We are running our whizzy introduction to Emotional Intelligence  “EQ in an Hour” at a reduced rate for the months of March and April.*

•     Want your managers to connect more with their teams?
•     Think your sales team could have better conversations with their customers?
•     Just want a fun lunchtime session that makes people think a bit differently?

We’re bumping the fee for your first 4 EQ psychometric questionnaires + personal reports (usually £60 each).

EQ training has got us back into having proper conversations with our customers – Johnson & Johnson

If you’re a little bit tempted and want to find out more… give us a call.

* Course to be booked and delivered by 31^st April 2013

 People will forget what you said and what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou

Emotional intelligence is about the impact our emotions have on our performance and success, the missing link that could make the biggest difference to most businesses.

Daniel Goleman defined EQ as  “how we regulate emotions & the impact this has on success.”

Decades of research have demonstrated the relationship between high EQ and increased performance.

This article explores this relationship and the impact EQ can have on your performance, success and pay packet!

The good news!

The good news is that Emotional intelligence can be learnt.  EQ is made up of a collection of flexible skills that can be acquired and improved with practice.

Some people are naturally more emotionally intelligent than others, however, you can develop high emotional intelligence even if you aren’t born with it, unlike IQ and personality, which are more or less hard-wired and less easy to improve!

How does EQ contribute to professional success?

When TalentSmart, a leading organisation in EQ psychometrics, tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other important workplace skills, they found EQ to be the strongest predictor of performance, responsible for 58% of success across all job types.

They also found that more than 90% of top performers in leadership positions possessed a high degree of EQ and just 20% of poor performers demonstrated high EQ.

Emotional intelligence is the foundation for a host of critical skills, and it has an impact on everything you say and do each day.  EQ drives successful leadership and personal excellence and it is rare to find a top performer who has low EQ.

People with high EQ earn more money

People with a high degree of emotional intelligence make more money—an average of $29,000 more per year compared to those with low EQ according to Talentsmart.

The link between emotional intelligence and earnings is so well founded that every point increase in EQ adds $1,300 to one’s annual salary. These findings hold true for people in all industries, at all levels, in every region of the world.

EQ and Sales Results

Sales teams that experience mediocre sales performance typically have lower levels of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills.

Over the last few years, consistent research demonstrates that higher levels of emotional intelligence generates higher levels of performance, success and income across multiple sectors and roles.

In 2007, a robust study conducted within a large Pharmaceutical company demonstrated the direct relationship between EQ and sales results.

Following an extensive EQ intervention across Management and Sales personnel, EQ increased by an average of 18% and the total sales revenue increased by a total of 12%.  (Organisations & People, May 2001, Vol 14. No 2)

So how do we increase our EQ?

Everyone’s awareness of their own emotions is different, and the ways in which we all manage our emotional triggers vary.

We can help individuals and teams to improve their EQ in a simple, fun and practical way using strategies that are personal to individual needs.

We follow a few simple steps to improve EQ and ensure that once the strategies are in place, they stick!

•  Measure - Get an individual score of your EQ so you know where you are and where you would like to be
• Understand - Look at the areas that you want to improve for your specific role and professional development.
• Be Practical - Look at EQ as a set of simple, practical strategies that you can apply to make new habits. Pick strategies that you are motivated to adopt and learn.
• Be disciplined and accountable - Once you’ve decided, make a plan of action and stick to it. Habits only change through commitment and repetition. Be accountable through telling others and asking them for feedback on your changes
• Celebrate your ‘Yay’ moments - Recognise and acknowledge when you successfully employ your EQ strategies to make a difference to your performance.

When we increase our EQ we increase our performance, pay and sales revenue.

Emotional Intelligence can be learnt and increased, quickly and easily.

The best way to improve your EQ is to focus on what you want to improve and why this is important to you.

• Apply some practical strategies that will work for you and create new habits.

• Make a plan and stick to it, ask others for feedback

 If you want to know anything else about how to improve your EQ, your teams EQ or your organisations EQ we would be delighted to talk to you over a coffee. 

