Executives Enhance Emotional Intelligence Skills
I recently completed providing our Building Resilience and Agility™ By Developing Emotional Intelligence Skills program to the CEO and thirteen senior executives of a $3.5 billion company. The final report identified some significant and beneficial results for the executives and the company.
As is my practice when sharing results I maintain the anonymity of both the organization and the individual participants. My purpose in sharing results is to help others who might be considering implementing an EI program gain insight in to the potential benefits. As always, I invite you to also share your experiences that might be helpful for others.
The purpose of the program was to improve the leaders’ ability to manage the global changes that their company is experiencing. Foundational to achieving that was to improve their abilities to manage their emotions and reduce stress so that they could think more clearly under pressure and make the best decisions possible.
The program included completing a Personal Goal Setting packet, a goal-setting interview, a 6.5-hour group training session, daily and weekly email reminders, 3 confidential coaching sessions, and individual impact interviews with each executive two months after the training.
The program was evaluated using three different approaches. The coaching sessions revealed that executives were using the techniques learned in the program in a wide variety of situations to help them achieve a wide variety of purposes. A sample of the situations is listed below. These sample situations indicate that using the techniques is facilitating improvements in decision-making, relationships, productivity, mental clarity, etc.
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The second way the program was evaluated utilized a psychometric survey called the Personal and Organizational Quality Assessment (POQA). The POQA is composed of personal constructs and organizational constructs. The survey was administered about 3 weeks before the training and about a month and a half after the training.
Seven of the ten Personal Constructs showed significant improvement including…
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-14% -17% -21% -19% |
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-19% +14% -8% |
In addition, executives indicated dramatic improvements in their General Health and in evaluation of their analog stress as follows:
| Pre | Post | Improvement | |
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58% | 80% | +38% |
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74% | 45% | -39% |
Three of the fourteen Organizational Constructs showed moderate improvement including…
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-15% +13% -11% |
The other eleven showed minor positive and negative changes.
The third method used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program consisted of individual interviews that were conducted with executives. Executives shared examples and stories of how the various techniques were helping them.
Following are a few examples of statements:
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Executives also provided percentage estimates about how much they had improved in each of the seventeen personal goals. Following is a listing of the Personal Goals in the first column followed in the second column by the average percent improvement executives identified.
| Personal Goals | Average Percent Improvement |
| Manage Emotional Reactiveness Reduce Stress and Worry Gain Greater Mental Clarity Increase Personal Productivity Stay Motivated Develop More Self-Confidence Increase Personal Creativity Increase Change Flexibility Increase Personal and Professional Balance Understand Others Listen More, Talk Less Manage Relationships More Effectively Influence Others Resolve/Manage Conflict Improve Morale/Motivation Improve Teamwork Improve Team-to-Team Cooperation/Coordination |
40% 23% 28% 14% 33% 27% 16% 13% 27% 15% 16% 20% 16% 19% 16% 9% 11% |
Overall the percentage improvements from those who participated in the Impact Interviews (ten of thirteen remaining executives) are significant. For example, think for a moment about the impact of the average senior executive having an increase of 28% in his mental clarity as it impacts crucial decisions throughout the organization. One executive stated in his Impact Interview, “Even a 10% improvement would be extraordinary.”
Another measurement that came as a result of the Impact Interviews was a statement made by one of the executives. He indicated that because he was using the techniques in dealing with vendors he was getting better pricing on components. When asked to estimate the dollar savings he stated, “It would be approximately $1,000,000 in 2009 and $2,000,000 in 2010.” It is interesting to note that the executives were trained in October of 2009.
Did the Building Resilience and Agility Program achieve it’s purpose? The answer is “Yes!” Overall, the majority of executives are experiencing significant positive improvement in most of the seventeen personal goals.
If you would like to learn more about how we can tailor a program for your people please give us a call (269-429-1833), email us at info@ByronStock.com, or visit our website to learn more (http://www.ByronStock.com).
