existing models of EQ in existence, and here's another one. But in all seriousness, our research builds on existing models as well as, you know, our own previous research and this new research that we have from talking to all of these employees across the US to advance a new model of EQ that's specifically tailored to demonstrating both how employees are defining EQ themselves and how it can be applied in a practical manner.
So really trying to cut through that EQ dilemma, again, to get to the heart of, what does this actually mean to employees, and how can we then leverage that to solve problems?
So given all that we've learned, here's the comprehensive model that we came up with. We're able to distill all the information out there into five key elements.
Now each of these elements, by themselves, we found, actually contributes to EQ overall. But organizations, leaders, and individuals who exhibit all five, we found are really at the top of their game when it comes to emotional intelligence. And I'm gonna show you some stats later on that really demonstrates this.
But first up, you know, just to explain what we mean here, first, we have practical empathy, which represents the ability to care, understand, and take supportive action while maintaining healthy boundaries.
Second is self awareness, which to us means having self confidence in one's own values as well as being able to manage emotions and be open to feedback.
Third is nimble resilience, which signifies being able to adapt and embrace change while also being willing to fail and recover from any setbacks.
Equitable flexibility is about being able to maintain work life balance, being open to new ways of thinking, and being accepting of the flexibility needs of others too.
And last but not least, communication skills encompass traits like open communication, but also holding oneself accountable.
DANIEL: You know, Cristen, what I really like about this and something that you touched on that I think deserves being a little additional kind of punch is, there's some great fresh new research done here to kind of establish this model, but, also, this is building off some existing work that we have done.
So, it kind of goes to just reinforce the fact that the work that we do, we don't see as just sort of like, hey, let's kind of explore this one area, and then we're gonna move on. But the insights that we gain from something like, practical empathy, nimble resiliency, equitable flexibility, these are important enough that we wanna see how these grow and evolve in the ways that we think about the employee experience.
And I just think it's really exciting to see how in this model of emotional intelligence, it's really kind of incorporating and capitalizing on, you know, existing research, but then also expanding it into new areas as well.
CRISTEN: Exactly. I agree. You know, that's what research is all about. Right? It's being inspired by what has come before, but also making sure that we stay up to date so that, you know, we can apply these ideas as effectively as possible. Right?
DANIEL: Absolutely.
CRISTEN: So looking on this slide, you know, really, a lot of these are things that I've just said. Many of these ideas are those that I just mentioned. But, you know, to kinda give you, the viewers out there sort of a visual representation of some of the characteristics that fall under these categories, you know, here's just sort of an outline, if you will, of what each of these represent.
DANIEL: And this is really interesting. I like seeing it in the additionally in this framework.
I like the emphasis on practical application.
And I think one of the things that strikes me about this list is that any of these characteristics could be practiced by both individuals and organizations.
CRISTEN: Exactly, Daniel. And, you know, in our analysis, we did look at both individual and organizational EQ and found that employees understand organizational EQ actually very similarly to how they understand individual EQ.
So what I mean by that is, you know, EQ practiced by an organization versus what maybe an individual employee or a leader is doing. There's only just subtle differences between the two.
So, you know, for example, under communication skills, on the one hand, you can have individuals who are good at listening and who hold themselves accountable. But this can apply to an organization too. Right? You know, from an organizational standpoint, you can be the kind of organization that listens to employees, that holds itself accountable when mistakes are made.
So, really, these ideas, you know, they can apply both ways. Right? And, of course, as I mentioned, sort of briefly, it's important for leaders to take up these practices too. Right? Not just individuals, individual contributors, but leaders too.
And kinda going back to organizations, our research found that organizations that score highly on emotional intelligence, so those organizations that are exhibiting all five of those elements that we just discussed when it comes to their approach to employees, these organizations are a hundred and seven times more likely to be thriving compared to their peers.
DANIEL: Hey, Cristen, that is that's a pretty strong argument in favor of EQ at the organizational level. I mean, that's that's just a profound impact.
CRISTEN: Yes. I think so too.
It's a pretty high number.
You know? And just can to kinda give you a sense of what this might look like in practice, you know, one example of an organization that takes steps to try to be emotionally intelligent is actually O.C. Tanner, which in case you missed it, this is where Daniel and I work.
