One of the quickest ways to gain insight into your EI strengths, vulnerabilities and strategies for improvement is to take an emotional intelligence assessment.
We offer a variety of assessments, each measuring slightly different aspects of emotional intelligence:

• The ECI (Emotional Competence Inventory), a 360 instrument developed by the Hay Group and based on the work of Daniel Goleman
• The EQ-i, offered as both a 360 and as a self-scoring instrument, developed by Dr. Reuven Bar-On and used by over 100,000 individuals to date
• The EQ-Map, a self-scoring assessment developed by Essi Systems and based on the work of Dr. Robert Cooper
• The Emotional Intelligence Profile, offered as both an on-line 360 and as a self-scoring instrument, this profile, developed by Dr. Laura Belsten, is the most comprehensive EI assessment on the market today.
• The Emotional Intelligence 360 Interview Process, based on the same EI competencies contained in the Emotional Intelligence Profile by Dr. Belsten, this semi-structured interview process allows you and your coach to confirm high and low scores and clarify desired behavioral changes and action items.

Unlike IQ, which changes very little throughout our lifetimes, emotional intelligence can be learned. With appropriate training and coaching, individuals can acquire the practical skills to become aware of, develop, and maximize EI in work and life. Dr. Belsten and her associates will work with you and your organization to design EI training that’s right for your organization. See the Business Case for EI Anchor Link for actual case studies of organizations which have brought EI training programs into the workplace and the tremendous effect such training has had on bottom line results.

Participants in our EI training programs

• Learn the four-quadrant model (the building blocks) of EI
• Understand the business reasons, as well as health and medical reasons, for enhancing emotional intelligence
• Discover the 24 EI competencies and the ones most important for success
• Receive an individual EI assessment to identify strengths and vulnerabilities
• Learn how to enhance emotional intelligence
• Draw up an individual development plan
• Receive individual follow-up coaching (optional)

With highly-interactive exercises and customized modules, our EI Training program offers many opportunities to learn about, demonstrate and enhance EI skills.
The training program can be tailored to groups of any size. Call us at 800-461-5698 for more information.

EI coaching helps you gain the edge you need to increase performance in your work and personal life. We focus specifically on being more aware, in the moment, of our emotions, our intuition, and those feelings that bubble up from deep within us. We pay attention to this information and use it to make better decisions, manage ourselves more productively and work more effectively with others.

• Resilience – handling adversity and setbacks;
• Personal power – having a strong sense of self-confidence and a deep knowing that we are capable and powerful
• Stress management – enhancing our ability to work under stress and pressure
• Initiative – overcoming procrastination and taking action
• Emotional self-control – keeping destructive emotions in check
• Intentionality – thinking and acting “on purpose”, and in deliberate congruence with our values and who we are
• Building bonds – improving our ability to connect with others and form strong relationships
• Powerful communication and influencing skills – motivating others, using dialogue as a management tool, being able to persuade and negotiate more effectively
• Conflict management – being able to work with difficult people and resolve differences to your satisfaction
• Teamwork and collaboration – building powerful teams and a healthy, collaborative work culture.

This popular program begins with one of the emotional intelligence (EI) assessments (either as a 360 or as a self-scoring inventory), and continues with your choice of a variety of EI workshops.

These may include stress management, powerful influencing skills, realistic optimism, honing awareness and understanding of ourselves and others, teamwork and collaboration, developing and coaching others, managing conflict, innovation, building trust, catalyzing change, and many more.

On-going coaching in between workshops further reinforces the learning and supports individual executives and leaders in integrating new leadership practices back in the work place.

A recent series of landmark studies shows it’s not how book-smart you are, but how people-smart you are that makes the difference.  Consider the following research findings¹: 

• Researchers estimate that success at work is 80-90% EQ, and only 10-20% IQ.
• The higher an executive goes in an organization, the more important EQ becomes. At the top, some researchers believe that 90-95% of success is driven by EQ, as technical work is handled by individuals at lower levels in the organization.
• Unlike IQ, Emotional Intelligence can be learned and developed. In fact, research shows that EQ increases with age. People in their 40s and 50s have greater EQ skills than they had earlier in their lives.
• Research by the Center for Creative Leadership shows that almost half of all executives fail at their positions within two years. The reason is not a lack of technical competence or cognitive ability, but a lack of EQ competencies. These executives have inadequate interpersonal skills, lack sensitivity, are unable to handle conflict constructively, and demonstrate poor emotional awareness of others.

