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Emotional Intelligence (EI)


Emotional Intelligence is how somebody manages their personality to be both personally and interpersonally effective. Emotional Intelligence is vital to sustainable performance and productivity in the workplace, and it plays a significant role in what we see as ‘soft skills’ behaviours.  

Soft skills are often perceived as the ‘light and fluffy’ things that can help people feel better in the workplace. Are emotions really an important aspect to individual performance? Actually yes. These elements are identified as playing a central role in how people perform, how they gain influence in the workplace, and indeed how the overall organisation performs. 

Research shows that 90% of top performers are high in these areas. In the recent report CIPS Members highlighted that four of the top five skills considered critical to them doing their jobs well directly relate to ‘soft skills’, or Emotional Intelligence. These include Communication, Supplier Relationship Management, Negotiation and Influencing.

Working in partnership with JCA Global - leaders in applying Emotional Intelligence in business, this area provides you with information and guidance

Evaluate your EI further

 on the business case for Emotional Intelligence and resources on how you can develop some of these vital skills.

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is how somebody manages themselves to be both personally and interpersonally effective. Therefore, EI directly relates to an individual’s effectiveness and performance at work.

Over the last two decades, researchers have found EI to be a critical factor in distinguishing high performers and an important determinant of effective leadership and life success.

We can go about our working lives ignoring our emotions, unaware of how we really are or what is driving our behaviour. Or, by choosing to develop our EI, we can identify patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that are helpful and contribute to successful performance.

Emotional Intelligence is not soft or difficult to define; EI is a psychobiological process that people experience and it can be measured and developed.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

 Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Why Emotional Intelligence matters?

Outsourcing Facilities Management is not a simple decision, the thought process behind this can raise many question over if it is right for your organisation.
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Many people have a tendency to suppress, ignore or dismiss feelings, especially when they are uncomfortable. Over time, this habit reduces one’s capacity for self-awareness, limiting our potential to perform and undermining our health.

Businesses that lack Emotional Intelligence may see rigid or defensive behaviour in their people, poor team working, low levels of personal resilience and reoccurring emotional outbursts.


Businesses high in Emotional Intelligence benefit from more engaged employees and leaders, staff who are more able to adapt and cope with change, better team working, collaboration and innovation.

Science has shown that feeling precedes thought and behaviour. The business evidence is clear; taking emotion out of work does not increase employee engagement, drive customer satisfaction or build high performance – managing emotion effectively does.

The growth of Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been driven by some significant steps in our understanding of how the brain works. To understand and develop EI we must understand the neuroscience behind it.

Neuroscience of Emotional Intelligence

 Why Emotional Intelligence matters?

Emotional Intelligence, Personality and IQ are different

Personality is concerned with certain characteristics, traits or preferences that are relatively stable, for example introversion and extroversion. In this way, personality can be used to describe what a person typically does i.e. people with a preference for extroversion may have a tendency to talk more in groups. In practice, people with different personality styles achieve equally competent results but do so in a different manner. For example, having a preference for introversion does not make one ineffective at communicating in groups but may require different self-management (EI) strategies.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is concerned with cognitive intellectual thinking – IQ has also been found to be linked to job performance. However, IQ smarts do not always translate into effective performance. In the real world of deadlines, challenges, competition and targets, people low on emotional and social abilities are less able to manage their emotional state and suffer impaired cortical functioning – if you can’t manage your emotions, it is very difficult to use your intellect.

Both personality and IQ are relatively fixed resources upon which we draw in order to be effective. Neither leaves much room for change or development.

Emotional Intelligence is concerned with how you can get the most from your resources to be more effective at what you do in your environment. Emotional Intelligence is what you do in the present moment; it is about being emotionally intelligent.

Developing Emotional Intelligence

 Emotional Intelligence, Personality and IQ are different
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    About JCA Global

    JCA is an international people development and business psychology consultancy with a successful track record in improving business outcomes through transformational people development solutions.


    How we are different

    We believe that Emotional Intelligence is key to realising human potential and sustaining high performance at work. Our robust, scientifically proven Emotional Intelligence assessments are based on more than 12 years of applied research and development. Our methodologies and solutions incorporate the latest insights in people development and neuropsychology. We are experts in applying Emotional Intelligence to improve business outcomes and making change stick.


    What we do

    With a clear focus on quality and customer relationships, we provide integrated people development, assessment and employability solutions.


    How we do it

    Through transformational development and consultancy solutions, we help our customers succeed and grow by improving the performance, engagement and well-being of individuals, teams and organisations. Drawing upon world class training, a unique product portfolio and the latest software solutions, our customers benefit from cost effective, tailored and integrated solutions.


    Our track record

    Our breadth of experience across sectors and industries such as Energy, Financial Services, Technology, Pharmaceutical, Retail and Health enables us to add insights from a wide variety of sources. Our track record spans more than two decades and we’re proud to be a client focused, values-led organisation that is passionate about making development accessible to all.


    Find out more at www.jcaglobal.com

    JCA People Management Awards 2015

      Your Personality

      The importance of personality, and knowing your wavelength

      Personality can be described as a combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character. Through an awareness of our own personality, an appreciation of our own innate resources, strengths and preferred style, we are able to achieve sustainable personal development. Although underlying personality may remain the same, over time people have the capacity to change and develop their behaviour, communication and interpersonal style.