So O.C. Tanner's Appreciate Great program recognizes employees for extra effort, great work, and career milestones. And, interestingly, there's also ways that the program can be used to recognize emotional intelligence specifically. So for example, when employees use the program to send recognition, they can select from several categories that highlight specific areas that warrant why the recognition is being sent. So in our program, you know, categories such as elevating others can highlight an employee's use of emotional intelligence.
And to kinda give you a few stats to go along with this, you know, here's the few more reasons to support organizations practicing EQ.
Employees who work for high EQ organizations, we found are six times more likely to be organizational promoters, are nine times more likely to have a sense of purpose in their work, and are thirteen times more likely to do great work.
So at this point, hopefully, you've kinda got a sense of emotional intelligence and what it means as far as what we found in our research. So I'd like to turn it over to Daniel to talk a little bit more in-depth about outcomes.
So if you remember from my introduction, issues such as trust, integrity, conflict management are really kind of three big pain points right now within organizations.
But luckily, our research has shown that EQ can help immensely when it comes to these specific concerns.
DANIEL: Thanks, Cristen. And, absolutely, I appreciate that. And so now from our research, as we've seen, we've established a model of EQ and some new ways of thinking about emotional intelligence as more than just sort of a personal trait, but an actual set of skills that can be learned and practiced. And Cristen has highlighted a few of the benefits of being a part of a high EQ organization.
But, as she mentioned, let's really do a bit of a deep dive and unpack some of the concrete ways that EQ can impact some key outcomes for organizations, specifically those outcomes that really matter most.
So one of the first major findings to come out of our research on EQ was the strong relationship between emotional intelligence, integrity, and trust. And a simple way of to think about this dynamic is that, emotionally intelligent behaviors signal integrity to others, which in turn then builds trust.
Now I say simple, but we have a lot going on in that simple statement. So let's start with what we mean by integrity.
So in some respects, similar to how Cristen was speaking to emotional intelligence and emotionally intelligent leaders and organizations, some of that kind of crossover there.
In the workplace, integrity can be understood as the alignment of an organization's practices and policies with their core values and principles. It's the degree to which employees perceive that their company and its leaders walk the talk.
So, for example, it's one thing for a company to say they're all about values like inclusion and belonging. But if their day to day practices favor one department over another or pit team members against each other, well, it's likely that employees aren't gonna feel a strong sense of organizational integrity. And something that you're seeing here is kind of that relationship between how employees perceive the integrity of leaders and how that kind of reflects on the organization.
CRISTEN: Okay. So, Daniel, this might be getting a little in the weeds, but how do you actually measure organizational integrity? You know, are you looking at the difference between values and policies?
DANIEL: Excellent question. And, yes, that's one way to evaluate a company's integrity.
But, again, kind of as I was hinting at earlier, in our research, we found that the most effective way to was to look at leader behavior.
So from an employee perspective, leaders, whether it's a direct manager or a senior executive, are often considered a proxy for the company as a whole. So as such, organizational integrity is most effectively interpreted through the actions or sometimes, unfortunately, the inactions of leadership.
These include behaviors like delivering on promises, being fair in their dealings with others, practicing what they preach or behaving in the same ways that they encourage others to behave, and acting in ways that align with ethical principles.
So here's one example of how this played out in our data findings.
So when employees perceive their leaders as having high EQ, there's a forty four time increase in the odds they will also see their organization as having high integrity.
CRISTEN: Wow, Daniel. So I think if you wanna know how employees feel about the integrity of their company, one clue is to look at how they feel about their leaders.
DANIEL: Exactly. And now as we'll see here in a minute, integrity has a direct impact on employee trust. But before we even get to trust, organizations with high integrity see positive increases in key outcomes.
So when employees perceive their organization as having high integrity, we see a nine times increase in the odds employees will have a strong sense of opportunity, eight times increase in the odds that employees will have a strong sense of belonging, and a six times increase increase in the odds that employees will have a strong sense of connection to their organization.
And these are just a few of the outcomes that we measured, and that we're presenting here. You can actually find a lot more information and data in the actual chapter in the GCR.
Okay. So now let's consider the impact of EQ and integrity on trust. So when emotionally intelligent leaders demonstrate integrity through the way they work and deal with others, we found that employees are more likely to trust both their leaders and the organization.
