Emotional Intelligence Malpractice

While discussing Emotional Intelligence recently with a high school headmaster, I was disappointed to learn how she had been introduced to the topic. She related her experience of having had a well-regarded “educational trainer” make an Emotional Intelligence (EQ) assessment available to her staff without their receiving any explanation before or after regarding what their scores might mean and how they could “use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way to identify and manage their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others” such as colleagues, students, and parents. Such an approach is slipshod and unprofessional at best. I wish that such a story was uncommon; sadly, it is not. I speak too often with individuals who have received an EQ report by email and have merely been told to look it over and give their HR manager or trainer a call if they have any questions. Not only is such an approach unethical, but it trivializes a subject that most of us are in dire need of understanding in some detail. It is akin to a patient’s telling a cardiologist that he has difficulty breathing and has a pain in his left arm, and the physician merely encouraging him to go read about the symptoms on WebMD. Coaching and training malpractice is far too prevalent.

Fortunately, the topic of Emotional Intelligence is becoming more widely known, but as with many important organizational and developmental issues, the more they become part of the general lexicon, the more they become susceptible to potential training and consulting malpractice; cost is usually the excuse. If you merely want to discuss the topic of Emotional Intelligence with your friends, great. Skype them or Facetime with them; maybe even grab a chai latte with them at Starbucks. You might even suggest they visit the local public library—if yours is open yet during the pandemic—or review the offerings at Barnes and Noble or log onto their Amazon account. There are a number of very informative books available at Amazon Books that can fill the bill. Those by Goleman and Stein are still the gold standard.

If you are a coach or trainer with an actual desire to help individuals or organizations grow through the effective and ethical use of the science, however, you should have them complete a validated Emotional Intelligence assessment through a certified trainer and use the results to help them craft an effective developmental coaching plan. We can all use such an action-based plan to enhance our personal and professional effectiveness. The best assessments available are the MSCEIT, ESCI, and the EQi2.0. All three are very well done, but each takes a somewhat different approach to discussing the science and capturing individuals’ responses. Because of its careful validation and professional manner of presenting the data, the EQi2.O is the only one we at Executive Strategies choose to use, but that choice is up to you, your certifications, your background, and professional capabilities. The EQi Workplace Report is very informative, but given our clientele—usually organizational managers, directors, and executives—we prefer the Leadership Report.  Regardless of the assessment you choose to use, your next important choice must be how to give individuals explanatory feedback on their results:  individually or as part of a class or group presentation. Simply allowing individuals to complete an assessment, print it off, and go their merry way is unprofessional and unethical.  

Should you believe that providing individual feedback to your client(s) meets your professional capabilities and is your best alternative, I encourage you to take your time to allow you to flesh out the nuances of the learnings and to be able to answer any individual questions your client(s) may have. I have found that scheduling at least an hour for such a personal coaching session, and leaving the door open for follow-on conversations if desired, is beneficial. Merely skimming over the report and taking only a few minutes to talk about the numbers on the report will come across as pop psychology and diminish the importance of the science. When you send your clients their reports, ask them to read them over, and maybe suggest a few questions they should consider before you meet with them individually. Encourage them, as they reflect on the various scores, to try to recall specific experiences they have had that may have resulted in or be indicative of the “high” or “low” scores on particular aspects of their reports. Personalize the experience as much as possible.

During your meetings, most likely these days handled virtually via Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, etc., walk your clients through their reports page by page to ensure they comprehend what the report says and what it does not say. Help them to understand that unlike an academic “test,” when it comes to the various aspects of Emotional Intelligence, that high score does not necessarily win, and there can be good and bad consequences for both very high scores and low scores. Rather than just focusing on individual scores, one should preferably consider more the relationship between two or more categories. For example, a person scoring very high on Self Regard and Stress Management but low on Empathy may themselves handle stress very well but just not realize that their teammate is sucking gas and needs help. Worse yet, if they are the ones in charge, they may inadvertently become stress breeders for others, emotionally unaware of how their actions are impacting those more susceptible to stress. If you are using the EQi2.0 Leadership Report, the associated Coaching Report (intended for you, not your client) offers some sound suggestions and additional data. This is the approach I often take when working with executive search firms, potential new hires, or individuals with whom I have on-going coaching relationships. 

If you are assessing several individuals at once, you will probably find it more cost effective and expedient to introduce the concept of Emotional Intelligence and review the report generically during a class or other group presentation in lieu of holding a series of individual coaching sessions. We at ESI hold such virtual training sessions almost weekly, and the approach can be very effective when done right. That being the case, I recommend that you require all participants to complete the EQi2.0 prior to the session. If you are presenting the session in person, I further recommend that you do not distribute individual Report Forms until part the way through your presentation, so you can discuss the science, theory, and nature of the questions before participants actually see their own reports and get too focused on their individual scores. If, more likely, you are meeting with your class remotely, distributing the reports during your presentation is most likely not an option, but try to arrange to have their reports arrive electronically as close to your presentation date as feasible; emailing participants their reports the day before is my approach.

When I make such a presentation, I find that progressing from more commonly held views of intelligence, including cognitive IQ (a term coined in 1904) through the development of Multiple Intelligences (in the “80’s) on to the current EQ is most helpful in providing context for your clients. It can also be fun to get them thinking about where their individual intelligence modalities lie and explore misconceptions regarding what is good, better, or best. I then spend the bulk of the time (usually 2-4 hours) reviewing the EQ report from page to page and asking the participants to follow along with me as I review the various sections. For each of the individual sub scales, I give examples of what scoring very high or low might look like and the potential consequences of each. As I present the information, I always use a PowerPoint presentation consisting of dozens of very graphic color frames. After all, about 65% of your audience will be visual learners. If you are making such a presentation virtually, the pictures and graphic slides accompanying each point are very important for ingraining the group’s or individual’s understanding. Such memory triggers are even more crucial for successful virtual learning.  

What is not included above is the reason for the training. Once you have determined the purpose of immersing individuals into the topic of EQ (leadership development, coaching, personal growth, valuing diversity and inclusion, team development, hiring the right individual, mentoring, innovation, onboarding, creating culture, giving and receiving effective feedback, sales mastery, or any of several other cogent reasons) be sure to encourage participants to reflect on their overall EQ score and their scores for each of the 15 Sub Factors to consider ways they can enhance performance by developing more expertise in those areas of emotional functioning. That is the reason for the Action Plan at the end of the report. Please remember, as mentioned earlier, it is not just each individual factor that is important but how one or more may impact other factors. And…while you are discussing this important topic…have some fun. Don’t just be a competent trainer; be human and emotionally smart. 

Perhaps even more important than it is when coaching individuals one-on-one, after a group session be sure to have an option for members of your class or training session to be able to contact you directly with any personal questions they might have or issues related to EQ that because of privacy concerns they may not have wanted to surface during the public session. Don’t just be an “expert,” be empathetic—be approachable.

Want to discuss this topic further? Reach out and let me know: esipres6@earthlink.net.

William Jeffries, President, ESI