Clearly, organizations wanting to compete effectively in today’s marketplace have to have the most emotionally intelligent workforce possible. To get to the next level in business, we must blend the progress we’ve made in using intellect and IQ with the invaluable competencies of EQ. It is EQ that will solve our retention and morale problems, improve our creativity, create synergy from teamwork, speed information by way of sophisticated people networks, drive our purpose and ignite the best and most inspired performance from others.

In study after study, from many different industries and professions, those who had high EQ competencies outperformed their colleagues. Examples include:

• The Air Force, which used emotional intelligence assessment instruments to select recruiters, found a three-fold increase in the success of high EQ recruiters, resulting in an immediate saving of $3 million annually.
• Partners in a multinational consulting firm were assessed on their EQ competencies. Those who scored above the median on 9 or more of 20 competencies delivered $1.2 million more profit from their accounts than did other partners – a 139 percent incremental gain.
• L’Oreal, whose sales agents were selected on the basis of emotional competencies outsold their counterparts not selected on EQ competencies by $91,370, for a net increase to L’Oreal of $2,558,360 the first year the program was implemented. Those selected on the basis of emotional competencies also had 63 percent lower turnover during the first year than those selected in the typical way.
• In a national insurance company, insurance agents who were weak in emotional competencies such as self-confidence, initiative, and empathy sold policies with an average premium of $54,000. Those who were very strong in at least 5 of 8 key emotional competencies sold policies worth $114,000.
• How long employees stay at a company and how productive they are while working there is determined by their relationship with their immediate supervisor. People with “good” bosses (defined as having high EQ) are four times less likely to leave than those with “poor” bosses.
• A large beverage firm started assessing EQ when selecting new executives, and attrition dropped 44%. They also found that division leaders with high EQ outperformed their target goals by 15 to 20% while those who lacked high EQ under-performed by almost 20%^1.

¹ (Compiled by Laura Belsten from the following sources:  The Center for Creative Leadership, 1999; Goleman, 1999, 2000, 2001; Boyatzis, 1999; Cooper, 1998; Spencer & Spencer, 1993; Spencer, McClelland & Kelner, 1997; and Cherniss, 2001.)

Emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware of our own emotions and those of others, in the moment, and to use that information to manage ourselves and manage our relationships optimally. The 24 EI competencies are depicted in the four-quadrant model below:

Definitions of Competencies

Personal Competence
These competencies determine how we manage ourselves

• Self-Awareness
  Knowing one's internal states, preferences, resources, and intuition
  • Emotional awareness: Recognizing one's emotions and their effects
  • Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one's strengths and limits
  • Personal power: A strong sense of one's self-worth and capabilities; self confidence
• Self-Management
  Managing ones' internal states, impulses, and resources
  • Emotional self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions in check
  • Integrity: Maintaining high standards of honesty and ethics at all times
  • Innovation & creativity: Actively pursuing new approaches and ideas
  • Initiative & bias for action: Readiness to act on opportunities
  • Resilience:  Perseverance and diligence in the face of setbacks
  • Achievement drive: Striving to meet a standard of excellence
  • Stress management:  Working calmly under stress and pressure
  • Realistic optimism:  Expecting success; seeing setbacks as manageable; persisting in achieving goals despite obstacles and setbacks.
  • Intentionality:  Thinking and acting “on purpose” and deliberately.
• Social Competence
  These competencies determine how we handle relationships
• Social Awareness
  Awareness of others feelings, needs, and concerns
  • Empathy: Sensing others' feelings and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns
  • Organizational awareness: Reading a group's emotional currents and power relationships
  • Service ethic: Anticipating, recognizing, and meeting customers' needs
• Social Skills
  Adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others
  • Developing others: Identifying others' development needs and bolstering their abilities
  • Influence: Wielding effective tactics for persuasion
  • Communication: Listening attentively and fostering open dialogue 
  • Conflict management: Negotiating and resolving disagreements
  • Visionary leadership: Inspiring, guiding and mobilizing individuals and groups; articulating a clear, compelling and motivating vision for the future
  • Catalyzing change: Initiating, managing and leading change
  • Building bonds: Nurturing and maintaining relationships, cultivating a wide network; connecting with others on a deeper rather than superficial level.
  • Teamwork & collaboration: Working with others toward shared goals. Creating group synergy in pursuit of collective goals.
  • Building trust:  Being trustworthy and ethical when working and relating to others; ability to establish a bond of trust with others.