“No doubt emotional intelligence is more rare than book smarts, but my experience says it is actually more important in the making of a leader. You just can’t ignore it.” – Jack Welch

Just as great leaders are made not born, so too are people with high levels of emotional intelligence. While we may be born and raised with a propensity for emotional intelligence, we can also develop and nurture the behaviours and competencies that will improve our EQ. Doing so will allow us to become more effective in our interactions with others and strategic in our work.

“If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.” – Dr. Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author

Our accomplishments in school and our scores on IQ tests contribute to our attractiveness as job candidates, but IQ alone is not an accurate predictor of job performance. It accounts for 25 (and, according to some researchers, as little as 4) percent of the variance in professional success. Emotional intelligence is as much as four times more important when predicting one’s success. And that’s good. We can move our IQ perhaps by a few points; we can expand our EQ much more significantly. When we are aware of the competencies that underpin EQ, we can work to develop and strengthen our capacity for emotional intelligence.

Organizations engage management consultants for a variety of reasons, from needing a specified skill set and broad cross-industry knowledge to wanting help managing change and providing new perspectives. Each company is unique, as are the experiences and capacities of the consultants. There is, however, a certain “buy-in” that management consultants ought to bring to the table before they can sit down and engage. These are the attributes that indicate to you, as the client, that this consultant is prepared to ‘roll up their sleeves” with you and deliver positive results.

It is often because of their size, not in spite of it, that smaller firms are able to offer not only a great workplace for employees but exceptional service to clients. But when does size hinder the ability of a company to operate effectively? Are you putting your organization at risk by opting for a small firm?

In a word, no! A common concern organizations have when opting for a small firm, in this case Leadership Intelligence, is that there are only a handful of us. What if something happens? What if we fall ill, get struck by a meteorite, or are otherwise unable to continue with our engagement? This is a valid concern; you do not want to waste your time, energy, and resources replacing us and bringing another firm up to speed.

We understand that this is a risk, and we have a mitigation strategy for it. We operate in a community, and part of that community has conversations about the client files that we are working on. We may not name the client in these discussions or reviews, but we do talk about the cases. This has a few great benefits for the client:

“Many receive advice: few profit by it” – Publilius Syrus

When the game starts, you’re the one taking the field; you’re the one taking that penalty shot or making the save. Your consultant can ask the questions, do the analysis, formulate the recommendations, give you the tools and training, but you’ve got to put them into play. When working with any consultant, there are ways that you can maximize the benefit and profit.

How can you make the most of your engagement with your consultant?

Top factors in a successful engagement include:

• Be prepared. Are you ready to get to work? Are you prepared for change? Readiness is a crucial factor; in fact, without that, any “changes” you make will be short-lived and ineffective.
• Accept responsibility. Ensure you spend time up front with the consultant understanding ‘who is doing what and for whom? And for what purpose or outcome?’ This is also an opportunity for you and members of your team to work side by side with the consultant and learn by observation as well as by doing under the guidance of an expert.