Emotional Intelligence: why it makes you a better innovator
Did you know October is Emotional Intelligence Awareness Month? The Emotional Intelligence Institute has promoted this month since 2006 as a way to raise awareness about the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and the role it plays in preventing and solving problems. Since innovation is a way to solve problems, we immediately started thinking about the connection between EI and innovation. It turns out we aren’t the only ones who have pondered this connection, there is actually a significant amount of research that has been on the topic!
But first, what is Emotional Intelligence, or what is also referred to as EQ?
There are five characteristics identified by psychologist Daniel Goleman, and discussed in his books including bestseller Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ:
Self-awareness: Recognizing and understanding your emotions, and how they affect others.
Self-regulation: Controlling your impulses and moods, especially to pause and think before acting.
Internal motivation: Being driven by something other than external rewards like money.
Empathy: Understanding how other people feel.
Social skills: Knowing how to build and manage good relationships.
Research, including The EI Advantage: Driving Innovation and Business Success through the Power of Emotional Intelligence from the Harvard Business Review, has shown that employees who are more emotionally intelligent are reported by their supervisors as being more–
Innovative and creative in the workplace
Better team players
Exhibit better customer service skills
Exhibit higher organizational commitment
Better sales performance
why is this and what are examples of emotional intelligence leading to more innovation solutions?
In an interview with MIT, a program executive from NASA said, “A sure way to stifle innovation is to not have the emotional maturity to recognize that innovation and creativity can come from many sources,” “The capacity to recognize untapped sources of innovation, then bringing them together in a system, is a great ability to have.” The lack of hubris (self-awareness and self-regulation) allows innovation to come through a team, no matter what the source.
The Mars rover, Perseverance, captivated the public with a video taken by a couple of miniature cameras. The idea came from a program manager who was inspired by a video his daughter had taken using a bodycam while she was doing gymnastics. “I felt for a moment I had a glimpse into what it would be like if I could do a back flip.” His self-awareness and ability to connect it to an experience he wanted to recreate for others led to an inspirational moment for humanity. Innovation is often finding ways to improve the human experience so the ability to empathize with an individual’s experience and translate it to the needs of others creates a competitive advantage.
The Harvard Business Review research report shows that organizations with higher emotional intelligence levels are much more likely than others to have cultural ingredients that spur innovation—high degrees of empowerment, clear decision rights, the right incentives, and tolerance for risk. “When individuals are self-aware and feel more in control of their responses to situations and able to read people, groups, and cultures, then they can act on knowledge in very productive ways,” she says. “You get advocacy, empowerment, and collective risk-taking.”
Ahmed Elzohiry, senior manager in charge of outsourcing and risk at the Canadian digital bank Tangerine, says EI plays a significant role in mitigating risk through trust. High degrees of trust spark the innovation necessary to be a disruptor in the banking industry. When heated discussions arise around risk, teams can work smoothly through disagreements and deal with risk in a responsible way. That ability, according to Elzohiry, builds confidence on the part of senior management, who are then more comfortable empowering individuals.
How you can improve the Emotional intelligence of your team
Embed EI capabilities into job descriptions and performance reviews.
Include assessments such as Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) in your hiring process that take EI into account, in addition to IQ. More information about how to measure Emotional Intelligence in Organizations can be found at the Consortium website: https://www.eiconsortium.org/measures/measures.html
Provide classes, seminars, and online courses.
Provide coaching and mentoring.
All of these are longer term ways to improve innovation through emotional intelligence but an immediate step you can take is to focus on improving the mood of your team. Positive moods are believed to facilitate creative idea generation, whereas negative moods focus attention and facilitate analytic processing (such as reviewing a financial spreadsheet). Generating an emotion to solve a problem, energize a group, or calm yourself prior to a big meeting or interview is a skill that can be learned:
Engage a range of different activities in the creative process
Observe others in the creative process and ask them how they are feeling
Explore the impact of drawing on others’ emotions in helping you be more creative
Observe positive people in action
i. What do they do?
ii. How do you feel when you’re with them?
iii. How do they deal with difficulties?
Be your authentic self