If there was only one competence that global leaders need to grow, that would be… Emotional Intelligence. Not so sure?
I agree with you that emotional intelligence is a trendy thing and we may think it is just a fashion and happily dismiss it, assuming it will fade away over the next few months.
Yet, nothing could damage you more than this attitude.
Emotional intelligence is so crucial for leaders that you too would have experienced its consequences in your career.

Your Best Boss Ever

In your own professional journey you probably had the chance to work with people you enjoy and even for a boss you admire. Let us call this person your Best Boss Ever.

How did you feel working with your Best Boss Ever?

Up to you to answer…

I facilitate workshops for leaders on emotional intelligence, thus asking more than 2,300 people all over the globe these powerful questions.

Answers have been very consistent across cultures, ages and industries:

❝ Working with our Best Boss Ever makes us feel valued, appreciated, uplifted, inspired… just Motivated! ❞

How did that impact your performance?

Up to you to answer…

Again, answers were very similar:

❝ We are simply eager to perform at our Best when working with our Best Boss Ever. ❞

On a scale of 1 to 10, how eager where you to go the extra-mile?

Let us take an example. It is Friday night, 5pm and you are about to leave as you have something scheduled. Your Best Boss Ever comes asking you for help…

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning “absolutely forget it, there is no way I’d help” and 10 meaning “of course, I’ll help”Up to you to answer…

Typically, leaders have a rating between 8 to 10.

❝ We are all willing to perform more than expected when we work with our Best Boss Ever. ❞

Your worst boss ever

It seems that we all have encountered people we will do our best to avoid working with again at any point in our career. Think of the person you will keep avoiding as much as you can for the rest of your life as your worst boss ever.

How did you feel working with your worst boss ever?

Up to you to answer…

Leaders consistently shared about feeling discouraged, demotivated, scared, anxious, depressed, reluctant to work, defensive… You get the picture, I trust!

How did that impact your performance?

Up to you to answer…

Unanimous answer: we only did the bare minimum to avoid trouble

On a scale of 1 to 10, how eager were you to go the extra mile?

Up to you to answer…

95% of leaders rate less than 2, a few are able to overcome their reluctance to the person and find dedication to the job so rate their willingness to 4 or 5.

Strong correlation between feelings and performance

Obviously, answers are very contrasted between the performance induced by the best and the worst boss. There is a direct correlation with the performance people are eager to deliver and the relationship they have with their boss.

❝ How you make people feel can predict how people will perform. ❞

The gap is even more dramatic between the two bosses in terms of eagerness to do a little bit more than what could be on the job description or what could be the usual workload.

What do Best Bosses do to get people motivated working even beyond expectations?

Leaders mentioned that their Best Bosses have been

• Encouraging
• Praising
• Providing opportunities
• Give clear instructions
• Share enough information
• Provide explicit directions
• Training
• Leading by example
• Keeping promises
• Supporting their people
• Standing up for their people
• Listening
• Understanding
• Giving constructive feedback
• Helping at work
• Guiding
• Etc…

Go through all these behaviours and you notice they have nothing to do with the leaders expertise and everything to do with emotional intelligence.

❝ Emotional Intelligence drives Motivation and leads to Thriving Performance. ❞

When people are motivated and feel encouraged to dare, their performance actually rockets.

Even more interesting if this very last question for you…

Would you help your Best Boss Ever today, even if you hadn’t seen each other for the last 10 years?

Up to you to answer…

The answer is always YES! Unanimously, across cultures, across industries, across genders, across ages, across languages, across positions…

❝ Emotional intelligence not only drives exceptional results but it makes them last. ❞

This is the kind of performance that you want to see happening with your teams as well!

What about You, as a Leader?

Thriving multicultural teams relies on raising our emotional intelligence, our cultural awareness, finding our Northern star and adjusting our communication to match our authentic leadership style.

None of this is rocket science and your Best Boss Ever proved to you that it is doable. If you want to follow this person’s track, if you want to sometimes be the Best Boss Ever for your team members, you need to raise your emotional intelligence as much as you can.

We all have some aspects to enhance so we can truly enjoy leading thriving teams.

EAGER TO GO FURTHER
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3 ways we can help you become a Best Boss Ever

1. Emotional Intelligence Assessment

Finding how well you perform and are perceived by others on 42 key leadership behaviours.
Enlightening, eyes-opener and an excellent way to spot your assets and the efforts needed.

2. Leading Across Cultures Workshop

Boosting your leadership abilities to cope with very different people and defining your own style. Embracing diversity instead of daunting for the next challenge and leading without losing your soul.

3. Thriving Multicultural Teams Coaching Program

Getting guidance and support in your own specific context to finally get rid of silos and conflicts. Leveraging on cultural differences to foster collaboration, get sounding results and enjoy leading thriving teams!

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Photo Credit: Gerhard Gellinger