So looking at this table, we see that when employees perceive their leaders as acting with integrity, there's a significant impact on their trust in the leader and the organization.
So for instance, when an employee believes their leader's actions are guided by ethical principles, there is a seven times increase in the odds that the employee will trust their leader and a six times increase in the odds that they will trust their organization.
Now in addition to an increase in trust, there's also a fourteen times increase in the odds that the employee will feel their organization handles conflict in a positive way. And we'll get to to conflict management here in just a second.
But so integrity increases trust, and in turn, high levels of trust in leaders and organizations generate greater feelings of employee connection, belonging, and opportunity as we see here.
CRISTEN: Well, Daniel, I love seeing this path from EQ to integrity to trust. And, you know, the outcomes are impressive, I think.
But, you know, as you mentioned in the last slide, we've also got conflict management, which I think is is kind of, is top of mind for a lot of folks right now. So how does this link to integrity and trust?
DANIEL: Great question. So if we go back to your opening in that EQ dilemma, we're reminded that part of the reason we need leaders who practice EQ behaviors is the ongoing challenge of workplace conflict.
We found that leaders with high EQ are forty times more likely to have an effective approach to conflict management, and this includes practices of things like open communication, debate, and discussion, all of which foster an environment of trust.
So, again, like, if we look at the big picture here, a lot of these challenges and struggles that organizations are facing are all kind of interconnected, and having that sort of pathway or that link from emotionally intelligent behavior, generating integrity and, subsequently, trust, all of these things, and then having the skills to effectively navigate conflict management, all has a profound effect on the organization and its effectiveness and, frankly, the employee experience.
Now before we move on to some of the specific things companies and leaders can do to foster emotional intelligence, there's a great quote from, Madhavi Jagadam, the VP of people innovation at Teladoc Health that I think kind of nicely sums up EQ and its impact in the workplace, kind of everything that we've sort of been talking about to this point. Cristen, would you mind reading this for us?
CRISTEN: Of course.
So here's the quote. "A leader's ability to demonstrate genuine emotional skills directly results in creating trusted work relationships.Trusted relationships are critical to being a deeply connected and communicative team that not only cares about each other's success, empowers one another, plays to the strengths of the team, but also seeks to help more where necessary while remaining focused on shared purpose."
DANIEL: Thank you, Cristen.
And I love this quote. I think you see so many of the different elements that we've been discussing so far, that rooted in care, building, you know, those emotional skills, creating that environment of trust, and centered around, you know, those practices like communication.
I think this really just sort of encapsulates really what we're trying to go for with this model of emotional intelligence.
I also think this nicely sets us up for the next part, which is fostering emotional intelligence or EQ.
So as we mentioned earlier, our model of emotional intelligence is not dependent on an inherited trait or a natural talent, which is always one of those things I think anytime you hear those discussions in the workplace about, oh, we need leaders with more emotional intelligence. Some of that, you know, when you think about it, it's like, oh my. Do I have to suddenly become a more warm and fuzzy sort of person?
You know, all of the behaviors that are associated with EQ are, in fact, teachable, something you can practice. They're all attainable. They can be learned and practiced.
And before all of our viewers panic at the idea of having to master all the elements of emotional intelligence, we found that focusing on even one characteristic can have a significant impact on outcomes like integrity, trust, conflict management, and the ability to thrive at work.
So these next few slides show how these four metrics improve when individuals, leaders, and organizations practice a behavior associated with each of the five EQ elements.
So first here, we have, if we look at communication.
So when leaders openly address mistakes, we see that there is an increase in the sense of trust, sense of integrity, conflict management, and thriving overall. And this holds true at the level of individuals, leaders, and organizations.
Again, we see this, when we think about practical empathy. And, specifically, when we look at the behavior, the leader behavior of, "takes time to understand others." Again, significant increase across all of the various outcomes here.
And it particularly, I think it's interesting that, you know, when we look at, when the perception is at the organizational level, there's a dramatic increase. So we see, you know, a thirteen times increase in that perception of being able to effectively manage conflict and a ten times increase in thriving overall.
We also see this in terms of self awareness. So when a leader acknowledges strengths and weaknesses, again, significant increase in these key outcomes.
And nimble resilience, when a leader, individual, organization embraces change.
