ROI of Emotional Intelligence

Elevate Perspective

By: Andie Hines-Lagemann

Emotional Intelligence (EQ or EI) has become a buzzword that many casual conversations and nonscientific articles boil down to empathy and interpersonal skills. While those are two pieces of the puzzle, EQ touches every facet of our professional, social, and personal lives.

In its entirety, Emotional Intelligence includes how we think and feel about ourselves, how that informs our words and actions, how we develop and maintain relationships, how we solve problems, and how we cope with stress. Each person has a unique emotional skill set that can be either leveraged or developed with coaching and habit-changing. Rather than fluff and flattery, the ability to self-reflect and utilize emotional data is foundational to Emotional Intelligence and our ability to set goals, work in teams, avoid burnout, and a host of other benefits.

Born out of Positive Psychology, a branch of Social Psychology, Emotional Intelligence is a scientifically-validated area of research and methodology that corporations would do well to apply. But it’s not enough to simply say it’s useful. In the end, you are a business person making business decisions, so you need to know how EQ impacts your bottom line. Check out this compelling data from Multi Health Systems, administrator of the EQi-2.0 Emotional Intelligence assessment:

• Regarding key characteristics associated with top-performing sales associates, American Express found that Emotional Intelligence accounted for 48% better performance and higher sales. Amex also reported 100% usefulness of EQ for transitioning leaders, lowering training costs, and improving the performance of leaders.
• The United States Air Force was able to put EQ to use with their recruiters resulting in 92% increase in retention, increased productivity, and $2.7 million in training cost savings in the first year alone.
• When used as a predictive tool for the selection of new employees, CIBC Global Private Banking and Trust found that a specific combination of EQ skills accounted for a 71% larger pipeline and 32% more closed sales.

In addition to these statistics, Emotional Intelligence in the workplace has also been proven to increase engagement, foster collaboration, build resilience, increase emotional, psychological, and physical well-being, and support creativity and innovation. As founders are growing companies and teams, keeping EQ at the center of corporate culture and client solutions builds more sustainable, adaptable, prosperous organizations – that’s buzzworthy.

Defining Your Company’s Goals 

Once you’ve established your core values, it’s time to turn your attention to setting company goals. This can be a difficult process, especially if you’re a startup leader with big ambitions but limited resources.  

Muldoon offers the following tips for setting goals: 

• Just get started. Write something down, go have a conversation with someone. Just get moving and you’ll figure it out. One idea is to write down the five most important things to accomplish in the next year that will improve the likelihood of survivability of your company, and then position it to excel. 
• Simplify your focus by identifying a few key priorities. When it comes to goals, a startup leader’s kryptonite is trying to set too many. When everything is important, nothing is. While you might want to accomplish 500 things in a year, it’s best to hone a laser focus on the most impactful five goals. 
• Goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Goals need to be so specific that there is no question of whether or not they were achieved. 
• Get other people involved who can help you shape what you are trying to achieve. That may just mean validating that what you are doing is right. Many startup leaders make the mistake of not having the right people around them—or not using people effectively as resources. They think they have it all figured out. But you know what? None of us have figured it out. We all benefit from talking to others. 
• Check in on goals regularly. Every month, we have a staff meeting where the first topic is where are we on our goals? We discuss each objective in detail, whether we are on track or not. 

Looking Ahead 

Creating a company culture and setting goals are two essential steps in growing a successful startup. While establishing values and goals may seem daunting, the process can be simplified by following some key tips. By taking the time to thoughtfully define your company’s core values and priorities, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your business goals. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how Elevate Ventures can help your startup grow,
reach out to one of our EIRs! 

Andie Hines-Lagemann serves as our Startup Ecosystem Manager for Northeast Indiana and has her Masters of Positive Psychology from Indiana Wesleyan University. Andie is an Emotional Intelligence Practitioner and runs her own practice, Tidewater Coaching. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how Emotional Intelligence can help your startup grow, reach out to Andie!