Emotional Quotient: Measuring Decision Making Ability

Thanks to Paul Cattermole for this insightful interpretation of the impact EI and EQ have on our leadership ability and earning potential! Visit http://www.catt-alyst.com/ to learn more!

Research has shown that high performance in any field is driven by good decision-making. Of course, high performance also requires other attributes such as general intelligence, technical skills, and training or experience. However, what separates sporadic high performance from consistent and sustained high performance is Emotional Intelligence (EI). EI when measured, gives one a score known as one's Emotional Quotient (EQ).

Dr. Daniel Goleman, one of the pioneering researchers on EI, notes the following:

1. CEOs are hired for their intellect and business expertise - and fired for a lack of emotional intelligence.
2. Those with high EQ are 127 times more productive than those with low EQ.
3. The key differentiator between star and average performers is their EQ.

Just think of that remark for a moment. Have you ever been managed by, or lead by, an individual who may be intelligent and skilled, yet "missed the boat" on how to get the best out of the people working for him or her? They did not make good decisions about how to lead or manage, nor were they skilled at building good rapport.

Decision-making has a significant impact on how successful, efficient and effective individuals are on the job. Not surprisingly, this ability is becoming more important for both employers and employees, and the pressure is on to deliver!

Our EQ indicates how well we can sense, understand and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions to facilitate high levels of collaboration and productivity. The higher our EQ, the more we can leverage our awareness of emotions (both ours' and others') for being effective in decision-making and overall performance.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we make decisions based on emotions. Sometimes they are the right decisions to make, sometimes not. Wouldn't it be better for us to be able to make decisions from the head, as well as from the heart? At least then we would have a choice. Well, the good news is, we can - if we use our EI.

EI is categorized into two parts: intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to understand ourselves) and interpersonal intelligence (the ability to understand others), and each can be measured.

Intrapersonal EI includes:
Self-awareness - the ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions and drives, and to understand their effect on others.
Self-regulation - the ability to control or re-direct disruptive impulses and moods and the propensity to suspend judgment and think before acting.

Interpersonal EI includes:
Motivation - a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money and status and a propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence.
Social skills - a proficiency in managing relationships and building networks.
Empathy - the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people.

Want to know more? Get a book to help you discover your EQ HERE.

Clarity of Vision

Einstein once said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Think about that statement for a moment and ask yourself, ‘Does this quote apply to the way I run my company?’

Most businesses that continually beat their head against a wall suffer from a profound lack of vision. Everyone engages in frenzied efforts to succeed (always working longer and trying harder), but because people don’t see the big picture or understand the true value they bring to customers, their quarterly profit and loss statements don’t reflect the intensity of their effort.

Here’s the reality… trying harder isn’t usually the solution to achieving more. In fact, it might be a big part of the problem. Let’s examine together the path to clarity of vision.

First and foremost, what is this Holy Grail we call vision? It’s pretty simple really, and boils down to a few primary considerations: Why are you in business? What is so great about what you do or make? What impact do you want your business to leave on the world?

Now you might be able to pop out some pat answers to those questions without really thinking about them, but vision is a critical component of your professional success and deserves more attention. In order to create truly visionary responses to those basic questions, you have to get outside of your comfort zone and slow down. Before you even begin to draft a vision statement, I suggest that you back off of your to-do list, quit trying harder, and pull some wise people around you to help bring an outside perspective into the conversation. Think beyond goals and money and tasks.

It’s very important when stepping into the role of the visionary to suspend disbelief and allow yourself to brainstorm outside the bounds of common sense. Vision isn’t mission! Let me repeat… Your vision isn’t an expanded version of your mission statement. Your mission statement should rightly be grounded in the present and directly related to the values and standards that will help you take action in the upcoming months and years, but your vision must be so much more.

Your vision is your enduring purpose; the fundamental reason for an organization’s existence beyond just making money. It is a perpetual guiding star on the horizon and does not change over time. For example, NASA’s vision is “advancing man’s capability to explore the heavens.” In essence, our vision is a mental picture of the future we wish to create through endless pursuit of an ideal. It is love, and passion, and the impetus to pursue that which we truly want most out of life through work.

On the other hand, a mission is a specific destination that is concrete and achievable. A good mission engages people – it reaches out and grabs them and makes them want to do something in the present moment. It should be tangible, energizing, highly focused and support the vision. To stick with our NASA example, a mission statement might establish a goal of “putting a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s”.
So, once you have stepped back from the insanity, and examined the beliefs and dreams behind your corporate vision, how does the simple vision statement you write help your business grow? Clarity = Power. If you don’t have a vision and a sense of destiny about your company, you won’t grow. Timing, recognizing unique opportunities, and the power to execute – these lie within you, not in the situation.

Your vision represents your desires, your passions, your dreams that burn hot in your mind… and thus your vision gives you all the intuitive information you need to find direction and make breakthroughs in performance. Your vision is your own internal ‘magnetic north’ that will enable you to make quantum leaps in your results.

Don’t wait! Define and live your vision today and you’ll begin to see power of purpose in action.

Accept Mess for Lower Stress

Learning to tolerate an acceptable level of mess and chaos in life can help you feel happier, reduce stress, make breakthrough discoveries, and even earn more!