I won't go through all these data points. Lots of data here. But I think you can see sort of that reoccurring theme.
And then lastly, when we look at equitable flexibility, and one of those those key behaviors being, "supports time flexibility within the workplace."
Now while this is a lot of data to process here, lots of numbers and figures, the big takeaway here is that even though leader EQ is responsible for some of the biggest improvements in outcomes, these findings reveal that organizations would benefit greatly by adopting practices and training all employees to build EQ in the workplace.
CRISTEN: Yeah, Daniel. And if I can just interject too, you know, one of the things that I--we did show you all a lot of data. Yes. Sorry about that.
That's what we do. That's what we do.
So it might be a little bit, a little bit jarring. But one thing that I do like about these tables and, you know, again, these are in the GCR as well. So if you wanna go check that out, it is on the O.C. Tanner website. I think we'll say that again later too.
But one thing that I like about these tables is that it is showing that, you know, these behaviors are, you know, in and of themselves, they're a certain type of behavior. But, again, they're something that individuals can practice. They're something that leaders can practice, and they're something, they are things that organizations can practice too. Right?
So, you know, going back to just the, you know, the very last slide, which was equitable flexibility, you know, "supports time flexibility."
You know, individuals can do this by supporting each other on the team. Obviously, leaders can do this by supporting their team members' time flexibility, and organizations can do this as well with, you know, sort of widespread flexibility mandates. Right? So, you know, things like a flexible work or a hybrid work schedule might be an example of this. Right? This is something that an organization can do. So even though what it might look like in practice can be slightly different depending on who the actor is, it's really the same idea.
DANIEL: I love this. And I think, you know, you also raised something really important. And we've touched on this in different webinars in the past, but, often, I feel like a lot of, sort of, the recommendations and solutions as best practices that we share, a lot of the weight and responsibility for those falls on leaders. So here are things your direct leaders should be doing. Here's something your manager should be doing.
And we actually put, I mean, there's a tremendous amount of responsibility that gets placed in leaders. And something that we, you know, again, we've talked about in the past is sort of reminding that, you know what? Leaders are employees too.
And so, we have to be mindful that, like, the success of, you know, any of these various practices doesn't fall entirely on leaders. And emotional intelligence is definitely one of those where there are things that can be done at the individual level and at the organizational level that the responsibility of the success or failure of this doesn't fall entirely on the leader.
It takes an entire community to really, you know, build that culture of emotional intelligence, of trust, integrity.
And I think these tables and this data really help, communicate that.
CRISTEN: Alright. So now that we showed you a bunch of data, and I think probably, went through a lot of information in a pretty short amount of time, I want to take us through recommendations.
You know, so what are some strategies for how to strengthen EQ, you know, how to foster it in real time. You know, we've kinda touched on that a little bit, but what are some concrete recommendations that we have?
So our first recommendation, probably won't be a surprise to folks, but, based on where we've kind of been going with the data. But our first recommendation is to encourage leaders to demonstrate EQ behaviors.
And the reason that we do this is because or, we say this is because our research finds that leaders are really those folks who are setting the tone for what's going on in their teams. Right? You know, when leaders demonstrate EQ behaviors, it has a positive impact on individual contributors. It can inspire the folks on their team to maybe adopt some of these behaviors, start learning about them themselves if there's room for improvement.
So leaders are the ones who are really setting the tone here.
DANIEL: So even though, like we said, you know, we don't, we can't put it all on leaders, we can't also deny the fact that, you know, they do really set the tone, and they, you know, they play a key role in this.
CRISTEN: That's true. But, you know, again, to one of the earlier points that we made that Daniel made earlier, you know, even though we are recommending that leaders develop their emotional intelligence for maximum impact, this is something that can be done tomorrow with small steps. Right?
So, you know, here's just a table of just a couple of examples of ways that leader actions can have an impact on employee sentiments.
So, you know, my leader's values are consistent with their actions. This increases the odds that employees are gonna be promoters because they're gonna feel a sense of success, that they're gonna feel a sense of trust.
My leader delivers on promises. My leader does what they say they will do. You know, these are pretty simple things. Right? And, you know, to Daniel's point from earlier, these aren't even things that are very warm and fuzzy. Right?
