PART 2: What are low EQ (emotionally intelligent) leaders costing your organization? $$$ ?

In part 1, I covered what low emotionally intelligent leaders are costing companies in productivity per employee per year. In this part we will cover the damage it does to your employees themselves and how it impacts you the business owner.

The type of damage done to an employee reporting to a low EQ leader is heart breaking. It does not just affect their productivity, the impact of this is much more severe for them because it permeates all other areas of their lives. I am simply going to list the effects of the treatment below:

1. Family life suffers
2. Low self-esteem as a result
3. Mental health issues (as this treatment creates a wound)
4. Desperation
5. Fearfulness
6. Their physical health deteriorates
7. Depression
8. Deterioration of their relationships in all spheres
9. Unable to find another job because of desperation

These are some of the immediate side effects to them as a person. Financially, if they are not on a medical aid it means massive expenses. Should the person ‘redline’ (a term used to describe the breach of the stress level’s peak), and need to be admitted to hospital, the excursion could cost at least $9 500.00 for a three week stay (calculated according to charges by Crescent Clinic in Johannesburg).

What does all of this mean to you as a business? How does it impact you? Consider that these charges can be claimed back from you in light of the fact that you allowed this behavior of a low EQ leader. Hence facilitating it. If they wish to they may take you to court and use the hospitalization as proof of your misconduct as an employer. They can also take you to all the relevant labour departments of your country. I don’t think it is necessary to do the sums for you here – I will leave it up to your imagination.

This is a worst case scenario. However, I am trying to impact on you how serious this is. Not just for your organization but for a fellow human’s life. Another aspect worth mentioning is, how does this allowance of such a leader’s behavior in your business reflect on you?

There are a lot of things that you can regain in life, but a tarnished reputation is not one of them.

It is always best to address a leader with low emotional intelligence as soon as you asses that they are such a leader. However I do strongly advise that you work with them in a positive manner. ‘On boarding’ them or gaining ‘buy in’ from them to submit to a best practice EQ strategy. The way this will work to your advantage is that this low EQ leader changes and becomes a high EQ leader. If the person can not reconcile themselves to the new way of working, they will leave in their own time. Either way, you and the rest of your staff will win because of the change.

Before you digest the food for thought I just handed you, please leave any questions or comments below. They are of great value, not only to myself but to our business.

As always

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson
www.magnetostrat.com
Suzy.Wilson@magnetostrat.com

PART 1: Develop Self-Awareness to Develop your EQ (emotional intelligence)

If you read anything on emotional intelligence, you will see the word ‘self-awareness’ come up time and time again. But I get so frustrated because most information sources provide a little two liner on each topic believing that you will head off into the sunset happily applying the two liner advice they gave you. Whooohooo! I do believe if you can complain about something you should be able to do something about it. So here is the 101 on developing self-awareness.

Take a Personality Test

This is the most effective and the fastest way of gaining a solid framework as to what you are about. It is easy to find a personality test online that will give you substantial amount of information resulting from the test. There are just some guidelines you should follow to determine the quality or the value of the information they give you.

1. Is it an automated test?: If you take the test and the system spits out the results within a couple of seconds, you have just had a machine tell you what you are like. I have found these types of tests to be between 50% and 70% correct, but no more than that.

2. Is someone that has no contact with you at all evaluating the answers?: If you are lucky enough and they send you the results in a couple of days, it usually means that one of your fellow humans has evaluated your answers. This is preferable. However if it is someone that you have never had any contact with you are likely to get a 70% to 85% accuracy.

3. Is it complicated?: if it’s complicated, you are more than likely to get frustrated with the mountains of data they have sent you. The point is to get a framework and key words that describe you. Not Einstein’s analysis of e=mc2… If this is the case, I am sorry you have wasted your time. The rule with anything is to keep it simple. The most complicated questions usually have the most uncomplicated answers.

4. Make sure someone asks you questions: It is best to be evaluated by someone that as well as giving you a test, actually speaks to you. Preferably face to face or a Skype call will do. You will know that this person has your best interest at heart and will give you an honest assessment. They will ask you questions about what you like, what you don’t like and how you respond to situations. Then they will combine that information with the information from the test and you will get an accuracy of at least 95% to 99%. We will leave the lagging percentages for human error. But you will get a much more reliable source of information.