I grew up with an amazingly neat and organized mom (probably so neat and organized that she should have gotten some therapy along the way). So mess tends to stir up anxiety and guilt... making me feel like my life is an out-of-control train wreck, especially when it creeps beyond my cluttered desk to the kitchen, living room, bathroom floor and bed. Sometimes I gaze around at it all and waver between complete overwhelm and jumping up in a panic to clean until I collapse.

Magazines and TV don’t help at all. Homes and offices are supposed to be color coordinated, meticulously furnished and Spartan to the point of sterility. Does anyone really have nothing but a computer monitor and a potted plant on their desk? According to Consumer Reports, Americans spent more than $2 billion in 2004 to impose external order on their life. Filing systems, shelving, stackable bins and professional organizing services… whatever will make them feel more ‘put together’.

For most of us, our never-ending quest to be neat has less to do with our stuff than the state of our lives. When life events, finances and family issues feel ‘messy’, we strive to master the one thing we can be truly in control of – our surroundings. But although it's possible to impose neatness (at least temporarily) exerting control over life is not so simple. And perfection is as illusive as a ghost… it never lasts for long.

Contentment has been proven to be a common trait of the happiest people on the planet. Joy and inner peace are not so much achieved by orchestrating every detail of our lives to suit our preferences, as they are about accepting that which we cannot change and keeping our priorities in order. While we all have a ‘mess threshold’ that we are miserable below, we also have to be realistic about how much time, money and effort we want to expend in an endless quest for perfect tidiness. Isn’t a certain level of mess OK if it gives us time to work, play, be with our families and enjoy life?

Hyper-organization and compulsive neatness take a huge amount of time. So ask yourself, is it really more efficient to painstakingly file every single scrap of paper immediately into a complex filing system - or is it more reasonable to have a few general files and update things every few days or weeks? Letting the paper accumulate a bit and making one trip to the file cabinet is truly much more efficient. Is it worthwhile to clean the whole house on Friday if your kids are having a sleepover that night - or does it make more sense to do it Saturday after everyone leaves? Although you might be inclined to have things in order before company comes, the kids don’t care and they’re going to dirty up your nice clean house anyway – so why bother!

Besides allocating our time wisely, mess can also spark creativity. When you're looking at a variety of things spread out in front of you, your mind naturally starts making connections and leaping to intriguing places. The same thing happens when you mix diverse types of people. Companies tend to cluster staff members who do the same things together, and that isolation actually stifles creativity and prevents the new ideas from flowing freely. This is certainly not to say that we shouldn’t care whether or not we can find things… or let dust coat the entire house… or allow grimy dishes to pile up. The point is to find the level of dirt and clutter and diversity that feels optimal for your lifestyle, work habits and peace of mind.

For some folks a lot of mess might be OK, for others it will drive them crazy and become a roadblock to success. The trick is to make an honest assessment based on your own values and style – not based on what a book, TV show or magazine says you should be.

Disorder can open you up for more random moments of beauty. Within reason, don’t castigate yourself for your lack of focus, your disorganization, or your sloppy house. When you let go of the need to be perfect, ideas can flow and you can enjoy life fully. The Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi is about the beauty of imperfection - appreciating the beauty that can be found in a chipped bowl, a wilted flower or weathered rocking chair. Our western craze for consumerism and material wealth has made us a throw away society, obsessed with new trends and always chasing the unattainable.

To be honest, a minimalist, perfectly clean, ultra-organized house may be beautiful in a photograph, but it's also cold, generic and sterile. If you feel empty and unfulfilled, do you truly believe that a cha-cha house will make everything better? If you hate your work, do you truly believe that a neat desk will cure the void in your soul? Accepting human frailty and the inequities in the world is a lot saner than constantly seeking perfection!

So, what of your professional success and earning potential? Don’t you have to be neat and organized to get ahead? Albert Einstein was probably the most brilliant human being to ever to walk the earth, and this genius was an advocate of messiness. He once said, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?” A 2005 survey actually revealed that people who call themselves neat freaks are likely to earn less than individuals who don't describe themselves that way. Another great example of the value of mess is Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin. The man was a great thinker but his laboratory was filthy. He made his life-saving discovery after he left for vacation without cleaning cultures out of some Petri dishes. When he returned, he found that there were some interesting fuzzy growths that bacteria couldn’t live with, and that mess-driven breakthrough has since saved many millions of lives. In a funny aside… years later Fleming was given a tour of a pristine, well-organized lab, and a fellow scientist gloated, “Imagine what you could have discovered here!” The sage Fleming dryly replied, “Not penicillin.”

Be a little forgiving of your mess and disorganization, both internal and external. Not much in life is of eternal significance, and I certainly don’t believe that God will be giving out awards in heaven for the shiniest floor or the best organized office. Instead of belaboring bad habits and normal clutter, focus on the things that will truly improve your life at its core. Chances are you’re quite organized enough to make those things happen in good time. In the movie City Slickers Jack Palance plays a gritty trail boss with an excellent grip on what really matters. He wisely says, “You city folk… you worry about a lot of s**t. Do you know what the meaning of life is? One thing. And that’s what you’ve got to figure out.”

What’s your ‘one thing’? Probably not a stack of post-it notes.