Interview with a Consultant for Emotional Intelligence

featuring: Tanya Goodwin-Maslach, Consultant for Emotional Intelligence

by David Rutschman

What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is the foundation for skills that we all use every day, at home and in the workplace.  We may not think we're using emotional intelligence; but whenever we have to manage a project or collaborate with a team, we're using (or not using!) our emotional intelligence to work with others. 

Let's say I have to walk into my manager's office and ask for a raise, or tell someone they are laid off; or perhaps I'm working on a project with peers all over the country or all over the world.  Relationships are a huge part of what we do in business, and the foundation for successful relationships is emotional intelligence, or E.Q.

Emotional Intelligence = E.Q.

Are there different aspects of emotional intelligence?

E.Q. can be divided into four areas:  The first is self-awareness.  Do you know what you're experiencing as you try to have a difficult conversation or give a presentation?  Do you recognize that emotion as it occurs?

The second area is self-management.  How do you handle or react to anxiety or fear?  How do you keep other people from undermining what you need to accomplish?

The third area is social awareness -- can you tell what others are feeling?  Do you have a good sense of how they're reacting to you? 

And finally, the fourth area is the one that brings them all together, and that's relationship management, which is building and maintaining relationships.  That's where I focus my work.

Why do companies call in a consultant who specializes in emotional intelligence?

It seems that people are having more and more problems with relationship building.  And what a bad time for this to happen!  We're seeing executives struggle to build partnerships with peers, superiors, even customers!  We see technical talent who are challenged in their management roles because it's no longer about what they do anymore; it's now about how they maintain and foster relationships on their teams. 

Those are the kinds of projects I enjoy because emotional intelligence is often at the core of what needs to be adjusted in order to improve the situation.

I come in and help people articulate a planned goal -- so we can see and measure results.  The idea is to remain deliberate and concentrate on a focused, practical approach to relationship building.  Through this process, the E.Q. of anyone can be improved!

How do companies benefit from this type of training?

This is really exciting.  This is about keeping the high performer happy and those around the high performer equally happy.  We've all heard something like this:  "I love this company, but I can't work with that guy."  That's a difficult situation, but if we can make a small change in what "that guy's" doing, especially if the person is a senior leader, the benefit and impact can be far reaching and noticeable.

I refer to this as the slipover effect.  The change in one person's behavior ripples out to affect many others.  In other words, someone can positively impact how people work – quickly! 

We're all modeling behavior all the time and we have the choice whether to model good or bad behavior.  Obviously it's much, much better to model positive behavior.  By investing in one or two key people, and getting them to change how they interact with others, we can literally watch that new behavior spread through an organization.  When a key person starts to model better relationship skills, those skills spread like wildfire.

So what's an example of the kind of small changes that can create this slipover effect?

This is a silly example, but it's true.  I knew an executive who had an open-door policy.  She'd ask people to come in anytime with ideas, feedback, etc.  But in her office, she had a habit of keeping a big pile of paper and folders stacked up on the chairs.  So when people came by, they couldn't sit down and so they moved on.  Her door was open, but her chair wasn't!  Simply by moving her stuff, people began to come in to see her more, and slowly she saw more people coming in to talk with her.  That example shows the impact that an influential person can have, just by making one tiny change.

Generally how long does it take before you can start seeing that kind of institutional change?

Usually it will take 6 to 12 months for someone to become really comfortable with new habits.  It's like anything else -- it takes deliberate and focused practice and it doesn't happen overnight.  But the results are real, and they last.  I've witnessed it.  After as little as six months, people are just working better, simply because one person does one small thing differently.

In terms of duration, then, how long do you expect to come in and consult with a company?

That's totally up to the organization and their needs.  There's a jumpstart situation, where we might just come in to do some individual work, maybe as short as 90 minutes.  We do a baseline assessment, see where the emotional intelligence skills are, then we talk in great detail about the particular issues, and create a tailored action plan for them to follow for a week, a month and three months following our meeting. 

We go from that service, all the way up to working with an entire department or an executive team.  We might have team retreats or full workshops.  There's a full range of options we can take in order to improve the E.Q. at a company.  The process is very flexible and the execution depends on the specific needs. 

Do people often think it's scary?

There can be negative connotations for some.  It's not a scary process and because these skills are "learnable", it really comes down to making a choice to improve the skill.

We sometimes hear, "I just don't have soft skills."  And of course that isn't true.  Everyone has a certain level of skill.  There are so many variables -- upbringing, for example, even gender.

There is a natural tendency to be anxious or scared in certain workplace situations.  So we should have the tools to deal with that.  E.Q. provides that.  It plays a critical and significant role in the health of all of our relationships.

On a more personal note, how did you come to an interest in this field?

I was a marine biologist and was often asked to work in remote field positions with other team members.  Once I spent about eight weeks on the French Frigate Shoals, on a tiny group of islands in the middle of the Pacific.  We were doing research on the Hawaiian monk seal.  It was seven people and me in the middle of nowhere.  We worked together, ate together, lived together.  Biologists in those situations know that you either practice emotional intelligence or your life is miserable!

The island was 800 yards long, and there were plenty of predators to watch out for, tiger sharks for one.  In a very real way, life and limb depended on how well we all got along, how we managed to interact with each other, and E.Q. made that work. 

Now business settings aren't necessarily that extreme, obviously.  But we all know there can be sharks in some of the cubicles!  And if you are equipped with emotional intelligence, you can survive and even thrive in those situations. 

So this isn't a field you came to in an abstract way?

It has been an interesting path!  What I've found is that the value and effect of E.Q. crosses all industries, all professions.  I now know we all use E.Q., just some of us use it more skillfully and to different degrees than others.

The trick is that if you know how to handle yourself in a way that is emotionally intelligent, you can take on even the most difficult challenge:  whether it's being stuck on a deserted island with a bunch of biologists or sitting in a meeting room filled with people with opposing views.  Emotional intelligence is a smart way to improve team relations.  And that is why so many companies are calling on consultants who specialize in this area.

Emotional intelligence accounts for 58% of an individual's workplace performance, yet some companies ignore addressing this critical skill.  Companies "in the know" understand that by improving the emotional intelligence of individual employees, they also improve the relationships, and ultimately, the productivity of work groups -- and that's when the bottom line start changing for the better.

David Rutschman is a writer in Providence, Rhode Island.  He teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Rhode Island.

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The foundation for successful relationships is emotional intelligence, or E.Q.

There are four areas of E.Q.: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

This is about keeping the high performer happy and those around the high performaer equally happy.

By investing in one or two key people, and getting them to change how they interact with others, we can literally watch that new behavior spread through an organization.

There is a natural tendency to be anxious...in certain workplace situations. We should have the tools to deal with that. E.Q. provides that.

The island was 800 yards long, and there were plenty of predators to watch out for, tiger sharks for one. In a very real way, life and limb depended on how well we all got along.

The trick is that if you know how to handle yourself in a way that is emotionally intelligent, you can take on even the most difficult challenge.

Emotional intelligence accounts for 58% of an individuals workplace performance, yet some companies ignore addressing this critical skill.