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Emotional edge to the rescue

P.T.Jyothi Datta

If intelligence quotient or IQ helps you get a job, then emotional quotient or EQ helps you get a promotion! And as companies get lean and mean, the concept of emotional intelligence (EI), synonymous with EQ, becomes more t han just relevant in the fast-changing business environment.

It becomes a survival skill for better people management and enhanced employee output, according to Douglas Breckenridge, a performance consultant with The Business Workshop (TBW) and passionate believer in the power of ``the gut feeling''.

And he should know, having chalked out a successful ``organisational development plan'' for Monsanto in India. ``TBW has helped Monsanto's sales revenue in India grow nine times in the last two years. And Monsanto is looking to duplicate its success stor y in other locations,'' he says.

TBW is a performance consultancy specialising in the development of customised learning opportunities and organisational development strategies. Set up in 1992, TBW clients include Apple Computers, Motorola's Paging Subscriber Division, Motorola Singapor e (for custom workshops in Sri Lanka and Vietnam), Motorola Cellular, Monsanto and Mahyco Monsanto Biotech.

``IQ may help at the entry level, it may get you through the door, but more companies are realising that performance is not just how smart one is. EI helps you understand your own emotions and that of others around you.''

In a lighter vein, as one EI believer described the concept: ``It is about knowing when to laugh for your boss's joke, or when to trust a colleague!''

Breckenridge crystallises the five skills of EI as self-awareness or knowing one's emotions, managing one's emotions, motivating oneself, empathy or recognising emotions in others and handling relationships.

But in today's clinically professional environment, isn't emotion more of a liability than an asset? Breckenridge disagrees: ``In the changing work environment, as one moves up the ladder, what helps us survive is not what we learn in school. As life bec omes more stressful and performance-driven, EI helps us respond in the best possible way.''

While the concept of EI is hot in the US, he hopes that it does not become ``a fad'' in India. His concern is not misplaced, what with the increasing number of people jumping onto the bandwagon of ``feel good'' theories such as Reiki, Vipassana and other s.

One of TBW's interesting assignments was with Motorola when the company first introduced its pagers in India. ``Paging was a totally new concept. We got involved with explaining the basics of paging, and how to position them. Since the workshop targeted the dealer channel, where competing brands were sold, getting the mindshare of these people was crucial.''

Breckenridge defends EI against allegations of churning out ``typical feel-good New Age mumbo jumbo'' saying, ``New Age avenues have good intentions, but they do not have the perfect fit like emotional intelligence. EI is the parent intelligence and comp rises multiple intelligences.''

With a background in adult learning principles, Breckenridge explains how TBW's EI theories differ from that of some other management gurus: ``We actually show a return on investment when we undertake such development plans for companies.''

TBW had trained employees of Mahyco Monsanto Biotech, a joint venture that brought genetically-modified cotton seeds (Bollgard cotton) to India, to familiarise them with the insecticidal properties of the cotton plants together with in-field identificati on and study of the effect on insects.

Explaining the difference in approach between TBW and any other management consultancy, he says, ``Consultant companies are very good at drawing up a plan for the client to implement. But this is at corporate levels. Our strategy is at an organisational development level, involving people. We get associated with the company in a deeper and more long-lasting way.''

Extolling the virtues of customised training for corporates, he says, ``It is critical as it fits the individual and is within the realm of the individual's experience.''

However, despite the fact that tailor-made customised training gives the best results, all companies may not be willing to invest the time or resources need for it. So TBW also offers standard training programmes.

Besides improving management-employee interfaces, TBW has also worked with companies to tackle ``fickle'' consumers who do not stay with a product when they are not satisfied.

As part of its workshop on ``Getting inside the mind of the American customer'' -- targeting anyone going to the US -- TBW has trained Indian sales and service people in servicing American accounts and familiarised them with the way the Americans think, feel and buy.

His aim is to bring EI into everyday living. Having lived in India for over eight years, 35-year-old Breckenridge says he chose India as it was more peaceful than the US. ``India has a lot of things to offer to the world, like the concept of family. In t he US, about 40 per cent are single parents. This is not healthy for a society.''

But then, he adds with remorse, things are changing here too. The overall mantra of globalisation has been to cut cost and labour, leading to increasing self-centredness.

So what does the US Air Force pilot-turned-defender of the EI faith profess for a society in transition? One needs to take one step at a time and, instead of trying to change the world, one must start with oneself, at one's home.