Tipping Points of Emotional Intelligence

February 1, 2017

URL:  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4574314487193895552#editor/target=post;postID=2072331423877906257

Boyatzis ties emotional intelligence competencies as predictors of success.  He also states that negative emotions are much stronger in human beings that positive emotions.  Therefore, the statement that flows around in the Army (pardon the language, but I do want to be correct) is: “It only takes ‘One – Aw Shit, to wipe out a thousand atta boys’”.  Boyatzis research tends to prove this.  Maybe as a function of aging, it is why older people seem more negative and cynical.  They have been beaten down by life’s pressures and burdens.

Boyatzis also describes his positive applicable emotions (PAE) and its opposite of negative applicable emotions (NAE).  It reminds me of the Yin/Yang discussed in great length in Obolensky’s excellent book, Complex Adaptive Leadership 2^nd Edition.  One cannot exist without the other.  However, as noted above, Boyatzis encourages the emphasis on the positive to offset the more powerful negative.  In his video, he also compared his model to others such Barbara Fredrickson, who encourages a three to one ratio in professional and personal lives.  In fact, Boyatzis studies of marriage states that a 5 – 1 ratio is needed to sustain a happy marriage.  Interesting.

In his research, Boyatzis attempted to test the following: (1) demonstrated EI and cognitive

competencies would predict financial performance of leaders in the company; and (2) a tipping point analysis would reveal a better prediction of financial performance than other ways of estimating the impact of the competencies.  Clusters of 4 groups of competencies were tested.  They were: Self-Motivation Cluster, Self-Regulation Cluster, People Management Cluster, and Cognitive Cluster.

The results of Boyatzis study was:

“Two competencies were significantly correlated with the financial performance measure of Account Revenue: Facilitates Learning and Values Learning.

Ten competencies were significantly correlated with Account Gross Margin: Taking a

Risky Stand, Planning, Self-confidence, Leadership, Coaching, Facilitates Learning, Systems Thinking, Empathy, Adaptability, and Values Learning” (Boyatzis, 2006)

The financial results for a large organization were measured in order to determine the effect of EI competencies upon financial performance.  The result was with the clusters described above:

“In particular, the competencies that resulted in greater account revenue and/or account gross margin were, organized within their clusters:

(1) Self-motivation cluster: Planning, Achievement Orientation, Self-confidence;

(2) Self-regulation cluster: Taking a Risky Stand, Self-control, Adaptability, Conscientiousness,

      Values Learning;

(3) People management cluster: Networking, Leadership, Coaching, Empathy, Facilitates

      Learning; and

(4) Cognitive cluster: Systems Thinking” (Boyatzis, 2006)

Boyatzis also wrote about the limitations to his study.  They were the small sample size selected and the uneven distribution of financial measurements.  However, he concluded that the study is useful in that it adds to the empirical evidence accumulating about how EI can positively affect selection, development, retention, and motivation of leaders for the future.

It is interesting that in this leadership class, I was asked by a classmate if I had insight into how to determine EI in potential candidates for hire.  I offered back to her that although my experience was not with the human resources realm, that my intuition told me that if interviewers and screeners were well-versed in EI, then they may be able to recognize the traits during an interview and weight EI ahead of cognitive or technical skills.

Boyatzis and Dr. Goleman have both conducted studies that show that EI factors in more than 2 to 1 as a predictor of success as a leader within an organization.  This two to one ratio is over EI’s counterparts in the makeup of a candidate, cognitive skills and technical skills.  This is interesting due to the ability of EI to be learned even late in life and how it can round out the skills of an otherwise qualified candidate.  Coaching EI and focusing on EI rather than strictly academic achievements or technical knowledge should be the wave of the future for organizations.

In CCAD, I was hired to fill a “temporary” vacancy.  I did not want to be a temporary fill after I had been on the job and discovered that it was a good fit for me.  I had a relatively short timeframe to demonstrate that I could have a positive impact upon the organization.  I decided that I needed to emotionally connect with the pilots and the crew chiefs of CCAD’s Flight Test Section.

How was I going to do this?  The level of difficulty was raised because these were extremely skilled, veteran pilots and crew chiefs.  Their ability to sniff out bull-crap or insincerity was going to be of the highest degree.  Our higher Headquarters (HQ) decreed that we would have a Safety Stand-Down Day.  During a Safety Stand-Down Day, safety training and issues are discussed by the entire assembly of personnel.  In addition, no flight activities or normal activities can take place during this day.

I had my forum, but I was going to need to make this day a success.  First, unannounced to everyone, I purchased 12 dozen doughnuts and coffee for everyone in attendance to the Safety Day.  I meticulously prepared the classes and decided on a forum that would not administer “death by Power Point” to the attendees.  I had sign-in sheets, a large TV screen, a recorder, and all the professional tools available for this day.  How could I make the emotional connection to everyone?

Part of our training consisted of weather recovery procedures for pilots.  When caught in Inadvertent Meteorological Conditions (IMC), the pilots are supposed to follow very specific steps that include gaining altitude for safety, declaring an emergency, and executing a recovery to & landing at an airport with good weather.  I chose to share a story with everyone about how I screwed up when confronted with that very situation.  This was also in correlation to the Safety Officer keeping information in confidence and acting as a teacher or a guide.  I talked about how I was training a student at Fort Rucker under Night Vision Devices (NVDs), and was attempting to go to the Northern training area from the South.  I ran into bad weather and lost visibility with the ground.  I was flying at approximately 1000 feet above the ground.  What did I do?  I violated every procedure that I taught routinely, and started to descend to see if I could pick out my visual references (mainly the ground) again.  I descended to about 500’ above the ground when I picked up my references and turned Southbound and flew out of the bad weather.  My maneuver had been dangerous because there were towers in that area of operations that measure 750’ above the ground.  I could have hit one of those towers and never knew what happened until it was too late.  I admitted my error to everyone and vowed that I had learned from it, it would never happen again, and for these aircrews never to do what I did.

I had done it!  It worked.  The room went silent and all eyes were upon me as I recounted this harrowing experience.  They could feel my remorse at my mistake and the casualness of how I put my student’s life at risk, by making the wrong decision as his instructor pilot!  Once the emotional moment passed, a good 30 minute after discussion started as others opened-up to speak about hazards and their experiences with the relevant safety topic.  I had connected.  I gained the respect of everyone in attendance that day.  It was especially gratifying to have the senior pilots have their defenses broken down and they welcomed me into their “group”.  For the Safety Stand-Down Day, I wouldn’t have done it any different.  I do wish I had another chance to make a better decision on my training flight during that potentially fateful day in the Fort Rucker AO.

Respectfully,

John Hescott

References:

Boyatzis, Richard E. (2006), “USING TIPPING POINTS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND COGNITIVE COMPETENCIES TO PREDICT FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LEADERS” Psicothema. ISSN EDICIÓN EN PAPEL: 0214-9915. 2006. Vol. 18, Suplem.1, pp. 124-131

The Positive PEA and Negative NEA (YouTube - 10:14) (Links to an external site.)

Obolensky, Nick. (2016) “Complex Adaptive Leadership 2^nd Edition”. New York: Routledge

Barbara Fredrickson: Positive Emotions Open our Mind (YouTube - 08:37) (Links to an external site.)

Barbara Fredrickson: The Positivity Ratio (YouTube - 08:43) (Links to an external site.)