Page 30 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

CHAPTER 2

THE IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONAL

INTELLIGENCE FOR THE CREDIBLE ACTIVIST

If you do a Web search on “emotional intelligence,” you will probably get at least a couple
million hits. For the purposes of this book, the working definition of emotional intelligence
is one constructed by John D. Mayer, Ph.D., and Peter Salovey, Ph.D., in 1990:

The ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate
among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions. 1

Upon hearing this definition, many people may quickly respond, “Oh, yeah! I do that
all the time!” And they may. However, it is a very good idea to find out for sure where your
skill levels are. The fantastic news is that almost anyone can improve their EI skills if they
are open to doing so, if they practice, and if they make it a priority. This is even better news
for all of us when we consider that research shows us that humans have much more con-
trol over changing their EI than changing their IQ. This news becomes even better when we
look at research that repeatedly indicates that EI is much more important to workplace and
interpersonal success than IQ is.
Henry L. “Dick” Thompson, Ph.D., has done important and revealing research into
TM
what he calls “Catastrophic Leadership Failure .” Dr. Thompson has found direct relation-
ships between EI and Catastrophic Leadership Failure, but what does this mean for HR/OD
professionals, and what, if anything, can we do about this when we encounter it?
Thompson argues that stress and its impact on cognitive and emotional abilities may
provide at least a partial explanation for the degree of failure that lets an Enron, a WorldCom,
a Tyco, or a Katrina happen. His research on leadership, stress, IQ, and EI showed that over
the last 25 years, “when a leader’s stress level is sufficiently elevated—whether on the front
line of a manufacturing process, in the emergency room, the Boardroom or on the battle-
field—his/her ability to fully and effectively use IQ and EI in tandem to make timely and
effective decisions is significantly impaired. This impairment often leads to catastrophic
results. A war for talent is underway. Finding, recruiting, and hiring talented leaders with
high IQ and EI are only the first battle of the war. The war will be won or lost by those who are
able to control stress at the individual and company levels. Stress negates talent, IQ and EI.”
Thompson goes on to say that “EI involves managing/controlling the Awareness and
Appraisal of emotions and the resulting action in a manner that produces successful out-
2
comes, whether in the presence or absence of others.” This has great significance for deci-
sion making, performance evaluation, how a leader responds to diversity issues, how a

13