Inspiring Employee Engagement through Emotional Intelligence

 
The Four Keys to Engagement

What drives deeper motivation?  Research by Richard Deci, author of Why We Do What We Do, highlights a few factors for deep motivation:

1)    sense of autonomy

2)    feeling of competence

3)    relatedness to the broader work of the organization

4)    connection to the community of fellow employees.

 How to Engage People?
So if we want to recapture the $350b in lost engagement, how do we support autonomy, competence and relatedness by building stronger relationships?
One answer can be found in emotional intelligence — which, simply stated, is being smarter with feelings. Leaders can become aware of how emotions influence themselves and others. Leaders can learn how their words and actions support each employee’s autonomy, competence and relatedness and either build or tear down relationships.
Emotional intelligence is the primary driver in leader effectiveness because leadership is about using influence and building effective relationships, which are largely emotional tasks. In fact, EI has been measured as contributing 75-80% of the elements for success compared to 20-25% for IQ.
Leaders who practice emotional intelligence are less reactive and more responsive.  They know themselves, so they don’t need to prove their own power.  Instead, they work WITH others, giving an appropriate level of autonomy.
Emotionally intelligent leaders are attuned to their people.  They see their people’s strengths (and weaknesses) clearly, so they can foster that essential sense of competence.

Where Has All the Empathy Gone?
It has been said that people join organizations but leave their supervisors. It’s a problem of relationships — one of those core motivators.
To be effective, today’s leaders have to connect with people on a personal level – understand what drives their people. This “connecting” requires a high level of emotional intelligence, specifically empathy: the ability to sense how others feel and connect at an emotional level.
Bad news: a recent Harvard Business review article notes that the quality senior leaders lack most is empathy.
Leaders can use emotional intelligence to develop empathy. First, by examining how they feel inside. Second by becoming aware of the impact of their words and actions on others.  

Success Stories: Emotional Intelligence Drives Engagement
In a six-month leadership development process at Komatsu, a Japanese maker of construction and mining equipment, engagement increased from 33 to 70%. At the same time, plant performance increased by 9.4%. The pilot project, conducted by a team from the Six Seconds Network, took place at the company’s Este plant and focused on educating line managers in the use of emotional intelligence skills.

The Bottom Line:

Motivation is an inside job.  It means employees must motivate themselves and become engaged, but it is up to leadership to create the conditions where self-motivation is possible.

SOURCE: www.6seconds.org