Just be a leader that delivers on your promises. Be a leader who does what they say they will do. You know, these are things that are very basic. They don't require you to get into your feelings to do them, but they're things that you can do tomorrow or, you know, things that you can commit to doing tomorrow that can really move the needle on positive outcomes.
DANIEL: Yeah. And, you know, I completely agree. And, Cristen, one of the things that I really like here too is this suggestion because it also shows that, even if all members of a team aren't proficient in emotional intelligence, even just training leaders to take on these traits can actually make a really big difference.
CRISTEN: Exactly. Right. So, ideally, everyone invests in EQ, including the organization.
But if we really need to zero in on the quickest way to move the needle, the quickest way to get an impact, we should prioritize supporting leaders in developing their own EQ.
And which kinda brings us to our second recommendation, which is that we should focus on open communication within teams. So communication is part of the model already, but it's one of our recommendations. It's getting a specific call out here because, again, it's something that's pretty basic that you can adopt today if you are aren't already doing this.
And so here's just a couple of stats, showing the impact of open communication. You know, again, we see that leaders can be important here. When leaders encourage debate and discussion, when they facilitate team communication, when they help their team resolve conflicts, it has a positive impact on employee sense of belonging, sense of inclusion, and that sense of success.
So, yeah, you know, open communication is something that seems to be a really important thing from our data.
And, you know, going along with that, here's a quote from Magdalena Mook, the CEO of the International Coaching Federation, that also really drives this point home. "EQ is a must for leaders as we foster approachability while our teams are more remote than ever. I count on my EQ to check-in with team members by reading their tone and body language and being vulnerable, open, and honest myself. This presence and authenticity, often found in coaching, builds the trust to share risky ideas, take on new challenges or roles, or communicate directly when under pressure."
DANIEL: I really like this quote, Cristen, and it illustrates nicely just how being in tune with your own EQ can have kind of a ripple effect that has a positive impact on team members, and even other colleagues.
This is also kind of, this reflects sort of a great combination of not only some very practical sort of, practices you can do, but it kind of also pushes it a little bit to the next level.
So it's you know, some of it is about communication. Some of it is about, you know, empathy, but it's also moving into an area of being aware of, you know, of not only your own sort of emotional intelligence, but also being able to read and interpret sort of, you know, the emotional capacity and condition of other people, which I think is a really great you know, one of those ripple effects is not only the impact it has on others, but by doing these practices in principle, sort of developing these more advanced emotional intelligence skills.
CRISTEN: Right. Yeah. And this quote draws on, actually, a few different characteristics. So self awareness also, in addition to communication, appears in this quote too.
Absolutely.
And this brings us to recommendation three, which is, use recognition to encourage the development of emotional intelligence.
So we know based on the data that emotional intelligence is important.
However, employees are busy. Let's be realistic. You know? We're gonna be asking them to do one more thing.
Really? You know, how can we encourage them to build their skills around emotional intelligence aside from the promise that it's eventually going to lead to positive outcomes?
One thing that we found you can do right now is to encourage employees to develop their EQ through using recognition.
So in this table, we can see the impact of some integrated recognition practices on employee and leader EQ, and just, you know, little bit of very basic background about what we mean by integrated recognition.
This is actually another model that we have that we've done research on in past Global Culture Reports. And so you can find more about this on online too. But, basically, you know, it's a set of practices and an approach to recognition that instead of seeing recognition as just a one off, something that we do every once in a while, it's recognition becomes something that's actually integrated into company culture.
Right? So people are seeing recognition regularly. They're giving recognition regularly. The recognition is relevant. The recognition is, it's compatible with the way that they wanna be recognized.
So this just, kinda to give you a sense of what we mean by this. So for instance, when employees attest that they often give recognition, it elevates both employee and leader EQ. You know, when recognition is received from the leader and when there's integrated recognition at work, it has an impact on both of these things, but especially on the odds of leader EQ, which is super interesting.
DANIEL: You know, Cristen, the thing I really like about this recommendation is that it kinda seems to go both ways. You know, on the one hand, we can use recognition to reward high EQ behavior so those who are really demonstrating or have kind of embraced that those practices. But, you know, we can also you know, the act of recognition itself can also support the development of EQ.
And I think just, you know, stepping back in kind of the bigger picture of recognition, and, hopefully, this is something that, you know, our audience is seeing as you participate in these webinars and as you read the GCRs.