I can tell you this with absolute certainty because I have been doing it for years. With the advent of Magneto Strategics, I have had to develop and devise our own personality tests and emotional intelligence tests. Also from being on the road for such a long time in sales and marketing, I refined my assessment skills. A practiced coach will be able to give you 70% accurate feedback about your personality within 10 to 20 of meeting you for the first time. Scary yes, ask a couple of my friends I have done that to… 🙂 . But I learnt to refine that skill because it helped me sell my products. I very rarely accept a ‘No’, because to me that means ‘Go’. And it is most likely only a temporary situation if you can build a strong enough relationship with the person. I always bring home the bacon, no matter how long I have to hunt for it! Why? Because I know how to engage you according to your personality type. The test they give you should take no longer than 20-30min and be straight forward and to the point. The combination of the two types of information is fantastic!

That is your first action – please go and complete a personality test.

In part 2, I will let you know what to do with the information.

Before you school off to do that, please leave your comment or question below – I would love to hear from you!

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson
www.magnetostrat.com
Suzy.Wilson@magnetostrat.com

High EQ (emotional intelligence) Lashing

By now, if you have been following my blog, you will have noticed that I have a problem with low EQ leadership. I.e. bully bosses. Or in general if people treat others around them badly. I actually want to loose it! But I won’t… That’s bad EQ management 🙂

I have always had a problem with it. Especially when I entered the job market as a junior person and noticed the way some leadership treat their subordinates. I was 19 years old and got myself into a lot of trouble standing up for people. I didn’t mind, I kept doing it and I will keep doing it. Part of Magneto Strategics business is to help people suffering under a low EQ (emotionally intelligent) leader.

The golden rule is: Treat others the way you would like to be treated. It is a sound principal. Why then do I see so many – especially in corporate companies – that can’t manage the basics? Even worse, why does the top leadership allow this? It is by no means ethical. I have worked for high EQ companies and I have created my own. I know it is possible and by no means difficult to do. It is actually a lot of fun and less effort than this wallowing people do. Please don’t misunderstand me, I know all to well all the psychological reasons as to why people behave in this manner. What baffles me is even though they know it is not ethical, they will continue! They do this in the hope of getting better results even though they see that their results with people stay poor. Enter the definition of insanity: ‘To do the same thing repeatedly but expecting a different result’. So what do they have to do to get different results? Here are the things that characterize high EQ leadership:

1. People First

Any high EQ leader worth their salt will let you know that it’s not about you, it’s about your people. End of story. A high EQ leader will make sure that his/her team crosses the finish line together. The picture does not look like this: ‘Big Dog’ personality type striding into the boardroom with glinting smile. Following hot on his heels, scraggly looking frightened pups doing obeseness with files and paperwork dropping out of their hands. Please pay attention the next time you see a known low emotionally intelligent leader enter the boardroom with an announcement…

2. Humility

This is the hallmark of a pure bread high EQ leader. When everybody showers them with praise, they will redirect that praise to their team. Contrary to belief, humility is by no means a show of weakness. Humility has an underlying strength of steel. It takes great courage to be humble.

3. Humanity

High EQ leaders are care givers. They make sure each individual on their team is validated, is made to feel wanted and valuable. Drawing on their strengths and assisting them in their weaknesses.

4. Listening

There is an Afrikaans saying, when loosely translated sounds like this: You have two ears and one mouth. Listen twice but only speak once. Truly great leaders know how to listen and hear their people.

The low EQ leader and his/her team stand no chance against a high EQ leader and their team operating in this manner. It breeds a fierce loyalty with a high EQ leader’s team and will out perform any low EQ leader and team by at least 40% should you measure their productivity. That is a lashing of note! So then what are low EQ leaders costing you? Go to my blog on PART 1: What are low EQ leaders costing you?

The same is true for high EQ individuals, their success rate with people is astounding on many levels. It is completely unnecessary for anybody to have a low EQ. It is a skill that can be learnt and grown. Why people choose to – because it is a choice – operate on low EQ goes beyond me.

If you have a high EQ company and high EQ leaders, please let me know? I would like to feature you in my blog as a good example to all! Also please leave your comments below, I would love to hear from you.

As always

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson

The Sadness of Low EQ (emotional intelligence).

Over the weekend I visited and old friend of mine that part owns and runs the German Club in Edenvale. Dirk mentored me while I was setting up my meat pie manufacturing facility and was a great asset; not to mention – a fabulous mentor. From the moment you meet Dirk, you know where you stand with him. But he has a big heart and saves people form themselves in times of distress. He has a great talent for that and most definitely possesses a very high emotional intelligence.

