Many people have had experiences where poor customer service from others ruined an exciting purchase or a great vacation, or it made a hospital visit particularly difficult when they only wanted support and understanding.
 

Conversely, some people may have had experiences where an exceptionally kind and engaging person made the simplest of tasks enjoyable, a small interaction that made someone’s day, or a difficult job became truly enjoyable because of the people involved or the person leading the group.

This attests to the positive and negative power of emotional intelligence from a personal perspective. This is also true for seasoned human resources (HR) professionals working within organizations or for those serving external clients.

Professional conversations are often emotionally charged, in contexts such as:

• Staff grievances
• Maintaining and building staff well-being
• Performance management
• Conflict resolution
• Dismissal and redundancies
• Corporate mergers or downsizing

So emotional intelligence is such a vital skill in facilitating change, relationship building and maintenance, and conflict resolution. Most employers (71%) value emotional intelligence over Intelligence Quotient or IQ (Landry, 2019 [1]). Miao and colleagues (2017 [2]) found that when the leaders of an organization had high emotional intelligence, employees experienced greater overall job satisfaction.

HR professionals must meet strict regulatory standards (local legislation and corporate policies) and are usually required to hold benchmark qualifications.

Technical training ensures that HR staff are knowledgeable and can be trusted by organizations to provide expert advice. However, once a person is in the post, organizations aren’t usually interested in qualifications; they expect HR professionals to be technically competent and able to apply their skills to employees across the organization.

In addition, HR professionals are expected to support leaders in delivering performance toward corporate goals and targets through employees. HR professionals play an essential role in critical, emotionally charged processes in contexts such as:

• Staff grievances
• Maintaining and building staff well-being
• Performance management
• Conflict resolution
• Dismissal and redundancies
• Corporate mergers or downsizing

HR professionals must ‘get the job done’ while remaining empathetic and compassionate toward the people involved. They work with leaders and staff—human beings who may come to work with a unique set of personal challenges like relationship forming/separation, family/friend challenges, financial pressures, illness/death, change of employment status, pending retirement, moving home, and so on.

HR professionals also bring their own challenges and experiences to work. Managing this dynamic complexity draws on Emotional Intelligence (EI), which we are not born with – it is about 12 abilities that can and must be developed and honed. This is the latest definition and EI model that scientists who study emotional intelligence agree on. [3]

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is defined as “the ability to perceive, understand and influence our own and others’ emotions across a range of contexts to guide our current thinking and actions to help us to achieve our goals”. It’s about 12 abilities within four quadrants:
 
HR professionals should reflect on questions such as:

• What training and support are available to deal with an employee suffering from the grief of a lost loved one?
• How can staff be encouraged to share what is truly on their minds?
• Are there ways to recognize subtle signs that a staff member might be vulnerable and not fully understanding advice?
• How should a leader be supported when panicking and about to act against their best interests while under intense emotion?

Situations like these are the reality of an HR role. HR professionals must support individuals across the organization who may be technically excellent (e.g., in finance, sales, marketing, operations) but may not be operating at their optimum level due to their emotional intelligence (EI) abilities.

This was revealed in a study with financial planners across the globe captured in the book ‘Heart of Finance’ - 2024 [4]. The difference between success and failure was found to lie in the adviser’s ability to respond in the right way, enhancing and growing relationships rather than damaging them. No different from any client facing an advisory/consultancy role.

Since the 1990s, American Express have run a year-long emotional intelligence training program that aims to develop the emotional competencies of their financial advisers. These competencies include self-awareness, self-management, empathy, communication, difficult conversations and stress management. In the pilot for this project, participants attended a workshop teaching these emotional competencies. They began the program by completing surveys to measure their EI and their overall well-being. The results of the pilot were staggering.

There was a 46% increase in sales performance. Stress levels decreased by 29%. Positive states increased 24%. Trait anger decreased by 13%. Quality of life increased by 10%, and physical vitality increased by 9%. Dealing with anger constructively and managing stress, for example, helped the participants meet the demands of their role, leading to these overall health and well-being outcomes. This translated into improved job performance. [5]

Summary

Emotional intelligence is not always about suppressing emotions, nor is it always about expressing emotions. It involves recognizing, leveraging, and regulating emotions, as well as understanding and interacting with others in a manner appropriate to the context and goals. Developing emotional intelligence across organizations can optimize individual and corporate performance while enhancing psychological safety and well-being for employees and their leaders.

Footnotes

Author Bio

Cliff Lansley (Ph.D.) is a Director of the Emotional Intelligence Academy who has worked with clients across the globe and in many sectors, including the military, intelligence, law enforcement and business – helping them to read, understand and influence others when it matters. He founded and led Development Processes Group plc (DPG) for 30 years, a research and consultancy organization and provider of HR and Leadership qualifications. Together with James Woodfall, communication and behavior expert, former financial planner, and founder of Raise your EI, they are the co-authors of the recently launched book The Heart of Finance.

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