Over the past few years, we continue to expand sort of, how we advocate for and promote recognition that you know, to remind people that recognition isn't just about rewarding the successful accomplishment or the big event or, you know, the whatever that big kind of final moment is.
But that recognition is also an important tool to encourage, to motivate, to restore confidence, and to really help people continue to progress, and that it's not just, you know, sort of, "hey, you're the perfect emotionally intelligent individual, so we'd like to recognize you for it." We can also be used to saying, you know, hey, I see how you've been trying to put these certain practices into place. Great work. Keep going." You know?
We appreciate what you do.
CRISTEN: Exactly. Right. Like Daniel said, you know, recognition isn't just an after the fact.
Here's, you know, great job on whatever you did. Now, you know, it's done and over with. It can also be a great motivator along the way. Right? You know, if somebody's learning a skill, that's or, you know, they're taking a course, for example.
Research that we've done this year and actually in past years has found that encouragement along the way really makes a difference for how employees ultimately feel about that learning experience. Right? So, you know, if, for example, if an employee is going after a certificate or something, it's gonna take them a few months to achieve that. If there's ways that you can work in recognition throughout that journey, that helps make that a more positive experience for them.
And we have the data that confirms that. And so that applies you know, whatever they're learning, that applies, but it applies to emotional intelligence as well. Right? And, also, as Daniel said, you know, it can be, recognition can reward emotionally intelligent behaviors, and it can also, again, encourage the development of emotional intelligent behavior.
So it kinda goes both ways.
And so our fourth recommendation, last but not least, I think it's important to keep in mind, you know, and kinda going along with suggestion three. You know? Why are we doing this? You know?
If people are busy, what what's the or, sorry. Not suggestion three, but our suggestions that we've already covered. Not specifically three. But why foster EQ?
You know? Why are we doing this? What's the end goal? I think keeping those goals and business outcomes in mind is a really helpful motivator when considering adopting EQ behaviors.
Right? Because, you know, in some cases, depending on what we're talking about, EQ might sound nice to have, but, you know, maybe it's something that needs a more efficient sell depending on who we're talking to, right, depending on what leaders, the approach of leadership that we're talking to. Right? We need to understand it's not just something that's nice to have.
It's something that the data demonstrates has a real business impact.
And so here's just a couple of examples of what I mean. Right? So one of the things that we talked about earlier is this question of trust. You know, if trust is lost, how do we regain that trust?
How do we establish trust in the first place? So what we found is that, you know, when leaders admit they make a mistake, it improves trust by seven times. When direct leaders show consistent behavior in making amends, it improves that trust six times. And when senior leaders are involved in, actively involved in the process of rebuilding trust and improving culture, you know, goodness forbid something happens, and they need to rebuild that trust.
That trust improves six times when they're actively involved in this process. So, actually, you know, making an effort to improve the acknowledge that the trust has been lost and make an effort to actively improve it. Right?
So, you know, with that, I think that we can kinda go into our wrap up. So, Daniel, would you mind taking us through a couple of big takeaway points from the presentation today?
DANIEL: Absolutely.
So, as always, we've given you lots to think about. Let's try to distill this down into a few actionable key takeaways.
So I think, really, the three big major points, if we could kind of distill everything down. First and most importantly, and, you know, both Cristen and I have kind of come back to this again and again. Emotional intelligence is a set of skills and behaviors that can be learned and practiced.
I think, with this sort of reframe and looking at the model in a new light that, in principle, what this should do is kinda help take some of the pressure off leaders and individuals and feeling that it's like, okay. There's some sort of emotional side to me that I'm lacking. I don't have a set trait or a fundamental state of being. And rather say, you know, recognizing that, you know, these are skills and behaviors that could be put into practice. And it doesn't require that I master all of them before we start seeing, you know, those positive outcomes. But that you can actually create a program where you can begin working on individual components, and and kind of grow in that overall EQ.
The second takeaway is emotional intelligence builds integrity and trust.
One thing that we have seen and heard over and over again over the course of our research is that organizations, within our current climate, they are having to you know, they're tackling big initiatives to stay relevant in the market, to stay keep up with expectations and technologies.