      Being aware of your own personality provides you with essential, practical information about yourself that can be applied to every aspect of your life. Whilst it is important within the workplace for employees to hold a basic level of skill associated to their job, these skills solely do not make the employee great. We believe that through the understanding of one’s own personality and the management of this through Emotional Intelligence, an individual is able to perform effectively.


      Why measure personality?

      As well as assisting in self-development, understanding our personality style in relation to others supports effective communication and teamwork. It is through this understanding that we can leverage similarities and differences to create collaborative and trusted working environments through building and cultivating relationships. These relationships are integral to an individual’s career, as well as the success of the organisation.

      To achieve sustainable personal development, it is crucial for individuals to start with an understanding of their own resources, strengths and preferred working styles. As well as assisting in self-development, understanding our own personality style in relation to others supports effective communication and teamwork. It is through this understanding that we can leverage similarities and differences to create collaborative and trusted working relationships.

      Understand your personality to:

      • Create positive working cultures
      • Improve team relationships and compatibility
      • Facilitate conflict handling
      • Enhance accurate and balanced decision making
      • Help identify and manage stress
      • Enhance communication and understanding


      Measuring your personality

      JCA’s Personality Type Profile (PTP) provides a framework for understanding individual differences and how people interact with each other as well as an exploration of their preferences, motivators and talents. It is a self-assessment questionnaire based upon the Jungian personality type model.

      Designed to measure personality in the workplace, PTP provides clear information on an individual’s preferred behavioral styles and is presented against key areas shown to be important in the working environment. The accessible report provides insights to enhance self-awareness, understanding of others and increase personal effectiveness.


      When to use the Personality Type Profile

      To achieve sustainable personal development, it is crucial for individuals to start with an understanding of their own resources, strengths and preferred working styles. As well as assisting in self-development, understanding our own personality style in relation to others supports effective communication and teamwork. It is through this understanding that we can leverage similarities and differences to create collaborative and trusted working relationships.


      Download Personality Type Profile Sample Report

      Evaluate your EI further

        Resources

        • Be kind - it will make you a better leader- Kindness and compassion in the workplace aren’t things which many leaders pay much attention to.  But it turns out that they’re much more important than we thought.  In fact, they’re critical, and the reasons why might surprise you. 
        • The behaviours required to be an authentic leader - Authenticity is seen as the holy grail of leadership development. But, there is little understanding of the attitudes and behaviours that underpin an authentic leader. 
        • The true measure of resilience in leadership - Leaders need to understand how they react at different stages when facing difficulties. 
        • Emotional Intelligence: navigating today's leadership challenge - Leaders who are great at coping under normal conditions are sometimes not best equipped to cope with adversity. Unfortunately, leading organisations in today’s business climate means that adversity is never far away. That means we need resilient leaders, who can bounce back and respond effectively to difficult and arduous circumstances. 
        • The power of authenticity to unlock leadership potential - Living an inauthentic life can be incredibly exhausting. As a leader, “putting on a face” and exhibiting behaviours at work that don’t reflect our true self is a constant strain. A strain that takes its toll on leaders and employees alike. 

          Reports

          Urgent need for soft skills training in the procurement sector

          JCA Global, the leading supplier of corporate emotional intelligence solutions takes a look at new findings which say that the procurement industry would benefit significantly from developing its soft skills in the workplace.

          “80% of procurement leaders believe soft skills training would help them perform better and have a major impact on their performance at work.”

          The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) has in the past identified links between poor relationships with suppliers and a higher risk of supply chain disasters.  As a result, it is now working with members to provide support in terms improving engagement, performance and well-being amongst their workforces, with the aim of creating better relatiobships with suppliers and reducing the risk of disruptions.

          As part of this work, JCA Global have partnered with CIPS to undertake a study which looks at the impact of ‘soft skills’ – communication, relationship management, negotiation, influencing and emotional intelligence skills – in the workplace and whether employees think they are well-equipped to deal with the myriad of challenges that come their way every day.

          We found that the majority (80%) of respondents believe that working on and developing their soft skills would help improve their performance at work. The challenge however is that more than two in five (42.2%) of respondents have ‘never had any soft skills training’ and a further third (35.6%) said they had but it was ‘some time ago.’ Turning their attention to the benefits that emotional intelligence (EI) could bring to their organisation, almost two thirds (64.4%) felt understanding EI would help effective negotiation and yet only one in eight (13%) of their organisations had adopted EI within internal training. Nearly two thirds (64.4%) of the respondents felt their knowledge of EI was basic or none, clearly indicating an industry-wide desire to learn more.

          The output of this survey is very interesting. The procurement sector is clearly calling out for more soft skills development and it’s great to see that the majority of respondents feel that a greater understanding of emotional intelligence would significantly help them.  JCA Global are developing these skills right now within two of the four biggest employers in the world as well as a range of FTSE 250 companies and the public sector. We are also looking forward to working closely with CIPS over the coming months to see how we can help its members learn more about these crucial soft skills.

          David Noble, Group CEO, CIPS commented: “We’ve always been aware of the importance of soft skills and the huge impact emotional intelligence can have in communication and negotiation. Indeed, CIPS as an organisation has invested hugely in this area internally.  It’s clear we now need to help members get greater access to these skills and we’re excited to work with JCA to help all our members with this. The subject of emotional intelligence and soft skills development will be at the centre of many of our upcoming presentations; it’s clearly a critically important influence in the development of best practice.”

          The survey was undertaken between September 2015 and February 2016 and 239 senior procurement professionals from across the globe responded.

          Download full report