(Our Flagship Programme)

Training only a handful of people in your organisation on emotional intelligence, is like calling on only a handful of the people who make up an orchestra to rehearsal and expecting an outstanding harmonised performance from the entire orchestra on the night.

No creature can fly with just one wing. Gifted leadership occurs where heart and head – feeling and thought – meet. These are the two wings that allow a leader to soar.”

Then you can confidently communicate and persuade the flock to join you on a journey when you say “come fly with me!

Emotional Intelligence refers to the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing emotions well in ourselves and our relationships

Organisations are made of people, processes, and property. For a long time, “common
wisdom” has been that returns come from investing in the latter two. That has changed over time; today organisations are increasingly investing in its human resource, proving that people are the differentiating factor in the quest for outstanding performance.

From our ancestral past fight/flight response likely saved our lives whenever it was activated (Cannon, 1932, Lazarus, 1991), with the industrial age, those same mechanisms will be inappropriate. With people working together in very close spaces within large corporations it becomes necessary for people to coordinate individual behaviour, control idleness, antagonistic utterances, communicate effectively and manage relationships to achieve a work climate that is conducive and productive for all and the Organisation (Tayler, 1911/1947).

We can’t fight or take to flight when we are frustrated or perceive a conflict, rather as rational beings, we are expected to confront these issues through dialogue for a mutually benefiting solution – a position which is better achieved when we apply our emotions intelligently and show mutual respect and empathy.

Since emotional intelligence is all about “people” – about relating to yourself and others – it’s no surprise that Emotional Intelligence (EI) plays a major role in this dimension. Relationships in the workplace determines the emotional climate and is directly related to performance on the job. Leaders are therefore taking the challenge to create more robust, vigorous organisations – not through bricks and mortar, but by investing in people.

According to Tim Gallwey author of the Inner Game – ‘In every human endeavour there are two arenas of engagement: the outer and the inner. The outer arena is what we see happening externally. For example, for a sales person it could be the results of achieving (or not, as the case may be) and the inner arena is about the internal attitudes and values either supporting that achievement or getting in their way. This is about overcoming our own obstacles, such as self-doubt, over-analysing situations, fear, assumptions we’re making, and limiting beliefs. He explains performance in a simple equation

P = p – i (Performance = potential – interferences)

The way to increase performance, using this equation, is to grow and develop the ‘p’ factor, the potential, and to reduce or eliminate the ‘i’ interferences. This can be achieved through developing our Emotional Intelligence Skills.

Emotions are involved in everything we do: every action, decision and judgement. Emotionally intelligent people recognise this and use their thinking to manage their emotions rather than being managed by them. Emotional intelligence is the ability to use emotions effectively; it is becoming increasingly clear that these skills are the foundation of high-performing organisations.

It’s a basic tool that, deployed with finesse, is the key to professional and organisational success. Futuristic organisations are seeking to gain this performance advantage and have begun using emotional intelligence testing as part of the recruitment and hiring process as well as for succession planning.

Harvard Psychologist and researcher Daniel Goleman, reported that 80-90% of the competencies that differentiate top performers are in the domain of emotional intelligence. While IQ (Intelligent Quotient) and other factors are important, it’s clear that emotional intelligence (Emotional Quotient – EQ) is essential for optimal performance.

Emotional competence is the single most important personal quality that each of us must develop and access to experience a breakthrough and build more effective relationships with our superiors, peers, and staff. Everyone has emotional intelligence — for most of us, it’s an underdeveloped area and an untapped resource. Researchers, Psychologist, consultants and other observers had long recognised – that the most successful people were not necessarily those with high IQs but rather those with highly developed interpersonal and social skills.

It is to this end, that Ovilan Consulting is proposing organisations embark on a holistic intervention that will greatly aid the development and application of emotional intelligence in the workplace. This will result in a paradigm shift and bring about Professional, Social and Conceptual competencies that will re-position your organisations for optimal success.

  • Because feelings matter – and can enhance or paralyze productivity
  • Because emotions are contagious and can set off a chain reaction of negativity and increase communication barriers
  • Because it enhances our ability to respond rather that react to situations in our life and work
  • Help identify toxic emotional undercurrents that exist for positive intervention
  • Enable people listen and question each other with respect and reduce conflict
  • Because groups are smarter than individuals only when they exhibit the qualities of emotional intelligence
  • Because relationships in the workplace determines the emotional climate and is directly related to individual job performance, team resonance and invariably organisational success.
  • Because “soft skills” deliver “hard results” and
  • It ensures organisations get a Return on Investment (ROI) from other capacity building endeavours and business activities in the Organisation – as a change in attitude and habit must also take place, this is what EI seeks to achieve.

To achieve a holistic intervention we seek to engage the entire organisation through conducting an employee climate survey – a confidential process that employs the use of the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) the latest research-based 360° feedback tool. This will ensure the emotional reality is captured as well as help us identify the direct relation of a particular emotional undercurrent with a performance problem.
Through thorough analysis of employee feedback, we are equipped to proffer strategic solutions to strategic issues identified. Our intervention for performance improvement will include engaging your workforce in a series of in-plant training sessions to raise awareness and improve EI skills to become more effective, manage relationships better (internal & external) and ultimately improve organisational performance.

Our intervention will also include opportunities for one-to-one coaching where it is deemed appropriate after thorough feedback analysis. The promise of the practical application of emotional intelligence is aided through coaching as this is what creates sustainability of the desired change over time.

Developing the EI of an organization requires more than just embarking on a series of training programmes. A large amount of energy goes into hiding emotions, especially in the workplace, yet emotion is the very essence of who we are and what we go on to achieve in life.

In the workplace, a range of emotions including jealousy, frustration, isolation, feeling undermined, unappreciated, happiness, love, hate, valued, anger, shame, envy, enthusiasm, and fear are experienced. It is therefore important that the process starts by capturing the current emotional reality as much as possible within the organisation to identify performance barriers.

1 ) We start by engaging The Human Resource Department (HR) and Head of Operations to understand the organisational structure and lines of reporting.

2 ) Self assessment questionnaire (a confidential process) based on the five-competency model of emotional intelligence by Daniel Goleman. This exercise will reveal area of strength, and ensure attention is given to the areas you feel are weak and will pay dividends as well as areas that must be developed as a matter of priority.

3 ) Analysis of employee feedback to identify issues

4 ) Issues articulated with recommendations for intervention

5 ) Develop Schedule for Intervention – this will comprise in-plant training sessions, one-to-one coaching sessions, group meetings to reiterate shared responsibility, accountability and commitment towards archiving organisational goals and progress report meetings.

6) Commence Planned Intervention – Each activity ending with evaluation of impact

7 ) Produce Intervention report for management– to include evaluation reports

Our Flagship Programme on Emotional Intelligence is split into four categories. Based on the outcome of our intervention through the employee climate survey, we will engage your workforce in a series of in-plant training sessions which may fall in any of the categories. The outcome of the intervention may also dictate that all four categories are covered comprehensively.

  1. Conceptualising Emotional Intelligence
  2. Emotional Intelligence – Personal
  3. Emotional Intelligence – Interpersonal
  4. Leading with Emotional Intelligence