imapMyTeam Blog

Emotional Intelligence as a Career Strategy

“I didn’t realize that, Oh my, I can fix that!”

I have heard that more than once over the years when I point out how someone’s behavior creates an unintentional clash with someone else’s motivational need.

Your ability and willingness to manage yourself, and successfully manage others, has been consistently shown by research to have a positive impact on meeting organizational goals and objectives. This ability is called ‘EQ’, or emotional intelligence.

It is said that more than 85% of people who are failing in their role are doing so because of a lack of ‘EQ’ not technical or hard skills.

Lack of EQ shows up many ways. Failure to communicate, poor collaboration, inability to get along with teammates, unwillingness to resolve disagreements, isolation of critical business partners, creating a climate of conflict – I’m sure you could name more. A deficiency of EQ has an impact on others that is nonproductive and creates barriers to individual and team success.

EQ issues don’t always lead to termination, but it can be argued they often lead to career stagnation. It is extremely difficult to advance your career if you cannot effectively manage yourself and your relationships.

Decades of research point to emotional intelligence as the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack. In a recent study, a well-known firm tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other important workplace skills, and found that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs. Additionally a resounding 90% of top performers scored high in EQ and on average those individuals earned $29,000 more than their lower EQ peers. WOW!

imapMyTeam®, while not EQ training, does give you an EQ edge.

It helps you understand what others expect from you in various situations and often imapMyTeam prescribes what you need to do for or with others. Awareness improves - EQ skyrockets. So will your career.