Employee empowerment as the name implies, involves giving powers to employees. It enables employees to set their own goals and to solve work related problems by themselves which are within their purview and authority and finally to make decisions autonomously. By empowering employees, a leader does not renounce his/ her own power- instead he/ she shares with others.

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Before analyzing EQ and IQ, let us familiarize ourselves with what exactly these terms mean. Emotional Quotient (EQ) refers to an employee’s ability and understanding of his or her emotions along with his or her colleagues’ emotions at the workplace to create better work coordination and environment.

In contrast, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) defines the level of intelligence an employee possesses to understand, interpret and implement one’s knowledge in varied situations leading to his or her growth as well as the Company’s.

IQ is mainly used to measure one’s cognitive capabilities, such as the capacity to learn or understand new situations; reasoning through a given predicament or setting and the ability to apply one’s knowledge in current circumstances. Emotional Intelligence (EI) skills do not limit themselves to sympathy, intuition, imagination, flexibility, stress management, management, truthfulness, genuineness, intrapersonal skills and interpersonal skills but extend far beyond these.

When working in an organization, an employee with higher EI than others can convince his or her colleague(s) about a certain argument by appealing to their emotions rather than presenting facts and figures. While judging an individual’s EI, keep in mind these few points:

• An employee’s ability to comprehend and apply his or her personal emotions
• An employee’s ability to express his or her feelings, beliefs and thoughts
• An employee’s ability to recognize and appreciate his or her own potential
• An employee’s ability to manage his or her personal and professional life under stress and pressure
• An employee’s ability to adapt to different work environments and handle varied challenges that come his or her way
• An employee’s ability to possess self-confidence
• An employee’s ability to not only work towards the growth of the Company but also towards the growth of his or her co-workers

For best results, employees must develop communication and organizational skills for good decision-making as well as good inter-personal relations with co-workers. An individual’s success rate at work depends on his or her EQ as well as IQ in the ratio of 80:20.

Why 80:20? Well, because, EQ help individuals build and maintain relations with peers and superiors, increases productivity and opens up doors for clarity in communication (good listening habit is integral to EQ).

While hiring, corporates look at an individual’s EQ rather than IQ. Having a high IQ will help build interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to a certain extent, unlike EQ, which talks about one’s character based on the way he or she writes or replies to mail, collaborates and networks with peers and subordinates and works towards attaining Company goals.

Do share your thoughts on the same.

Earlier this month, I had written about “The Qualities of Good Leader“. However, there is a thin line between a good leader and an inspirational leader. A leader has ‘vision’, as well as an understanding of strategy, the use of power and drive, while an inspirational leader goes beyond all this and achieves more. What maketh an inspirational leader? – People who have the passion and zeal to do something different and have the power to encourage people to follow? Following are few qualities that lead a good leader to become an inspirational leader:

• Those who have the passion for their vision, zeal and enthusiasm to succeed and do something different and at the same time be compassionate. They genuinely care about other people’s well being and work.
• Everyone wants to display their strengths and not weakness. Most people think that leaders can do no wrong. When a leader shows a weakness or two, people will realize that leaders too are human beings and not gods.
• Leaders are those who have the ability to think, foresee future opportunities and more. They rely on their intuition for timing and course of action for present and future opportunities. They keep themselves updated with minutest of information and use it when it is needed the most.
• What makes inspirational leaders different is that they do things in a different manner and achieve great results.

To inspire, an inspirational leader needs to lead people towards a vision that he wants to achieve. He must be able to convince his fellow workers towards achieving the goal and vision he has in mind and make them follow him willingly.

An inspirational leader is one who:

• Motivates his team and also inspires them to follow what he/she preaches.
• Allows the team to function in stress free and friendly environment.
• Is focused on what needs to be done in an appropriate manner.
• Clear understanding of the happenings in the organization.
• Chooses the right path in decision making and problem solving especially while resolving issues at work.
• Works side-by-side with team mates, never considers any ‘tasks’ below their dignity and inspires others to do the same.
• Possess sound judgment skills during the critical decisions making process and in unforeseen crisis.

Every person can choose to lead a team, but the one who inspires others can be the one who provides a vision for the future and also offers an encouragement to others to achieve the same goals that lead towards the success of a business. He/she should possess strong leadership qualities and be an example for everyone.

Do share your thoughts on the same.

CommLab believes that recessions are game-changers. It’s when companies that execute well move ahead of those who don’t.

We have taken lot of initiatives so that we not only survive the ill effects of recession, but also to grow and attract new business.

One of such initiatives is that the top team attended Dr. Stephen R. Covey program on “Overcoming Challenges in Today’s Times.”

In this piece, I would like to share some of the learning from the training program. The essence of Dr. Covey’s teachings is that if you apply an inside-out approach in handling recession, it can become a boom.

Let’s have a look at the “inside” of ourselves…

4 Dimensions of Human Personality

Take a reality check whether you are living a principle-centric life. The principles should be in total harmony with the universal laws, trust, respect and timelessness. Sometimes our values do not match the natural laws. We have to create values that are in harmony with universal laws.

Secondly, create a synergistic culture. The top-down autocratic style is obsolete. Today’s knowledge worker age is a different model. The time has come for us to change from Industrial age to information age.

Leadership is NOT about Control

Let’s see the differences.

Once you align your values to the universal laws and create a synergistic culture, it is time for you to help your people to become leaders by helping them find their voice, trust their teams and instituionalize this change in the organization.

Over Coming Ill Effects of Recession – 3 Demensional Approach

1. Personal Greatness: Find your voice (overlap of body, mind, heart and soul)

2. Leadership Greatness: Trust – clear purpose, aligned systems and unleash talent

3. Organizational Greatness: Institutionalize focus and execution – independent of people.

So start from inside-out and conquer recession.