Developing "People Smarts"

For managers, compassion outweighs other core skills.

Whom would you rather work with: a smart person who's emotionally unstable, or a smart person who's on an even keel? There's really no doubt, is there? Intuitively, we know who succeeds in business and why. Now we have the facts to back it up.

Research reported by Daniel Goldman in his book Primal Leadership (Harvard Business School Press, 2002), shows that technical skills (like business planning) or cognitive abilities (like analytic reasoning), while important, are not the key drivers of business success. That lies more in the area of emotions.

This is not psychobabble. Sophisticated studies from nearly 500 global companies show that 85 percent of what distinguishes outstanding leaders from the average is attributable to factors other than technical expertise or cognitive abilities. Call it "emotional intelligence." Here's a description of what's involved and some questions you can ask about yourself.

Know Yourself Emotional intelligence is made up of two areas: personal competence and social competence. In the general area, primal leaders - those with a highly developed emotional intelligence - are very sensitive to their inner-world experiences; they are self-aware.

Are you able to read your emotions, assess your strengths and limits, and act in a self-confident way? If so, your emotional intelligence is high. Successful leaders can also manage themselves well; they're in control. Can you keep destructive emotions in check? Are you trustworthy and flexible? Are you driven to improve performance, ready to act when needed, and optimistic in the face of difficulties?

Know Others Emotional intelligence also involves social competency. Primal leaders are quite sensitive to the inner world of others; they are socially aware. Are you empathic? Do you understand the subtleties of your organization, and are you other-directed?

Second, successful leaders know how to manage relationships. Are you influential, a motivator and a catalyst for change? Do you build others up, create a web of relationships, and build teams well? If yes, you're demonstrating a high level of emotional intelligence.

Of course, not even the best primal leaders do all these well, but they seem to have a critical mass of competencies that set them apart. Not yet convinced? Look at the impact of emotional intelligence on the bottom line. In one company, partners with significant strengths in emotional competencies added incremental profits in the range of 100 percent - 400 percent higher than partners without them!

There you have it. If you want to go higher in business, get there faster, and make a lot more money in the process, be smart. But above all, be people savvy.

By Michael McCann