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Integrating emotional intelligence assessment and development into a six-month process for new managers world-wide, the FedEx Express team at their Global Learning Institute is building the skills and expertise for people-first leadership.

The program is yielding an 8-11% increase in core leadership competencies, with over half the participants experiencing very large (10-50%) improvements in certain key emotional intelligence skills and leadership outcomes: 72% of the program participants experience very large increases in decision making; 60% in Quality of Life, and 58% show major improvements in Influence.

By Joshua Freedman and Jimmy Daniel

FedEx Express is the world largest cargo airlines with over 290,000 employees moving seven million packages each day with 600 flights a day. One of the top 20 Fortune "Most Admired" for a decade,[1] FedEx stands among the world's successful enterprises.

While founder Fred Smith was focused on logistics and speed, from the start he believed that people were the key to business, and that leadership is about continuous growth: "Leaders get out in front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves - and by which they are willing to be judged." This vision has translated to the "PSP Philosophy" - People-Service-Profit - which drives FedEx Express today.

The company sees that the people-side of leadership has grown more complex, and looking to the future, is committed to developing leadership capabilities to manage the changing workforce. The goal is leaders who are better at influence, make decisions that are both quick and accurate, and are able to build a culture where people feel the dedication and drive for exceptional performance in a way that's sustainable and creates real value for all stakeholders.

To measure leadership performance, FedEx Express administers "SFA," an annual survey where every employee can provide feedback about managers. SFA themes include respect, fairness, listening, and trust - leadership responsibilities that are all about relationships and emotions. This commitment to people-first leadership created an interest in "emotional intelligence" as a learnable skillset that would equip managers to deliver the FedEx way.

Even though the leadership training was state of the art - among the top ten in the world - the FedEx Global Leadership Institute is charged with continuously updating and innovating in keeping with that Fred Smith call for continuously "raising the standards." Located near the company's primary hub in Memphis, TN, the Global Leadership Institute, GLI, serves as the leadership university for FedEx Express.

In 2005, GLI implemented a new training program for managers to consider the impact they wished to have as leaders - the legacy they were creating. A core component of the LEGACY course was a module on emotional intelligence using the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment, the SEI.[2] LEGACY results were very positive, in part because of the effectiveness of the Six Seconds Model as an actionable process.

Action-Based Emotional Intelligence

Where other approaches to emotional intelligence remain quite theoretical, the Six Seconds Model is designed as a process framework for using emotional intelligence on a day-to-day basis. At a macro-level, the model offers a three-step process with specific learnable, measurable competencies that support the three steps:

Know Yourself - increase self-awareness of emotions and reactions (competencies: Enhance Emotional Literacy and Recognize Patterns).

Choose Yourself - shift from unconscious reaction to intentional response (competencies: Apply Consequential Thinking, Navigate Emotions, Engage Intrinsic Motivation, and Exercise Optimism).

Give Yourself - align the moment-to-moment decisions with a larger sense of purpose (competencies: Increase Empathy and Pursue Noble Goals). [3]

Reviewing data from LEGACY in 2009 and 2010, the GLI team identified that a few key EQ competencies were essential to strengthen "bench strength" and build the leaders who will move up the chain. Without revealing confidential details, the FedEx culture has focused on speed - which is a key part of the company's success. As leaders move up in the organization, the need for speed has to be balanced with a more careful, collaborative decision-making process to achieve sustainable success.

With this in mind, under the leadership of SVP Shannon Brown, the company wanted a world-class leadership program that would move the company to be one of the top five in the world. With the support of Dennis Reber, Managing Director, and Ray Murphy, Manager, of the Global Leadership Institute, FedEx decided to increase the emotional intelligence focus of the leadership training and deliver a new course called LEAD1 to put EQ into action at the frontlines. All new FedEx Express managers would receive the program to provide a solid people-first foundation upon which to build their leadership careers.

Blended Training & Coaching

A team of eight GLI experts was certified in the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment (SEI) through a mix of on-site and virtual training delivered by Six Seconds. Some team members undertook additional trainer-training in Six Seconds' methodology to ensure that the implementation would go deeply into what drives people performance.[4]

GLI Senior Management Facilitators Jimmy Daniel and Pamela Williams became certified as a SEI Master Trainer to deliver SEI Certification internally within L&D team in US and globally.