For a short while, I helped out at the German Club and thus got to know the staff. I am not too sure what the story was with this little girl and her mother that helped Dirk out on some weekends waitressing and with events like beer feasts. I could never get on friendly terms with her. Later I found out that she has a very high IQ and was accepted on a bursary to one of the top universities in the country, as you will never guess what… A rocket scientist. I am absolutely serious.

Being the person I am and always practicing my favorite sport; analyzing people, I just could not get footing with this child. Being in sales and marketing for a long time, when that happens, you immediately start asking yourself, ‘Have I lost my magic touch?‘. It is a rather distressing couple of moments as you try but fail miserably to get your ’emotional hooks’ in. No matter how I tried to get onto a good footing – she just wouldn’t bite. I ascribed it to her youth, rebeliousness and just plain rudeness. Over this last weekend I saw her again. This time, she did not even greet me. She would stare me blankly in the face, I would greet, but she would carry on as if nobody had spoken to her. This behaviour had always puzzled me. It is understandable coming from a small child that suffers a bit of natrual shyness – but she is an adult and understands there is no excuse for rudeness.

But then my analyzing brain started ticking over again. She displays the typical symptoms of a low EQ person. I find it tragic, these people have a hard time going through life. Hence, I do what I do. The symptoms are typically this:

1. Uncalled for Rudeness

You most likely did not ask for this and don’t understand why the person is being rude to you. The reason is that you are viewed as a threat. Astonishing but true. For most part people with low emotional intelligence, suffer low self-esteem. It does not seem like it at first but on closer analysis, you will find it there.

2. Low Self-esteem

They usually have a sidekick with lower self-esteem than they themselves posess. They do this to bolster their own. I mention this because it’s an easy way to spot them. It sounds like a very stupid thing but you get them in sophisticated circles. Easiest place to spot them? In an office invironment – they are the people that contribute the most to ‘office politics’. A person with high emotional intelligence are under no circumstances allowed in their space and they will resort to bullying to get you out of the way. That is what a bully is by the way, a person with low emotional intelligence. They don’t know how to process you in their world, you don’t make sense. Take for instance the girl I mentioned earlier. She showed up with her sidekick ordering her around and making her do stuff for her that a normal person would never do to another out of respect.

3. You are a threat

How on earth do they spot and perceive a person with high emotional intelligence, especially as a threats? To a degree, they have a bit more social intelligence but they use it to manipulate people. This is due to their lack of emotional intelligence. They will pick it up in your ‘vibe’. In other words, your body language. A lot of people are reading this and going, ‘Lady, you have lost it.’ Never, but never underestimate the power of body language. You are a fool if you do. Here are the stats: In everyday conversation, even ofer the phone, body language counts 75% of your total message. In business it counts as much as 85%! If you are emotionally savvy, it comes across in your macro and micro signals. If you read up about social intelligence, you will find how two people’s brains connect seamlessly – sending and receiving messages. When the low emotionally intelligent person picks up on your savvy – you become a target! Why? They simply don’t know how to deal with you, so they do the best they can – limit contact by making things unpleasant. If that does not work they will resort to mistreatment of the emotionally intelligent person.

4. Anything you do will be viewed as wrong

You will never be able to live up to this person’s ‘standard’ – ever. They will only change once they recognize they have a problem. Ignore them and do what you do anyway.

It is truly sad about that girl and many others like her. She will go through life holding her high IQ over everybody’s heads like a sword. Never considering the fact that she might have to change or improver her dealings with her fellow man. Why? Because we are conditioned at school that a high IQ is all you need. Why should she believe anything else? Nobody has given her a reason to. And she sure as hell is not going to listen to me! That is why I have entitled this blog, ‘The Sadness of Low EQ’.

Some may correct (how happy I will be and people around them) and some won’t. A high IQ never determines success or the level thereof. It determines whether you can read, write, count and logically put things together. Success is always determined by your high emotional intelligence.

Thank you for reading our blog. I would love to hear more about our views on the subject and you are welcome to leave your comments below. Or you can simply mail me directly Suzy.Wilson@magnetostrat.com. For more information on Magneto Strategics go to www.magnetostrat.com.

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson

PART 1: What are low EQ (emotionally intelligent) leaders costing your organization? $$$ ?

