does your eq match your iq
TRANSCRIPT
Does your EQ match your IQ?• Conscious capitalism can’t exist without conscious leadership. Businesses can’t be aware of people or of the
planet – only people can have the awareness that makes conscious capitalism a possibility.
• Awareness of others, and of the environment, is, of course, a human quality that has not traditionally been considered an important leadership attribute. Quite the contrary, historically. Hard-headed decisiveness to the point of ruthlessness has long been a hallmark of the ‘hero’ leader. But there’s no reason why leaders can’t be both decisive and aware.
• Well, perhaps there is one reason – it’s a tough call. Paradoxically, it’s easier to be a tough leader than it is to be a conscious one. In a recent article for Bloomberg Businessweek, Douglas Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup Company observed: “… the soft stuff is the hard stuff … Your EQ has to keep up with your IQ.”
• Talking about the challenges facing today’s business leaders, he noted that if employees feel they are nothing more than the hapless subjects of leadership decision-making, they will go elsewhere. True enough. But conscious leadership isn’t just about retaining good people.
• As has been pointed out before – and you can read more about it in the Resources section of my website – conscious capitalism delivers better results all round. Businesses that embrace conscious capitalism have been shown to outperform the market precisely because they work with, not against, all of their stakeholders.
• And working with people requires emotional intelligence. A high EQ as well as a high IQ.
