As an intern for RocheMartin, I was privileged enough to attend the ECR training workshop that they organised. I was quite intimidated since I was the youngest person in the group and had a ferocious cold, but that still didn’t stop me from attending the workshop since I knew it would be a valuable experience that I could absolutely not miss out on.
My favourite part was the facilitator and co-creator of the ECR, Judy Purse. She explained the content so thoroughly and gave relevant, real-life examples of emotional intelligence, some of which were quite humorous. She also allowed us to reflect on our own emotional intelligence, which helped us not only understand the content better, but also understand ourselves better. As a young professional I further realised the importance of emotional intelligence in today’s working world, and found out that a solid degree and IQ is not enough if you want to get ahead of the game.
HR professionals often consider candidates’ emotional intelligence in the selection process and use it to evaluate if the candidate should be considered for a promotion. Hence, to accelerate your career progression, emotional intelligence training will help you get ahead of the competition.
Since graduates are often younger we have not had time to develop own our emotional intelligence to the same extent as our superiors. Our research has shown that participants under 30 score significantly lower than the older groups on their emotional intelligence self-reports. Thus, it is so important for recent graduates like me to receive emotional intelligence training, in order to succeed in their current position.
During the training, I found out that self-reliance and adaptability account for most of the discrepancies between different ages in emotional intelligence, thus the largest difference will be seen across the scores on these two competencies. Self-reliance and adaptability are important competencies that are useful within the workplace and also when it comes to leadership development. From studies of high performing leaders, the first and most interesting feature in the profile of these entrepreneurs are their high scores on the emotional competency of self-reliance, which is a critical emotional skill for leadership performance, because it enables them to act as an essential resource to their people. The emotional competency of adaptability is also a great attribute to develop, because it is required of new graduates to quickly learn to adapt and navigate their new environment and working life. For me, self-reliance and adaptability are very important competencies for graduates to develop, however studies show that overall, they are lacking in these areas the most.
But fortunately for us all, emotional intelligence is not stagnant and it’s possible to develop it by using the techniques that we at RocheMartin have developed over many years. To gain a further edge, you can also attend RocheMartin's ECR workshop, which allows you to become a certified emotional intelligence coach like me.
To progress in the workplace and be a great leader, emotional intelligence training is a useful way to develop the skills necessary to someday lead, or even own an organisation. By focusing particularly on developing the most sought-after competencies, graduates can gain a competitive edge that will help them to succeed in any leadership role given to them in the future.
Author
Zelda Luitingh
Intern