How much money do you think low emotionally intelligent leaders are costing your organization on average? According to a study done by Harrison Psychological Associates in the USA, did a study on 9000 federal employees. Indicating that 42 percent of female and 15 percent of male employees reported being mistreated by a leader within a two-year period, resulting in a cost of more than $180 million in lost time and productivity.
‘Mistreat’, is a nice encompassing word for low emotional intelligence.

1. The Sum

If you divide the $180 million by the 9 000 employees it would equal $20 000 over a two year span, meaning $10 000 per year per employee if you averaged it out.

The company I worked for still has the culture of nurturing low EQ leaders. On the second floor of the head office building alone, there are no less than four low EQ leaders. To be nice, let’s say there are two low emotionally intelligent per floor in each of their buildings. Times the average of six floors per building times the ten buildings they have in Johannesburg alone times the $10 000 per employee per year (I am not going to even attempt the amount in Rand! Just FYI, it was around x8 this morning), is an astounding $120 000 per year per building they have. Then calculate the staff turnover with that. Two years is the average time your other employees stay in their positions before leaving that leader. I am in full agreement with John C. Maxwell when he says; ‘People leave people – not organizations.’

We are talking about an organization that has business interests in 38 countries in the world and close to 40 000 employees on their payroll. (I’m sure you are more clever than I am and don’t need a calculator to do the sum for that one.) Really? That’s just not smart business.

2. The Summation

Funny enough, organizations like the one I worked for have the value of ‘Winning with People’ written up in their official values declaration. But the statistics reveal that 85% of the top and middle leadership in these organizations never get trained or corrected on how they deal with or treat their people! That is SHOCKING! But if you really feel like having the people that are costing you millions each year hang around and do that… Well, then I just don’t know…

It is vital these days to have a business where all your employees are happy. Happy employees are productive employees. I know from experience how hard it is to leave a highly emotionally intelligent leader. You simply don’t want to. The reason why you have to do this is – your best staff are leaving you. And you are left with the low EQ… You know, the stuff that makes a business work…

3. The Solution

Training. If you can get everybody to adhere to the same basic code of honor (this is not a set of rules and regulations, they are principals), you have won 50% of the battle. What battle? Regaining your profits. Once you have it in place, the people that want to stay will stay. The ones that leave, are the ones you want to leave.

This will naturally constitute a cultural change, but more on that in part two.

I would love to hear your opinion or simply your thoughts on the matter. You can leave your comments below or you can mail me directly at suzy.wilson@magnetostrat.com

As always..

Grow & Prosper!

Suzy Wilson

Blogging with High EQ (emotional intelligence): Using your empathy

In our high tech world it has been difficult to stay ‘high touch’. Social media has brought the whole world to your fingertips but has created physical isolation bubbles.

The human creature is a social one. So much so that we have intricate body language queue’s, personalities that slot together like puzzle pieces, cultures that know how to communicate in a specific way… Even children at play have their own language.

I read my fellow bloggers well put together thoughts on paper and needless to say I have found some awesome writers! Some, however, sadly forget that there is a person on the other side reading what you wrote. That’s who you do it for, right? Maybe some timely reminders to get your juices flowing then? Here is how to blog with high EQ (emotional intelligence). For some clarity on what emotional intelligence is, go to this link: https://magnetostrategics.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/what-is-eq-emotional-intelligence/

1. Remember who you are speaking to.

There is another person at the other end of the screen reading your thoughts. It is easier to imagine a close friend sitting beside you while letting them hear your thoughts. That way the feeling of speaking to a close fiend will come through in your writing.

2. Energy leaks

Just as you might ask someone to leave you alone for a bit so you can rest, calm down or regather your thoughts, it’s a good idea not to write when you are feeling bad. People will pick up on it.

3. You have worked hard

No doubt, you have worded very hard to generate and earn the trust of your readers. Make sure you always have an illustration, story or word picture that they can relate to. This will draw out your readers natural emotion and help them relate to you. If you are going to start getting mechanical, and I am sure most of us fall short here at some point, you are going to loose your hard earned audience.

4. Empathize! Empathize! Empathize!

Include ‘fellow feeling’ in your pieces. Now here is great news for the guys – it does not mean you have to get mushy and start reading poetry to Daisy the cow at random! Try to feel and understand how your readers might feel at what you are writing. Your reader will appreciate the depth of your empathy and understanding of their situation. Writing a blog is not about you – it’s all about them!

