By Dike Onwuamaeze
Corporate organisations have been advised to apply the tools of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in order to maximise productivity and efficiency.
This advice was provided by one of Nigeria’s leading practitioner of EI and the Chief Executive Officer of Pause Factory, Enahoro Okhae.
He described EI as a person’s ability to manage his emotion and the emotions of those around him to achieve a positive result.
“Our mantra is that emotion drive people and people drive performance. We plug in EI’s tools to get into the hearts of people that work in the organisation to address the real challenges the organisation is having.
“Some of them are called the vital science, the brain discovery science and the sales emotional quotient (EQ),” he said, adding that institutions should, “begin to entrench EI into the fabrics of their organisation’s policies and train leaders on how to lead with EI so that they will not crush people with words that do not communicate optimism.”
“A team must have psychological safety net where its members are free to air their views without fear. When there is psychological safety there is collaboration and innovations to grow the organisation and vices are reduced,” he added.
Okhae, who is the promoter of Africa Emotional Intelligence Conference, said the role of EI in improving an organisation’s performance was appreciated in 2019, by the World Economic Forum, which declared EI as one of the skills businesses needed to survive in the age of artificial intelligence.
He said that Pause Factory was collaborating with the Charted Institute of Personnel Management on how to use EI to bring the best out of human capital resources to increase an organisations productivity and performance.
“We can solve a company’s sales problem with emotional intelligence. We can solve culture problems as well as team and leadership problems with EI.
“An organisation that fails to tap into EI will experience negative emotions and reactions like frustration, anger, sadness, hopelessness. There is also a high level of employee disengagement where EI is overlooked.
“But people are happy and love their jobs and manage stress better where EI is practiced,” Okhae said, adding that EI enables individuals to develop resilience, which is the ability to bounce back when something negative has happened to them, to beat depression and avoid suicide, which starts with sadness and a sense of hopelessness.
“A fundamental question is, what that will make a staff of an organisation change for real? EI provides people with the right message that touch their hearts and enables them to make the needed adjustments in their lives.
“Those who practice emotional intelligence will be able to get into sad situation and get out of it in a positive manner because they know how to manage emotion.
“It is not the regular consulting or training stuff that will provide the solution. What will make them change is the ability to get into their hearts, their neurological pathways,” he added.
He said leaders who are not able to manage their emotion would make decisions they would regret later on.
“Researchers have proved that your intelligent quotient (IQ) is not as important as your EQ. Those that are leading in terms of productivity, according to research, have emotional intelligence. IQ is knowledge, the ability to analyse and come to conclusion. But it does not help people to make good decisions.
“It is the EQ that will enable you to use your IQ successfully in your work place. While IQ enables one to understand his product, the EQ empowers him with the right kind of words to speak to the client to enable a sale to take place.
“IQ is managing the head without the heart. EQ is working with the brain and the heart. A leader that works with the head will always play logic with the subordinates. He will crush them. But when he is able to work with the brain and the heart he will be able to combine logic with love, empathy patience and resilience to be a better leader.
He also stated that EI could be used to restore stability in family relationship and reduce social vices like suicide, rape and sexual abuse of the girl child by her father.
“The truth is that one can choose his or her emotions, thoughts and actions if he will learn from EI coaching. The more parents learn to practice patience with their children, the more they will be able to hear what their children are saying to advice him properly. We need parents that will embrace calmness in their attitude to their children.”
