There’s a lot of talk in the business world about emotional intelligence (EQ) and how important it is for people to be more self-aware of their emotions and manage their expression of those emotions in the workplace.
Plenty of evidence shows that higher EQ contributes to greater success: 90% of top performers have high EQ (Source: TalentSmartEQ), and people with higher EQ earn nearly $30,000 more than those with lower EQ (Source: TalentSmartEQ).
EQ also plays a critical role in Adaptability Intelligence (AQ)—those with higher EQ may tend to have a higher AQ.
Why does EQ have such an impact on performance? Because EQ involves a high level of self-awareness, a high EQ allows us to make more effective, wiser decisions through a just-right blend of compassion and logic. Managers who recognize their team’s emotional needs can help mitigate potentially negative emotional impacts of decisions and change in the organization and nurture their team’s resilience.
Beyond the Individual: EQ in the Organization
The primary focus of the mainstream EQ development business is on the individual. It’s a self-growth approach aimed at helping individuals assess and develop their personal EQ.
But what about the organization itself? How self-aware is the culture as a whole–the leadership and individual team members? Does the organization create an environment that supports high EQ for its people? Is continuous improvement a core value?
Even a group of high-EQ individuals does not necessarily mean the organization itself has a high EQ. An individual can be emotionally healthy, have a high EQ, and generally feel good about their contributions. But if they’re over capacity and work stress is high, they’ll eventually implode through burnout.
This dynamic is a key consideration in talent strategy. Putting someone with a very high EQ in the wrong environment will be a disaster. Odds are high that they’ll eventually “tap out.” The high EQ individual may have the personal tools and self-awareness to recognize that they’re not the problem–the environment is–but that just means they’ll check out faster than someone less self-aware.
Obviously, the solution is to fix the culture, not to hire low EQ people. Think of your organization like a garden: You can have plenty of vibrant, healthy seeds (people), but they will not thrive unless they’re planted in fertile soil and continuously nurtured.
Yet, despite the importance of supporting individual EQ, fewer than 20% of companies qualify as emotionally intelligent (Source: HBR). This represents a huge missed opportunity. Organizations with high EQ (Source: multiple):
- outperform competitors by 20% in profitability and creativity
- improve employee engagement by 20%
- are 20% more productive
- have 50% less turnover
- 30% higher overall innovation output.
Emotional Health: The Missing Link in Organizational EQ and AQ
To create a more fertile environment, the organization must support employees’ Emotional Health. This is a critical piece of the AQai Environment dimension, which directly measures the degree to which the organization supports individuals’ ability to thrive.
The AQai model tracks this key environmental dynamic, helping leaders gauge how well they’re supporting their people’s emotional health.
But doing the assessment is only the first step.
To build organizational EQ, leaders must foster an encouraging, positive, psychologically safe environment where people feel confident in their ability to adapt to uncertainty.
Seven Habits that Nurture Emotional Health
Here’s what high-EQ organizations do to keep their people happy, engaged and eager to take on the next challenge.
1. Foster self-awareness. Nearly 70% of organizations measure employee satisfaction, yet only 1 in 10 assess company-wide EQ skills (Source: HBR). Organizations must invest in their own self-awareness, not just for the people within it.
In order to improve, you must start by taking an inventory. The AQai assessment can provide insight into how your employees perceive how well your organization supports their Emotional Health. You can use this baseline to gauge progress periodically as you work toward improving your EQ.
2. Open communication loops. High-EQ organizations not only welcome but actually seek out candid feedback from their team. They invite both positive and negative input about what’s going on inside the organization.
Focus on gathering diverse perspectives and embrace mental flexibility, even if it contradicts the status quo. Explore your ability to unlearn at both the individual and organizational levels. Be willing to experiment, encourage people to speak up and share ideas without fear of judgment or shame–and even to change their minds. Unlearning old information and behaviors when it makes sense is just as important as learning new ones.
3. Take swift action. Organizational agility is essential. In today’s rapidly changing environment, the timeframe for adaptation has compressed dramatically, and clinging to a 5-year strategy model means certain demise.
High EQ organizations are responsive to the needs of their people, providing immediate resources to support their emotional health. This can include everything from wellness benefits to including EQ within leadership training to build EQ into the culture.
4. Make human-centric decisions. Among the 20% of emotionally intelligent organizations, one thing is consistent: their team feels empowered because they’re taken into consideration with each decision (Source: HBR).
High EQ organizations consider everyone’s perspective, not just the leadership when making decisions or changing protocols. They analyze and investigate the impact changes will have on their people and ask for their input before they make them. Even if you can’t act on every concern or suggestion, simply hearing your team out plays a huge role in supporting their Emotional Health.
5. Take ownership of mistakes. The emotionally intelligent organization isn’t afraid to say, “We tried that, and it didn’t work,” instead of blaming the team for not properly executing the grand vision. In fact, employees are over 5X more likely to trust leaders who display vulnerability (Source: DDI), and those who have managers with high EQ are 4X less likely to leave (Source: Gallup).
In the same way you should build a foundation of trust so that team members can admit and learn from their mistakes, the organization should do the same.
6. Align expectations with investment in skill development. High EQ organizations know that skills aren’t just technical —they also include soft skill “superpowers.” That means giving your people the right tools to be resilient and adaptable. You can’t expect them to thrive without giving them the opportunity to work to their fullest potential.
Investing in soft skills pays big dividends. For example, emotional intelligence alone is responsible for nearly 60% of success in job performance (Source: WEF), and it’s especially critical for navigating times of change, addressing personal issues, giving feedback and spotting talent—all of which contribute to ROI (Source: LHH). Furthermore, 67% of people agree that having a shared sense of purpose has increased their productivity (Source: HBR).
7. Ensure psychological safety. Emotionally intelligent organizations are comfortable accepting risk and prepare their teams for failure. In fact, the best ones even practice failing just so they know what to expect and how to respond.
The organization and its people must know how to navigate, explore and experiment with new ways of doing things without losing trust or fearing judgment or reprimand. In fact, the highest EQ organizations are eager to identify people to put in “the crow’s nest,” looking out onto the horizon to watch for danger or spot opportunities. This trust in the organization breeds loyalty: high organizational EQ can reduce turnover by as much as 63% (Source: 6Seconds).
When company cultures embrace risk and build strong interpersonal skills, employees are more engaged, which leads to better products, services, and experiences for customers.” – Harvard Business Review, The EI Advantage
Organizational EQ is a critical ingredient in Adaptability Intelligence. Supporting your team’s Emotional Health through proven habits that cultivate resilience and agility is essential for helping the entire organization navigate and persevere through uncertainty—even when it’s uncomfortable.
The Path Forward
Getting there may require you to reframe your thinking. While the adage “Begin with the end in mind” is still useful, the journey today looks much different than it did even five years ago. The path from Point A to Point B is now a very squiggly line, potentially with many branches. You never know what kind of hurdles may arise, which means you’ll get to test your Adaptability chops along the way.
And that’s really what it’s all about. There is no endpoint. You’re never done. It’s an ongoing process of constant learning, adapting and improving.
If you’re ready to get started, contact us today for an AQai Adaptability Assessment to start building your organization’s EQ and AQ.