Remember to nurture and take care of your readers with the ‘high touch’ of empathy! That is high emotional intelligence and a base skill of it. You will have a happy and loyal readership for years to come.

As always I would love to get feedback from you. You can leave comments below or mail me directly at Suzy.Wilson@magnetostrat.com

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson

How do I develop my EQ (emotional intelligence)?

I wish I had the information I am about to impart to you when I started on this journey. I had to learn this process the hard way and I did it – back to front…

Some background…

At a very young age, I started looking for a way to define the people I saw out perform the rest. This person always has what is commonly termed ‘street smarts’, but at the same time they were highly intelligent. What I noticed about them is that a large number of them don’t finish school or never go to university and are never phased by the fact. They draw people like magnets and know how to get peole to do things like magic. These were everyday people, not the ones that own or run Forutune 500 companies or rock starts. Just people, like you and myself. I started looking for a word or a term to use for this person in 1996/1997. Daniel Goleman wrote his book, ‘Emotionali Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ’ in 1995. I was 16 going on 17 at the time, Daniel Goleman is an American and I am a South African. Why that is relevant is that, anything that gets released in the States only gets to us much, much later… Especially at that time it could take as long as 3 years to catch on/catch up. Thanks to the Internet that gap is becoming smaller every year, phew! How was I suppose to have the info if it could only reach me at such a late stage? I started hearing about the book in the Herbalife circles in late 2001 early 2002. But I never knew that was what I was looking for. And I did not pay much attention to it…

I found it!

After finding one thing after another (tons of research over 15 years – the thought of it exhausts me now), that helped me understand why this type of person functions the way they do; a good friend of mine handed me Daniel Goldman’s book on emotional intelligence. I started reading and everything I had researched and had done, started snapping together at a frightening pace like a magnetic puzzle. He was not introducing me to a new subject by any means. He simply solved my two problems of naming it and fitting all of this stuff together. As things started snapping into place, I could wack myself over the head with a pan! Why on earth did I not read that book sooner! I now knew it was emotional intelligence.

I discovered

What I don’t like about most of the material that has been written about emotional/social intelligence, is they will go on and on and on about what it is. Not necessarily how you develop it so that you can be your best at it. I have a COLOSSAL problem with that! Like I mentioned before, I learnt how to do this back to front. So I know HOW TO implement and grow it! I get very frustrated with what you have to say if you are not actually going to get to the point and show me how to do it (sigh).

These are the tools you use

I must warn you: If you are looking for a ‘shortcut’ to being a superstar in your field with EQ… This will not work for you… Just like everything worth having – and trust me this is – you will have to work for it. The upside of being patient and working on it, is that you can implement the skills immediately and have instant results. For example, with the very next conversation you have after a coaching consultation, webinar or seminar. But it takes time to ‘rewrire’ yourself. It is the same process the NLP coaches (Nuero-linguistic Programming) use to ‘retrain your brain’s’ hard wiring. Below is a list of tools we use at Magneto Strategics to mentor you to develop your emotional intelligence.

– Personality Analysis: This is the most powerful tool you can use. The foundation skill to emotional intelligence is is (in a nutshell) self mastery. This requires you to know how you ‘tick’ and what makes you ‘tick’ the way you do.
– 360 Degree Analysis: The best way to indicate to yourself, areas in your character that you could improve on, is to get an understanding of people’s perception of you. In this Analysis, people in your life are asked to give their opinion (or perception) about different facets about you. The people in our lives act like mirrors and the rule is, you can only attract what you reflect.
– Strength Channeling: We take the strengths typical to your personality type and help you channel those. Focusing on the positive, your strengths, auto addresses your weaknesses. This enables you to up skill your weaknesses at a later stage more effectively. Ultimately, it is a colossal waste of time to focus on your weaknesses.

And that’s it! That is how you develop EQ and these are the tools we use to coach and mentor you to a higher emotional intelligence. With persistence and consistency anybody can learn this skill or ‘upgrade’ their current skill level. Here is some more good news! These skills automatically spill over into your social intelligence…

The impact of emotional intelligence on your life is of great importance. It is the diffrence between success and failure. It is the pivot between being mediocre and being great! A sudy done on high achivers revealed that 90% of these people have high EQ’s! These are the people that have fascinated me form such a long time ago until today. You have just got to love people!

