Research shows there is a direct link between the way people feel and how they perform in the workplace.
In high performing organisations people feel significantly more engaged, valued, cared for, and motivated than those in low performing organisations. In low performing workplaces people feel significantly more fearful, stressed, disempowered and uncertain.
According to research conducted by Genos International, one of the main market influences increasing the need for more leaders with high levels of soft skills is the rise of mental health injuries in the workplace.
These injuries now occur more frequently than physical injuries, and one of the main causal factors for this is low levels of emotional intelligence in leadership, leading to poor workplace relationships, ineffective change management and even work-related stress.
Leaders who are emotionally intelligent are better at identifying stress, improving relationships and driving change. As such, the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) recommends emotional intelligence development for all people leaders as part of a strategy to create mentally healthy workplaces.
Genos International conducted a research study with WorkSafe Tasmania and the Department of Premier and Cabinet Tasmania (1) to examine “the relationship between individuals’ level of emotional intelligence and their level of resilience, mindfulness, occupational stress and employee engagement…”
There were 1700 participants in the study, the results of which showed that people with higher levels of emotional intelligence rated higher in resilience, mindfulness and engagement, and lower in occupational stress.
Additionally, they had greater capacity to manage others’ emotions while managing their own levels of resilience and stress.
Genos concluded that organisations can make workplaces mentally safer through emotional intelligence by encouraging emotional self-awareness and self-management,
and by building capacity to help others by positively influencing the way others feel, helping them deal effectively with stressful situations, and ultimately helping resolve workplace conflicts.
Having said that, a review of over six thousand leaders via 360° assessments in 2018 showed that emotionally intelligent leadership behaviours, as rated by the people they work with every day, currently sits at a mediocre level.
Leaders typically performed better at behaviours associated with themselves (self-awareness and self-management) but scored lower at behaviours associated with understanding and influencing others.
What this tells us is there is a real opportunity for leaders to improve their awareness and understanding of how others feel and behave in the workplace and adjust their style to connect more deeply.
In order to build an emotionally intelligent workplace it is imperative that your leaders feel comfortable to practice and model emotional intelligence with their people.
This means developing leaders’ competencies across emotional intelligence is a crucial part of your strategy for creating a mentally healthy workplace in everything they do.
Emotional Intelligence underpins every aspect of Lysander’s Integrated Approach to Wellness by building competency and consistently reminding leaders to:
Know yourself (self-awareness and self-management)
Know your staff (awareness of others and emotional reasoning)
Know your stuff (authenticity and inspiring performance)
Call To Action
Our level of emotional intelligence is not static – we are capable of developing it.
Recent meta-analytical research conducted by Genos International on the development of emotional intelligence (2) showed that good programs can lead to an average improvement of individuals’ emotional intelligence of 17 percentile points.
What this means in the practical sense is that people who undertake development of their emotional intelligence, feel better, have improved stress management and wellness at work, facilitate work environments that are more productive, and better lead and engage others through improved relationships and ability to respond in line with the SCARF factors.
Taking it Further
© David Rock
As you may know, recent insights from social neuroscience have identified five categories of events - this is the SCARF model, conceptualised by author David Rock.
These categories activate positive or negative emotions in our interactions with others, and ultimately impact our wellness.
By understanding SCARF, you can assess whether your leaders create away or toward responses in their people across the five categories.
If emotional intelligence is already an embedded practice amongst your leadership team, review how they use this to influence thoughts and behaviours in relation to their perceived Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness (SCARF).
Where to Now?
Sources
Dr. Ben Palmer, G., 2021. The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Creating Mentally Healthy Workplaces – Genos International https://www.genosinternational.com/mentally-healthy-workplaces/
Dr. Ben Palmer, G., 2021. Reducing psychological injuries through improving EI – Genos International. https://www.genosinternational.com/reducing-psychological-injuries/