The FedEx GLI team designed LEAD1 as a five-day course with a six-month follow up coaching process built around the SEI.[5] Through the in-person training, participants learn about key concepts in FedEx leadership and what it means to lead people. In an extremely faced-paced, task-focused environment, a common challenge for managers is losing sight of the relational dynamics that ultimately sustain team performance. To build a team where people give their "discretionary effort," task-based management is insufficient: people-leadership is required. This means forming a connection between people at an emotional level. Emotional intelligence provides the insight and skill to allow for this strategic use of feelings. In LEAD1, the new managers focus on how emotional intelligence will assist them to show up as leaders by managing themselves first, taking charge of their own emotions and behaviors so they can be effective role models and influencers.

The six month coaching process begins with a one-to-one debrief of the participant's SEI profile as a framework for goal setting. The new manager identifies specific competencies to improve, as well as strengths to leverage, and how these can be employed to improve people-leadership. The coaching process is "specific customized," meaning that while all participants are working within a shared framework of concepts and goals, each coach and participant work in partnership to develop personalized goals that can be made actionable. Part of the effectiveness of the coaching is that the coaches all now have several years of experience with emotional intelligence themselves, giving them added insight into what drives people.

At the end of the coaching process, participants re-take the SEI to clearly identify areas of progress, to set next goals, and provide accountability for the program.

At present, over 100 facilitators have been, or are being, trained to provide the SEI assessment and coaching, and to run LEAD1 worldwide.

Initial responses to the program are extremely positive. LEAD1 trained managers are showing increased ability to push the FedEx strategy and the "People First" leadership philosophy. In the words of a program participant, one of FedEx's senior widebody captains,

"I began the week realizing that I was limiting myself with a single leadership style and an emotional intelligence level that was preventing me from reaching my full potential, particularly in stressful situations.

I learned how to apply different leadership styles to meet specific situations, apply consequential thinking, and continue to improve my emotional intelligence. I am already applying this new found knowledge in my day to day work environment as well as my personal life."

These insights and skills will shape the culture of FedEx for years to come. As Shannon Brown, Chief Diversity Officer for FedEx Express, and the senior HR leader for the organization puts it: "At FedEx Express, we're committed to staying on the leading edge. For us, that's always meant bringing out the best in people. As the business landscape becomes even more complex, we need additional capability. Leveraging the Six Seconds approach to emotional intelligence is helping us build a strategic asset that will let us maintain and strengthen our culture - which is essential to our competitive advantage."

Quantitative Results

Another measure of success is through analysis of the SEI assessments given at the start and end of the six-month program. Based on comparisons of eight LEAD1 cohorts, 106 individuals (on pre-tests), the group experienced a median increase of 8% to 11% in EQ competencies. A paired t-test of individuals' pre-test and post-test comparisons shows P < 0.0001, indicating that statistically, the change is extremely significant.

In all the competencies of EQ (as measured by the SEI), there were a very substantial number of participants with major increases. In any group, some participants will be more fully engaged in the process; 44% of the participants experienced very large increases (10-50% improvements). The largest numbers of these were the areas of "Apply Consequential Thinking" with 54% of the participants are in this group of large increases, and "Exercise Optimism" with 57% of the participants improving from 10-50%.

The SEI measures eight competencies of emotional intelligence as well as six outcomes: Effectiveness, Influence, Decision-Making, Relationships, Quality of Life, and Health. Statistically, we know that variation in EQ predicts from 55-65% of the variation in these outcomes.[6] This correlation was confirmed in this sample population, where 59.8% of the variation in outcome scores can be predicted by EQ scores:

Like the EQ scores, participants' outcome scores increased significantly. Group average improvements range from 6-10%:

Again, the question arises, "What part of the group made serious improvements?" The largest major improvements were in:

Decision Making where 72% made major improvements.

Quality of Life 60% made major improvements.

Influence 58% made major improvements.

Qualitative Results

While the data are impressive, the human stories are compelling. Behind a 20% increase in relationships, we heard the story of a leader rebuilding trust with her team, or a marriage staying together. Behind a 15% increase in Quality of Life, we heard the story of someone finding meaning and recommitting to stay sober. That 10% increase in Decision Making is a story of a new manager finally "getting it" that people are what create value and changing the way he treats people.