I would love to hear from you! Please give me your thoughts and opinions as this is valuable feedback to us. Leave your comments below or mail me directly at suzy.wilson@magnetostrat.com.

My wish for you as always…

Grow & Prosper

Suzy Wilson

EQ or no EQ…? That is the question.

I know I promised that my next post would involve laying out the cost of what low EQ leaders are costing your business. However it has turned into a project of it’s own with two or three post being created for it. Due to it’s long process, I will post this at a later stage for you.

I felt that it would be usefull information to you if I pointed out the pro’s and con’s of having or not havving a best practice EQ system in your business. To find out what EQ is see: What is EQ (emotional entelligence) here… https://magnetostrategics.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/what-is-eq-emotional-intelligence/.

When it comes to the suggestion of implementing emotional intelligence strategies form someone within an organization, it is often met with some resistance. Why? People are resistant to change and the unknown frightens most of us on some level. And natrually, business people wonder what the impact on their business will be. So why would you like to implement EQ (emotional intelligence) in the business environment? Here are the top 4 reasons why.

1. Happy employees are productive employees

What is the number one activity that needs to happen on a daily basis in your business? Production. Let me ask you this about yourself: If you are not feeling up to things on a specific day for whatever reason, how is you performance, when speaking of productivity? And if you need to go to a job you hate going to, how does your performance add up then? I am sure all of us have hated a job we had at one point or another. Those two factors make production dip with frightening statistics. Did you notice? Both times I asked you ‘feel’ qestions, how you feel about work and your emotional state. How you feel about anything in life, affects your actions.

Let me ask you this: If you felt sick, demotivated and groggy one morning as you got up for work … BUT … You know, at work people and the environment are positive, supportive, caring, encouraging, motivating, it recharges you and you always feel like you are playing instead of working… Would you really want to stay in bed? Or would you prefer to go to a place that will make you feel better? However, if you are deathly sick and can’t stand… I recommend staying in bed rather than scaring everybody with your best zombie look…

Last question on this: What would you do keep your job with an employer that offered you happiness when you arrived at work? Work hard to keep it maybe? That is the point. Employees will work SO much harder and be SO much more productive for an employer that keeps them happy.

2. Great environments attract productivity and success

Emotion leaks. Think about that for a second. Association and environment influences. And think about that for another second.
‘Leaking emotion’ involves the law of reciprocity. It’s the old thing of, when you walk down the street and you smile at someone, they will reciprocate by smiling back at you. In other words, they will pay back your kindness. When you have low EQ leaders in your business, ten out of ten times, your employees that report to them are unhappy. For confirmation, check your staff turnover in that department – dead ringer give away! The person in your organization that is the unhappiest will ‘leak’ the most emotion (note to the manly men among us: – you leak emotion as well). It is human nature to sympathize with someone that is troubled in one way or the other. Hence, your other employees will sympthize, pick up on their emotion or vibe and ‘leak’ that same emotion. Because of the association or relationship colleagues share amongst themselves withing the same environment, they influence each other to ‘leak’ the same emotion. This type of ‘leak’ can be likened to a sewerage leak inside your business. If you literally had a sewerage leak seeping into your premises, would there be any production in your company that day? No!

The same is true for a bad ’emotional leak’. The opposite is true for a good ’emotional leak’. People that work for companies that keep them happy have the effect of stashing the company’s bank account with as much as 40% more profit, than businesses that don’t have a high EQ. Herb Kelleher set an astounding example of running a high EQ operation. When his employees were asked if they would work over time for no pay, they unanimously said yes! Will your employees do the same for you? I have included the YouTube link for you here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jggvkabsfbE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

3. People leave people – not organizations

Think about that department of yours that has that high staff turnover. Have you ever reviewed some of the exit interviews conducted with the people leaving? I am willing to stake a claim on it that 90% of them leave because of people that work there. The same is true for any other business as well. I worked for a high EQ company for just under four years. When the owners of the business called me up to say that they have sold the business, my words to my Sales Director was: ‘I will stay until you leave, but I am not working for those people.’ I left before them. Sure enough, my words were not clod yet, and the new people started eroding and breaking down a high EQ company to a no EQ company. And it shows, unfortunately. Their sales have never been the same, the company is now a stark and dull place when you walk in because most everybody is unhappy under the iron fists of the shareholders. You use to be able to walk in, go stand in front of the glass sliding doors to the glistening white factory, greet and wave at the floor staff – and they would all turn around and with a loud ‘Hello’, wave back at you! They don’t anymore. They now have big staff problems and massive staff turnovers and only more problems to add to it. I wish my words fell to the floor and never came true, but I warned them, and they did come true.