By training their employees to enhance their own emotional intelligence, organisations are enabling their teams to adapt and monitor their interactions with customers at a completely new level.  Relationships are built on stronger connections, meaning that the likelihood of a successful outcome is significantly increased.

Or do we secretly love the smiley welcome that we receive from the aproned barista who seems to be able to answer a prayer by offering “how can I help you?”  The combination of our favourite bevvy (made just the way we like it) and someone who takes the time to seemingly really understand how our day is going is, in our book, a winning match.  But why is its such a great welcome?  Why does this greeting feel so much better than other establishments that we frequent regularly.  I think the attached article has a lot to do with it!  What do you think?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterubel/2012/11/02/do-starbucks-employees-have-more-emotional-intelligence-than-your-physician/

It’s so easy to get swept up in the future planning, business objectives, next year’s priorities and fire-fighting, that we forget to recognise the little hurdles that we are overcoming every day.

As a nation, we are always striving for the next big thing.  We achieve one objective and we are on to the next before we have taken any time to pat ourselves on the back and say “yay, we did it!”  I’m not talking about multi-million pound deals – those I’m sure we WOULD celebrate.  I’m referring to the useful lead that you acquired through a contact, an unexpected conversation with a customer, a project delivered ahead of the deadline.

We’re our own worst enemies!  The more we achieve, the more we want, and perhaps more challengingly, the more our managers expect.

So here’s the question.  Do you celebrate your mini-successes?  Do you celebrate your team’s little “yay” moments?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you get the fanfares and balloons out when a member of your department does what their job description requests. I’m merely reminding us all (myself included) to take a minute when you complete a task, or get an unexpected win… smile, think to yourself “I did that” and grab a coffee.  Then move on to the next.  Otherwise, what are we working towards?  The faster we work, the less likely we are to gain any sense of achievement.  and this in itself breeds a feeling of failure, even if we have achieved several mini “yays!” in a day.

At Inspired Results, we are on a “Mulled Wine Mission”.  Every “yay” moment means a festive drink.  Just to clarify, we limit ourselves to one a day… but there’s a definite feeling of acheivement when we have a success.

It’s Christmas.  Don’t forget to take a breath and celebrate your “yay” moments!

As our stress increases our compulsion to do more increases. We become human ‘doers’ rather than human ‘beings’ and this actually has the opposite effect to the result we expect as trying to do more can have a detrimental impact on our performance, productivity and clarity of thinking. People in business with high levels of drive and motivation often start doing much more when under pressure and rational thought can slip when emotions such as anxiety and panic set in. At times like this our rational brain actually works less effectively and our performance drops.

Over 60 years of research in the area of Emotional Intelligence demonstrates that our emotions have a significant impact on our performance and that high levels of stress can have a crippling effect on our performance and health. A Harvard study found that a wandering mind creates twice as much unhappiness as doing something that we don’t particularly enjoy. This is largely due to the fact that when our minds wander they tend to move towards negative thoughts and this produces anxiety and sadness. What this means is that the more we can stay focused on the task in hand and be in the moment the happier we are. This is often referred to as being ‘mindful’.

When we talk of being ‘mindful’ all we mean is living in the present moment and focusing on the here and now. Appreciating the moments of everyday rather than being drowned by the endless thoughts and frustrations of our minds. Being in the present moment allows us to organise our thinking and do things purposely rather than on automatic pilot. We become more focused, more productive and feel much calmer.

We have some simple strategies to help you become more mindful and less mind-full:

1. Start breathing

The easiest thing to do to practice mindfulness is to breathe properly. Practice breathing in the moment, taking deep breathes into your lungs and slow your breathing down. When you get a feeling of anxiety or stress just take a moment and remember to breathe. Once you remember to breathe this can be one of the most successful and simple strategies for getting back into the moment and reducing anxiety and stress.

2. Learn to say ‘no’

Start making choices about how you are going to spend your time rather than being dragged into others priorities. Take control of your time and learn to say ‘no’. Saying ‘no’ can be one of the hardest words to say but can have the most impact on your quality of life. Start learning to say ‘no’ to others and ‘yes’ to yourself: start living your life not someone else’s.