And to really execute on that in an effective meaningful way, they need to have the trust of their workforce. And so emotional intelligence is really sort of that key grounding component to build integrity and that trust that is so deeply needed for both individuals and organizations to really thrive and succeed. And then lastly, recognition encourages the development of emotional intelligence. And as Kristen has pointed out and myself as well, that recognition can come both in the form of acknowledging, and celebrating, you know, those individuals who have demonstrated those emotional, those EQ skills and behaviors, but it could also be used, as a way to encourage progress and improvement and development.
So with that in mind, we've got a few minutes left. Whitney, do we have any questions that we can field?
MODERATOR: Yeah. We do. So here's one. It says, how do you define thriving?
Can you provide a bit more context for what thriving really means?
DANIEL: Absolutely. Well, there are a few different ways that we can think about thriving.
So from a research perspective and when you see some of the metrics that we share, when we say, you know, an increase in the odds of a thriving workplace, that's actually based on our talent magnet model, and those are the six core elements that shape a workplace culture. And so these are gonna be things like, appreciation, success, opportunity, leadership, well-being, and purpose. And what we find is that when individuals or organizations score high in all of those core elements central to a workplace culture, then kind of from an empirical standpoint, we can say that that that organization or that individual is thriving.
Now in a bigger context, often, we will also, as we've kind of grown and evolved our research, there are other elements that I think that we can factor into that. So things like an employee sense of fulfillment, employee sense of belonging or inclusion, those also start to really, when we see those high scores and when individuals, employees, feel a strong sense of those, that also contributes to a sense of thriving.
Cristen, is there anything you would add to sort of that?
CRISTEN: I mean, I think you mostly covered it.
The only thing I might add is more recently, we've also been asking employees to kinda self assess if they feel like they're thriving, and much to our happiness, what we have found is that employees who are scoring highly on our talent magnet model also are self assessing themselves as thriving too. So, so, yeah, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of, overlap there. And I think, I guess, one takeaway from that is that, you know, if employees are telling you they feel like they're not thriving, then you should believe them.
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Great question.
Something going on that can be remedied in the culture probably.
MODERATOR: Yeah. Okay. Another one is, can you tell us about the ROI of of improving EQ?
CRISTEN: Well, I think that there's you know, it depends on what exactly you're looking for when it comes to ROI.
There are, you know, there's a lot of cultural benefits. I think we've tried to show a lot through the presentation. Right? You know, there's cultural benefits to EQ, to improve EQ in terms of ROI.
I think there's also business outcomes. Right? You know? And I think just loyalty and trust are two sort of business ROI outcomes that are top of mind for me, which is probably obvious as to why that is.
But, you know, if you've got employees who are trusting the organization, if you've got employees who feel like you're an organization that operates with integrity, then they are gonna be much more willing to go to bat for you. They're gonna have higher levels of great work, and probably higher levels of loyalty than if they feel like you're a place that they can't trust. They feel like you're a place that, you know, that has a low level of integrity. And we saw that in both our quantitative research and our qualitative interviews as well.
Daniel, did you have anything to add to that?
DANIEL: Yeah. No. I think I think you really hit it there. And I think one of the things that I think is so fascinating about the research here with EQ, is sort of its layered approach.
So when we think about, you know, the ROI of EQ that can happen, we can look at it at a very localized level. So we can look at, like, what are the, what's the impact of EQ practices, say, at the team level. So we can see strength in connection to team members, likelihood of producing great work, likelihood of innovation.
So we can see some of that at that level. But then, because of that relationship between EQ to integrity to trust, we can we can sort of scale that up. And so to you know, as Cristen was describing, once we you know, if that EQ is present, that is going to increase the likelihood of integrity and by extension then trust. And then once employees have trust in an organization, trust in their leadership, then we start seeing a whole different layer of ROI in terms of those big business outcomes.
So I think that's one of the things that's really sort of fascinating is just sort of that scalable level that you can look and see sort of ROI, you know, at a number of different levels within sort of the workplace and the and the employee experience.
CRISTEN: Yeah. And, I mean, one other thing I can add to that too just is that, you know, one of the real really big impacts that we found with EQ is that employees are just happier when working in a place that is more emotionally intelligent, when they feel like their leader exhibits these skills, when they feel like their teammates exhibit these skills.