4. A team can only be as strong or as good as it’s leadership.

This in a positive situation, extremely fortunate, because you get great leaders like Herb Kelleher and Richard Branson! In a negative situation, it is tragically and desperately unfortunate. For example Hitler. And here is the sad, sad truth… There are more little Hitler’s out there than Herb Kelleher’s and Richard Branson’s. Leaders of big corporations some, of the biggest in the world have low EQ! I hear you say, ‘But they are successful!’. Yes, so we’re the Egyptions at building the pyramids with slaves that they whipped. It didn’t make it right or ethical and it doesn’t mean it could not have been an even greater success if they had done it in a kind manner.

The marks of a truly great leader are listening, humility, empathy, reasonableness, kindness. You will always attract more hard working bees with honey. But a lot of flies with… John C. Maxwell also writes on the subject of humility for leaders.

If you find a team that sucks – check their leader out… The problem lies there.

Well there you have it! To upskill to EQ or not is still your choice. But the trouble you suffer everyday for not having it in your business is not really worth it.

I would love to hear from you, so do please leave a comment. Or if you prefer, mail me directly at suzy.wilson@magnetostrat.com. And remember to click on the ‘like’ and follow buttons… It means a lot to us and goes a long way. Until my next post…

Grow and Prosper!

Suzy Wilson

Low EQ bosses… Why do they get promoted?

Want is a low EQ (emotionally intelligent) boss? They are easily recognizable due to the following things:

-They are usually highly intelligent people, speaking of IQ.
-They have low tolerance levels for anything emotional. Using expressions like: ‘Just deal with it, you are a professional, aren’t you?’
-People are fearful of them.
-They typically have a negative reputation for their dealings with people and a nickname of sorts will accompany the water cooler chat about them.
-Their pride is to report to their superior about the results they are generating out of the team, giving mostly no credit to the people that do the work.
-They are typically (this is generalized and not limited) middle management, working for a big corporate.
-Their departments have a big staff turn over (businesses, please take note. This does affect your bottom line.)
-They will get labeled a ‘Bully Boss’.
-You do not feel free or want to encourage any type of engagement with them more than is necessary.

You would rather sacrifice your family time that face their wrath.

Simply put, these people are bad news. So why do they get promoted? They have learnt how to manipulate people and keep them in a state of fear to use to their advantage. The effect is this; They do get results out of a team and quickly. For any business, that is the sound of money being deposited in the bank. But is it as much as you think when you calculate your staff turn over against it? I will discuss this in an upcoming article.

So what it boils down to is that the ‘Big Boss’, business owner, MD, CEO or whatever the case may be, is happy. This is due to two things; like I just mentioned, it delivers money to the bank account and secondly, they see results. And there is your reason as to why they get promoted. They have mastered the art of manipulation and fear instillment that produces the results with their teams for them so they can promote themselves to their superior. Brilliant sale! Nasty tactics…

This is how these people survive. I am now going to empathize with them – I by no means justify or condone their actions. However, for the sake of understanding why they do what they do, I will explain. For someone to be able to give such treatment to others, they must find nothing wrong with it to a certain degree. To accomplish this, they have to treat themselves in like manner. The rule of thumb here is that a person will treat others the way they treat themselves. How does this work?

You can see it by their behavior. Typically they will work very hard and mostly over work themselves. They will work on weekends, form home or on leave, and make sure you know it. Then the behavior flips around and they have a different attitude. They will call the office and say they are working from home. Take a lot of single sick leave days, go on extended lunches and sit and talk to other colleagues for hours. They repeat this pattern with you as the employee. They make unusually high demands and expect you to deliver. They will also expect you to work weekends and from home or whatever the case may be. Then all of a sudden they will take you to lunch, spoil you with small gifts and gestures and round and round we go.

For your average level headed decent person this is confusing behavior. One minute you will be treated like dirt and the next like royalty. This has a very negative effect on you psychologically. Understand that they don’t know any better, it does bother their conscience, hence the sweet an doting behavior – but it is not viewed as ‘a big deal’. They will tell you to be an adult about it when they turn on you again. Realize that this situation will never be corrected in your favor. All your ‘Big Boss’ will see is his bank account and the results he is getting. Therefor you are replaceable but your emotionally unintelligent boss is the asset to the company. Which one of the short straws would you like…?

