Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-On ... - always yours

20 LEADING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
• Improves bottom-line fi nancial performance
• Attracts and retains talent
• Drives a performance culture
• Increases organizational agility 5
Bersin & Associates, an independent research firm, found that it
is hard to fi nd a company that has survived many economic cycles
that does not have a sophisticated leadership development strategy
in place. 6
A study in Harvard Business Review by Laurie Bassie and Daniel
McMurrer showed a strong link between leadership skill and the
bottom line. The study looked at 11 publicly traded fi nancial service
fi rms and their stock price. They found that companies with
higher scores for their investment in human capital delivered stock
returns that were five times higher than those of companies with
less emphasis on human capital. 7
What we want and need from our leaders today is drastically
different from what we needed in the past. In a 2006 Fortune
article, Tom Neff, a top CEO recruiter, stated, “Companies don’t
want dictators or kings or emperors. Instead of someone who gives
orders, they want someone who asks probing questions that force
the team to think and find the right answers—a subtle technique.” 8
In this “unprecedented war for top talent” that is raging in the global
economy, a new profile of a leader is beckoned. 9
Fortune has stated: “Talent of every type is in short supply,
but the greatest shortage of all is skilled, effective managers.” 10
Noel Tichy, a University of Michigan Business School professor and
former chief of GE’s leadership development program, says, “The
leadership pipeline is broke.” 11 Right Management Consultants, a
major outplacement firm, found that “77% of companies say they
don’t have enough successors to their current senior managers.” 12
From a survey Right also found that “the number one skill companies
seek in managers is ‘the ability to motivate and engage others.’
Ranking a close second is the ability to communicate.” 13