Emile Haddad on Emotional Intelligence

The business world is replete with contradictions.  New college graduates are hired for their technical or specialist skills.  As they move up the ladder at that organization or another, technical competence becomes less important and leadership gets more important.  The difficulty is that the employee’s college education emphasized the technical skills, such as engineering or accounting, and ignored the softer skills, which are necessary in leadership.  Even more contradictory is the MBA education.  Often, a technically skilled manager such as an engineer or accountant, will take the MBA curriculum of finance, strategy, marketing and HR, along with some electives.  Any soft skill elective is viewed with some derision because it is not numbers-driven.  Yet it is just these soft skills that the MBA graduate will need to advance to senior positions, according to Emile Haddad.

 

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Haddad explains that effective leadership depends on emotional intelligence (EI).  This topic is not specifically taught in MBA programs, but its addition to the curriculum would make a big difference.  Emile Haddad says that EI “… tends to be much harder to teach on an individual level and embed within teams.”  He maintains that learning EI requires the ability to objectively observe oneself.  Others in the field call this self-awareness.

 

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It is easy to go through a workday addressing challenges in a reflexive manner without any self-reflection.  What was the impact of your order to a subordinate?  How did a customer view your handling of a problem?  What is the reason that your stomach is churning after your meeting with your boss?  Emile Haddad recommends that you pay attention to these questions so that you have a better understanding of your own emotions and how they impact others.

 

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Haddad advises that a coach or mentor can be helpful for building EI and improving your leadership skills.