And, you know, the culture is healthier. And organizations that have a happier workforce just tend to outperform their peers.
Absolutely.
MODERATOR: Another one is how do you get buy in and stakeholders in the development of EQ? A lot of people don't believe they need it when they are the ones who need it the most.
DANIEL: That's a great question. I'll start with that one.
I think one of the strengths of what we do is, a lot of what we look at, you know, big picture in terms of the Institute, we're looking at all aspects of the employee experience.
And that can be at very operational and tactical levels. It can also be at, in some of these areas, that, you know, feel a little more squishy like emotional intelligence.
But I think, you know, one of the things that we've seen over the past few years is that organizations are increasingly acknowledging the role that emotions play in shaping employee experience. And what we try to do is separate or distinguish how these emotions operate in the workplace.
And I think EQ is a perfect example of that because, I think initial step to get buy in is we're not asking somebody to adopt a trait or some sort of an internal disposition purely just, you know, be more emotional. Be more emotionally intelligent. What we're trying to say is we've got empirical data. We've tested this to show that we can actually, there's a practice here, a process in place that, of behaviors, of skills, and these are trainable.
And it's not just that, gosh. This is gonna make for a nice warm fuzzy workplace, and everyone's gonna be happier. Yes. That's true.
But, also, we've demonstrated that it's got tangible, empirical outcomes, not just at a cultural level, but also in terms of, you know, business outcomes. So, you know, some of the data reflected in the chapter, is, you know, things around net promoter score, retention, attrition, producing great work. You know, so I think I guess maybe to sum that up, the first step to get buy in is, this is going to have tangible outcomes, positive outcomes for your organization, things that are measurable.
And it doesn't require a change of individual character. It's a set of tangible skills and practices that can be put in place to achieve these kinds of outcomes.
CRISTEN: Right. And, you know, Daniel, to just kinda add to that too, I feel like EQ is misunderstood a little bit. And, you know, even if you go back to some of the earlier writings on EQ from, like, thirty years ago, they kind of say there's something similar that, you know, people see the word emotional.
And this also kinda reminds me of, the chapter we did on practical empathy. Absolutely.
Which is, it's in a different, it's in the previous year's culture report, but it's kind of a similar issue where people see the word empathy. They see the word emotional, and automatically, it kinda sets up alarm bells, right, of, like, oh, this is something that I am not. You know? I just don't have the warm and fuzzies about me.
And so I can't do this. Right? But our research has found that, actually, employees, and not to say that emotions aren't important because, you know, that's a component of it. But employees aren't necessarily looking for, for example, their leaders to be, you know, super warm and fuzzy with them all the time.
What they're looking for is for their leaders to act in such a way that is that shows that they're tuned in. Right? You know, it's not that that you need to be, you know, super warm and fuzzy. It's more that you demonstrate that you care and you understand that you know what their needs are as an employee.
Right? That you're not, sort of disconnected.
And with that being said, and the reason why I really like this chapter from this year too to kind of to go back to Daniel's point, is that it's actually you know, when we think about what are the things that make up emotional intelligence from the employee point of view, it's actually a practical set of of expectations and skills. Right? And when I say skills, a lot of these aren't even skills that are hard to learn. Right?
They're just things that we need to know about and attempt to practice in order to get closer to that ideal of emotional intelligence that uses all five of the components of the model. So I really think that, you know, the way to speak to that, to that concern of people who maybe aren't buying into it is to just ask them to look beyond the language. Because when we actually look at the traits that employees are looking for when it comes to emotional intelligence, a lot of them are actually, are actionable, practical things. Right?
They're not necessarily something that is an inherent trait like I am or I am not warm and fuzzy. It's, oh, you know, I am a leader, and I take into account that my employees need flexibility. Right? So, again, it's a little bit of a misnomer in that way, I think.
Not to say, again, that emotions are not totally, devoid from it. It's more being emotionally aware enough to understand what employees are asking for, if that makes sense.
DANIEL: Well, I think that puts us just right about at time. So, thank you for all the great questions.
For as we've mentioned, for additional insights and a deeper dive into the research, please feel free to download the entire Global Culture Report at octanner.com.
And thank you for attending.
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We appreciate your attendance, and we look forward to seeing you again for our next webinar.
Next, part three of the series. Look forward to it. Bye.
