The real reason your boss lacks emotional intelligence

The real reason your boss lacks emotional intelligenceThe real reason your boss lacks emotional intelligenceOver the past century, the heartless, no-nonsense CEO has become something of an icon- and a clich- in American society. Hollywood would have us believe that the Machiavellian chief exec is leise alive and well.But thats just TV, right? How about in the real world? Do businesses still allow these inhumane relics to survive?Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraTo find out,TalentSmartanalyzed the emotional intelligence (EQ) profiles of the million-plus people in our database- workers from the frontlines to the C-suite. We discovered that the answer is yes, organizations today do promote the emotionally inept except when they dont. Allow me to explain.We found that EQ scores climb with titles from the bottom of the corporate ladder upward toward middle management. Middle managers stand out with the highest EQ scores in the workplace because companies tend to promote people into these positions who are level-headed and good with people. The assumption here is that a manager with a high EQ is someone for whom people will want to work.But things change drastically as you move beyond middle management.For the titles of director and above, scores descend faster than a snowboarder on a black diamond. CEOs, on average, have the lowest EQ scores in the workplace.The trick is,for every title in the graph above, the top performers are those with the highest EQ scores.Even though CEOs have the lowest EQ scores in the workplace, the best-performing CEOs are those with the highest EQs. You might get promoted with a low EQ, but you wont outshine your high-EQ competition in your new role.The higher you go above middle management, the more companies focus on metrics to make hiring and vorrcken decisions. While these short-term, bottom-line indicators are important, its sho rtsighted to make someone a senior leader because of recent monetary achievements. Possibly worse than metrics, companies also promote leaders for their knowledge and tenure, rather than their skill in inspiring others to excel.Companies sell themselves short by selecting leaders who arent well-rounded enough to perform at the highest levels for the long term.Once leaders get promoted they enter an environment that tends to erode their emotional intelligence. They spend less time in meaningful interactions with their staff and lose sight of how their emotional states impact those around them. Its so easy to get out of touch that leaders EQ levels sink further. It truly is lonely at the top.Whether youre a leader now or may become one in the future, you dont have to succumb to this trend. Your emotional intelligence is completely under your control. Work on your EQ and it will boost your performance now. Your effort can also ensure that you dont experience declines as you climb the c orporate ladder. Even if your employer promotes you for the wrong reasons, youll still outperform your contemporaries.To help you get started, here are some of my favorite EQ-boosting strategies for leaders. They apply to anyone, so give them a try, even if youre not a leader (yet).Acknowledge Other Peoples FeelingsAssertive, action-oriented executives dont exactly ignore other peoples feelings. What they tend to do instead is to marginalize them or fix them so that they dont get in the way of action. While some have suggested that this is a predominantly male problem, it can more accurately be described as a power problem. People who fail to acknowledge other peoples feelings fail to realize that lingering emotions inhibit effective action. So the next time you notice someone on your team expressing a strong emotion, ask him or her about it. Then listen intently and play back what you have just heard in summary form. By validating their emotions, youll help them feel understood so that they can move forward without hindrance.Watch Your Emotions Like A HawkThe techniques above are extremely effective, but both require an awareness of your own emotions in the moment. You may think you have a world-class poker face, but if youre like the average executive, your weakest self-awareness skills are understanding how your emotions impact others and recognizing the role you have played in creating difficult circumstances. In other words, you would become a much more effective leader if you obtained a better understanding of what you feel, when you feel it. Practice this by taking notice of your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors just as a situation unfolds. The goal is to slow yourself down and take in all that is in front of you, so that you can understand how your emotions influence your behavior and alter your perception of reality.Dont Hold GrudgesThe negative emotions that come with holding onto a grudge are actually a stress response. Just thinking about the even t sends your body into fight-or-flight mode, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. When the threat is imminent, this reaction is essential to your survival, but when the threat is ancient history, holding onto that stress wreaks havoc on your body and can have devastating health consequences over time. In fact, researchers at Emory University have shown that holding onto stress contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease. Holding onto a grudge means youre holding onto stress, and emotionally intelligent people know to avoid this at all costs. Letting go of a grudge not only makes you feel better now but can also improve your health.SleepIve beaten this one to death over the years and cant say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and improving your relationships. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you dont get enough- or the right kind- of sleep. Sleep deprivation also raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressfaktor present. The pressure that leaders are under often makes them feel as if they dont have time to sleep, but not taking the time to get a decent nights sleep is often the one thing keeping you from getting things under control.Quash Negative Self-TalkA big step in developing emotional intelligence involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that- thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, its time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what youre doing and write down what youre thinking. Once youve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.You can bet that your statements arent true any time you use words like never, worst, ever, etc. If your statements still look like facts once theyre on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brains natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.When You Care, Show ItThis might be the easiest thing you can do- as long as you actually do it. Good leaders always notice when people on their teams are doing good work, but they dont often show it. When you appreciate something that another person does, let him or her know about it. Even a quick email or pat on the back goes a long way in this regard. There are people who do great work around you every day. Dont put off letting them know h ow you feel about it. Your praise will build fierce loyalty and inspire your people to work even harder.Bringing It All TogetherIs your employer perpetuating this trend, or are they bucking it by developing high-EQ leadership? Do you know high-EQ leaders who outshine the rest? Share your experiences in the comments section below, and lets have a conversation about this important topic.Dr. Travis Bradberryis the award-winning co-author of the 1 bestselling book,Emotional Intelligence 2.0,and the cofounder ofTalentSmart, the worlds leading provider ofemotional intelligence testsandtraining, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by,Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, andThe Harvard Business Review.This article first appeared on LinkedIn.