The results of LEAD1 have gone far beyond the workplace. Participants have shared numerous stories of using the EQ tools to cope with loss, reunite with family members, step up to become better parents, and even make dramatic changes to improve health and wellbeing. By supporting new managers in this way, FedEx gains by having more competent leaders - and also by showing its people that the company puts its values into action. In turn, this role models the kind of people-centered leadership that FedEx expects from all managers.

As a result of initial success, LEAD1 has expanded to FedEx regional globally - Asia-Pacific (APAC), Latin America/Caribbean (LAC) and Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA). There are now certified SEI Coaches around the world providing one on one "specific customized" coaching for managers to begin this phase of their careers with the insight and skills for people-first leadership.

Conclusion

The success of the project at FedEx offers several insights for other companies looking to gain value from emotional intelligence:
Link to what matters.
At FedEx, concepts like "discretionary effort" and the leadership requirements from the annual SFA survey create an internal "case" for emotional intelligence. The champions of this project have helped leaders see that the learnable skills of emotional intelligence are building blocks to create the kind of people-first leadership the company wants - which, in turn, increases economic value. This recognition has built support of the initiative at very senior levels.
Build internal capacity.
By developing an internal team of emotional intelligence practitioners, the company has been able to assimilate the concepts and skills of EQ and "translate" them to work within the company culture. Having a large, strong team of emotional intelligence coaches and trainers means this program can be delivered at a large scale, creating a new "strand of DNA" to support the desired organizational culture.
Walk the Talk.
The company tells supervisors to put people first, so the company puts people first. By supporting new managers to be good people, and investing in their growth right at the start of their management careers, FedEx senior leadership is providing a powerful role model.

One of the basic principles of Six Seconds' work in business is:

Emotions drive people, people drive performance.

This simple formula makes sense at FedEx where there is a very strong recognition that productivity is created by people - and leaders need the skills to understand what makes people really work: Emotional intelligence.

*
Jimmy Daniels is a leadership consultant at Six Seconds. Previously, he was part of the team that designed and delivered LEAD1 as Senior Management Facilitator for the FedEx Express Global Leadership Institute (GLI). He joined GLI after 24 years in FedEx operations, where he launched tens of thousands of airplanes as a Director of Flight Operations. Jimmy now delivers training and consulting for leaders and teams to build productivity through people. Contact: [email protected]
Joshua Freedman is one of the founders of Six Seconds, where he serves as global CEO. He is co-author of the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment, and author of At the Heart of Leadership: How to Get Results With Emotional Intelligence, as well as six other psychometric assessments and several books and management programs. For more information, visit www.6seconds.org.

[1] http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-admired/

[3] Anabel Jensen and Joshua Freedman (2001). Six Seconds EQ Certification Manual, Six Seconds. Joshua Freedman (2007), At the Heart of Leadership, Six Seconds.

[6] Joshua Freedman, Massimiliano Ghini and Carina Fiedeldey-Van Dijk (2006), Emotional Intelligence and Performance, www.6seconds.org. Joshua Freedman, Jayne Morrison, Andreas Olsson (2009), Leadership Success and Emotional Intelligence In The Middle East, www.6seconds.org/tools/sei/research

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Case Study: Emotional Intelligence Improves Leadership at FedEx

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Integrating emotional intelligence assessment and development into a six-month process for new managers world-wide, the FedEx Express team at their Global Learning Institute is building the skills and expertise for people-first leadership.

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Ensure the webpages you want to refer to are appropriate. Some of the links here are to aid your understanding only. Wherever possible draw upon academic books/ebooks and journals/ejournals.

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How do you relate to Tracy Anderson?  Have you evidenced her interpretation of EI in your workplace now and in the past?

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Emotions can be good for business, if you use them this way: Tracy Anderson

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Fitness entrepreneur and celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson says using emotional intelligence can help you stay sharp in the business world.

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Leadership is Emotional, and Emotional intelligence theory and Leadership go hand in hand. - but first, some quotes:

Emotional Intelligence - "is the ability to monitor one's own and other's emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one's thinking and actions" (Salovey & Mayer 1990).

"Emotional Intelligence is a way of recognising, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. It defines how and what we learn; it allows us to set priorities; it determines the majority of our daily actions. Research suggests it is responsible for as much as 80% of the "success" in our lives" (Freedman et al).