My advice to you – leave. Find a boss that will treat you with respect.

Look out for my next post: Low EQ leaders: What are they costing you?

I would love to have your opinion or simply hear from you if you have a question. You can mail me back a suzy.wilson@magnetostrat.com or leave a comment below on the WordPress site https://magnetostrategics.wordpress.com

Grow & Prosper!

Suzy Wilson

What is EQ (emotional intelligence) ?

No, I am not going to give you the usual rundown. You can Google that and read the hundreds of articles by the same title and they will give you the Doc’s facts and figures. I am going to write this article so you can find an example of high EQ in your own life! Someone you can relate to. I am also going to touch on EQ’s relation to IQ.

Have you ever heard someone you know say of someone else you both know, ‘They are just one of those people?’. You must know somebody like that? Think of them: They seem to have it all figured out. They are mostly always calm in any situation, know what to do, have great families and friends, they have good jobs and just overall a good life. Not without it’s up’s and down’s, but they just seem to manage better than others.

Most noticeable about them is that people love them. They seem to have a type of ‘groupie following’, but done with great respect. They do this regardless of personality type or that fact that they are an introvert or an extrovert. (Introverts are commonly misunderstood as to shyness. Most of them are not shy, they simply deal with social situations differently. In some cases they are better at this then some extroverts. FYI: I am heavily extroverted)

My favorite example to use is Sir Richard Branson. He left school at the age of 15 due to his dyslexia. Now, I am sure it is plain to everybody that Richard Branson is an intelligent man. However if IQ was the only determining factor of success in this world, I am a bit perplexed about the many people like Richard Branson who excel in whatever they do even with a very average or even a not so average IQ. It is clear, Richard Branson, is ‘one of those people’.

Take for instance Carin Hendricks. I have great respect for this lady; she is dynamic, a leader, determined and people want to be sound her. You know when she enters a room because she has a great presence about her. If you know a bit about me, I acquired most of my business acumen form MLM’s (Multi Level Marketing companies). This is where I know Carin Hendricks from. Early in my career I joined Herbalife. They have some of the best training around as far as running your business. Carin was an air hostess when she joined Herbalife. She loved the products and the idea that it could generate an income for her. So she quit her job and became a full time distributor. I sat in one of her trainings as she told her story one day and she added a little bit that I did not know. This stuck in my mind. At the time I was still on my journey to founding Magneto and it sharpened my questions for me. What she said was this: She had to study hard to get a C average at school and needed to be diligent about it. My jaw dropped and her words kept spinning in my head. My old friend ‘The Question’ made his voice loud, screaming at me: ‘What makes her successful?’. The last time I checked what she was earning monthly, it was around $36 000.00! Heaven knows what it is now… And she is an outstandingly good leader. Carin is obviously intelligent, it is plain to all that know her. My question was answered years later when I learnt about emotional intelligence. Everything that I had researched and put together up to that point, revolved around emotional intelligence. I just never had the words to describe it though. Now it is plain that Carin as a very high EQ. In fact she is a master at it!

Can you relate to it now? Did you find someone you know that is like this? I am sure you did. For those that like the facts and figures, I have briefly listed the emotional intelligence description below:

Rundown of what emotional intelligence is:

Knowing your emotions.
Managing your own emotions.
Motivating yourself.
Recognizing and understanding other people’s emotions.
Managing relationships, i.e., managing the emotions of others.

This is how you recognize them and I am sure you must have sat and marveled (as I did) at one of them. The thing is that, emotional intelligence is a learnt skill. Unlike IQ, it can be developed and grown. This is our mission at Magneto Strategics, to mentor people and develop them in their EQ skills so they to can enjoy the benefits it brings.

We are running a special at the moment for you to be able to do so. Check out the top of our blog page on our site under the events section. You can get a Strength Channeling session (learning to channel your personality to strengthen your EQ) for half price. This is a special to celebrate the launch of our site www.magnetostrat.com .

I would love to have your opinion or simply hear from you if you have a question. You can mail me back a suzy.wilson@magnetostrat.com or leave a comment below on the WordPress site https://magnetostrategics.wordpress.com .

Next time: Low EQ bosses. Why do they get promoted?

Until next time!

Grow & Prosper!

Suzy Wilson