3. Be realistic

Having a realistic plan and expectations of yourself and others can hugely reduce stress. By setting yourself less to do and lowering expectations of yourself and others takes undue pressure away. Be ruthless on the urgent important tasks, prioritise and stick to the plan. This will reduce quantity and increase the quality of what you do and how you feel.

4. Appreciate what you have

Focusing on what you have rather than what you don’t have makes you feel happier, calmer and more in control. Rather than thinking of all the things wrong in your life, think of what’s right and make a plan to get more of what you want, rather than what you don’t want.

5. Pay attention and be present

Appreciate being in the moment and pay attention to what is around you. When you notice you are in your busy mind, stop and pay attention to something that you can look at. Take a couple of minutes to look at your surroundings and just notice and observe. Take some breaths and enjoy the feeling of being alive rather than trapped in your thoughts.

By taking a few minutes to employ these simple, yet effective techniques, you will soon notice how easy it can be to stop, take stock, regain focus and stay mindful.  As a result your performance, pressure management and relationships with others will improve significantly (inside and outside the office!)

In the pharmaceutical industry it is tricky to close a sale as there is “no immediate sale” –there is no tangible product that is exchanged and no money that passes hands so a close and commitment becomes tougher for the role of the Pharmaceutical Representative

We also know that Doctors do not like being pushed into a corner and asked to make decisions to change prescribing AND over the years have learnt to just say “yes” or “I’ll bear it in mind” so the representative leaves quietly and no one is upset. This has been likened to “groundhog day” as the Doctor often says “I’ll bear it in mind” and the Representative often accepts this as the norm and walks away not knowing how to move things forward

The overall aim therefore is to get commitment to action from the Doctor which is appropriate, realistic and owned by them so they are more likely to take action rather than an obliging “yes” that never materialises into any change. This is critical to the success of any product or project and is probably the one skill that when developed can make the biggest difference to success

We know from well researched facts (the rule of consistency and commitment by Prof R Cialdini) as well as anecdotal evidence that if we volunteer and own a commitment we are much more likely to take action than an agreeable “yes” that is easy to say and not do…

What did we do?

• We looked at what a large sample of Pharmaceutical Representatives were doing currently and found that less than 50% were closing a call or gaining any commitment from their customers. This is quite typical of the norm from anecdotal evidence across the industry
• Breaking the habit – We rolled out a series of creative workshops and National interventions looking at “why” it’s tough to get a commitment and how to change the habit of shying away from a close
• We developed National incentives and regional competitions to reward the change in behaviour and identify quick successes from Representatives and Managers
• Calls were transcribed and  recorded over a 12 month period to monitor the change in this skill area

Results

ü  Collected over 70 examples of success of where Representatives had gained a commitment from a customer as a result of their interaction

ü  An increase in engagement of Representatives in calls – measured by feedback

ü  An increase of 30% in the skill of gaining closing and gaining commitment over a 12 month period

ü  Sales results exceeded 120% of a stretch target as this strategy started to demonstrate results

Learning’s

• We know that the skill of closing is uncomfortable for some Representatives and we need to find a way of doing this that is comfortable, realistic and adds value to our customers and us
• Customer feedback states that they like to be asked for commitment
• Managers have to be on board with this as their coaching in the field is critical to the success of the skill development
• We know a habit takes 21 days to change and it requires engagement, desire and will to want to change – what needs to happen to engage Representatives to want to start closing and gaining commitment? – this needs consideration and thought in line with your company culture
• This is a simple yet extremely effective  skill and behaviour change strategy that needs keeping simple yet engaging – it also needs to be implemented over time to gain the full effect – A 2 year period for embedding as a minimum to gain significant results

Have a think about your own engagement and how you perform when you are disengaged. Think about your reports or employees in your organisation, think of the impact that being disengaged has on the individual as well as the organisation. Is it not worth investing time, energy and focus on working out an effective strategy to engage yourself and others?

Take a look at our approach to individual change to see how we approach this very differently from others