True North Develops Stars by Raising Emotional Intelligence


The intelligence or the IQ of an executive leader explains less than 25% of the success that executive leaders experience while running their organizations. The other 75% to 96% of their success relies upon their Emotional Intelligence. You see, every corporate leader is sharp within his or her chosen field, so sheer IQ-intelligence is a not a differentiator in the making of an executive management Star Performer. In fact, promoting the brightest managers, as many companies tend to do, is not an effective corporate leadership development strategy at all!

Thus, Emotional Intelligence is the crucial differentiator between Star Performers and Average Performers in the corporate executive ranks. Management must focus training programs on the development of Emotional Intelligence versus IQ-Intelligence in order to implement an effective corporate and executive leadership development strategy! It has been proven through extensive research that productivity is raised by hiring and promoting emotionally intelligent leaders. To put this proven fact quantitatively, the link between Emotional Intelligence, Star Performers and Productivity in a corporate executive is this:

Emotional Intelligence Leadership and Emotionally Intelligent Leaders

Emotional Intelligence = Star Performers = 127% to 1272% more productive than average performers (Goleman, 1998).
Creating positive outcomes is the ultimate challenge of any leadership development strategy and research has found that individuals with higher emotional intelligence are better at it. So the best executive and corporate leadership development strategy may focus on promoting those who continually strive to be more emotionally intelligent. Those who foster teamwork, respect and encourage those they work with, and continually strive to develop their own leadership potential, are the corporate managers who should be promoted in organizations.

3 Reasons Why Management Needs to Focus on EI Leadership Training:

  1. Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Have Higher RetentionTrue North Leadership’s Emotional Intelligence training program will help you and your organization by:
    1. Developing the hidden talents of individuals and teams
    2. Teaching your executive leaders the power of empathy
    3. Creating an environment of respect, trust, and mutual support
    4. Focusing leadership on change that can improve retention
    5. Encouraging open communication“A Gallup Organization study of two million employees at seven hundred companies found that how long an employee stays at a company and how productive she or he is there is determined by their relationship with their immediate boss.”(Zipken, 2000) in Cherniss and Goleman, (2001) The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace.Your competitors are not just trying to lure your customers, but your top employees and managers as well with promises of bigger salaries and better benefits. At the same time, your customers are demanding better and faster products and services. If your leaders and associates aren’t happy, they are not likely to make your customers happy.Your company’s years of investment in growth and industry leadership can be overcome without a concerted effort to improve leadership skills. This is the area where EI will help to improve the performance of your organization by increasing employee retention, customer retention, and ultimately shareholder value.
  2. Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Are More ProductiveEmotional Intelligence development is about training prospective emotionally intelligent leaders to deal successfully with other people, to manage themselves, and to motivate others by understanding their own feelings and appropriately responding to the everyday environment. Ineffective strategies in the workplace are the most common cause of productivity decreases and EI training is focused on eliminating these destructive behaviors.Top performing sales clerks are 12 times more productive than those at the bottom and 85 percent more productive than an average performer. About one-third of this difference is due to technical skill and cognitive ability while two-thirds is due to emotional competence .
    Goleman, 1998An executive leadership development strategy should be a top priority of any company, and by incorporating emotional intelligence into the training culture, the organization can enjoy higher productivity.
  3. Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Exemplify Greater Customer Service:Customers are impressed with energized employees and with companies that “walk the talk” in the area of leadership development. In fact they more often than not demand it. Excellent customer service turns new customers into repeat customers. Emotional intelligence leadership training enable corporations to enhance their image in the eyes of their customers and, as a result, increase repeat business.The reasons for losing customers and clients are 70% EQ-related (e.g., didn’t like that company’s customer service).
    Forum Corporation on Manufacturing and Service Companies, 1989 – 1995Employees need support and leadership because customer service starts at the top. Every management decision makes employees’ lives easier or ties their hands. If your management focus is on creating a company culture of service, you must motivate, train, and enable your leaders to deliver excellent customer service. True North’s leadership development programs help your professional staff make this kind of positive contribution to the company image and value.

Studies in corporations that employ emotional intelligence leadership training have proven the efficacy of these programs in executive leadership development. After looking at the research on Emotional Intelligence, you may be asking yourself what leadership development training program you need to be a Star Performer, and help your company improve productivity. Since emotional intelligence is 2 – 4 times as important as intelligence and technical expertise in terms of overall success, you owe it to yourself to explore this avenue of leadership development.

At True North Leadership, Inc., we use emotional intelligence strategies in every executive leadership development strategy program we offer. We strongly believe that management needs to focus on the emotional intelligence leadership of themselves and of other executives in order to sustain a productive workforce. For more information on the leadership programs and services we offer, please follow the link below to our Welcome Page where we list all of the corporate leadership development strategy services we offer, or contact us for more detailed information regarding you or your particular organization.

To find out more and how to get started, please contact us

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