What makes a good Leader?

You may think of an excelling leader as someone who has a calm assuring demeanour and who is in control no matter what the situation. You may also think of someone who has complete trust in all around them; a compassionate listener, always speaking kindly and with clarity; is approachable and always seems to make the right informed decisions.

Effectively, these are all attributes of someone who has high levels of Emotional Intelligence. Referencing Salovey above: the leader is controlling his/her own emotions as well as those of the team to perform excelling results. It is, therefore an extremely important subject - Emotional Intelligence theory and Leadership have a deep embedded relationship that should not be underestimated or overlooked.

What Is Emotional Intelligence Theory?

Often referred to as EI, Emotional intelligence is about having the ability to understand and manage the emotions of yourself and also those around you. Remember, the objective of a leader is to complete the task successfully, keep the team together and manage the team on an individual basis to ensure everyone is happy and playing to their strengths.

Question - Who is more likely to Succeed?

A Manager that shouts and criticises his/her team when under stress?
OR
A Leader that is in control and calmly assesses the situation?

The latter, obviously: the person who is in control of the situation and the surroundings - the one with good Emotional Intelligence!

Emotional Intelligence Theory: The Four Elements

Daniel Goleman, (2002), A psychologist who helped make the idea of EI popular, presented the concept of Emotional Intelligence as being encapsulated by four elements:

Self Awareness

Self Management

Social Awareness

Social Skills

The theory is simple - The more that you, as a leader, are in control and manage each of these elements, the higher your emotional intelligence!

1. Self-awareness

The first element of Emotional Intelligence theory - Being self aware means that you understand you. - You understand what makes you tick and therefore, your strengths and weaknesses as a person, and a Leader. You can then start to understand why you feel, and what makes you feel. "Is this a good emotion, or should I feel a different way?" If you understand your emotions, you can identify their impact to you and those in your team. It is a path on the road to having humility, which is a much needed facet in Leadership.

2. Self-Management

The second element of Goleman's Emotional Intelligence theory: - Through being in control of what you say and do, whilst rejecting the temptation to make rushed decisions, you can be in charge of your actions and therefore reducing the chance of compromising your values. Other aspects to nurture in this element are to show and actively apply conscientiousness, trustworthiness, Leading and adapting to change, complete drive to succeed and the initiative to think fast and act creatively and innovatively to solve problems.

3. Social Awareness

The third element of Emotional Intelligence Theory: Social awareness is the ability for a Leader to understand the emotions of the team members around them and to get a good comprehension of their emotional makeup. The ability to treat people according to these emotional reactions is vital. This area is linked to empathy: The ability to understand and see things in other peoples view points, expertise in building and retaining talent, valuing diversity and appreciating the organisational goals. In essence this part of emotional intelligence then, is about understanding and being truly in touch with the complete demands of the environment and acting to suit those conditions.

4. Social Skills

The fifth and final element from Goleman's emotional intelligence theory, which links Leadership and Emotional Intelligence together: Leaders with good Social Skills are often very good communicators. Leaders who are good in this discipline are also good at conflict resolution and communicating the vision to team members, enlightening them and creating motivation and inspiration throughout the team. They are experts at getting their team to support them and also believe in their leadership. They set the example, for others to follow by demonstrating the acceptable behaviours and values.

Perfection takes practice

Being a great Leader takes time. It is one that can be achieved, and through the use of emotional intelligence Theory and Leadership combined, and following some of the suggestions referred to on this page, your skills can be increased.

Focus on these four elements of emotional intelligence theory, and with practice, you will improve. Keep doing it, and you will improve further. Repetition is the mother of skill!
How to improve your Emotional Intelligence:
A daily journal - Journals help improve your self-awareness. Writing down your thoughts can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness. Understand what you did, why, how did it make you feel/ act? What did you do well? What could you improve on? Just reflecting on this everyday, will enhance your Self awareness and personal improving routine.

Calm! - Running one hundred miles an hour can be a blur - SLOW DOWN at times, and when strong emotions rise through demanding situations, use the three second rule - Pause, count to three and then ask why. Why are you feeling angry? What can you do to counter this? An emotion is a state of mind - how can you convert anger to a more positive emotion? What can you learn from this situation? No matter what the situation, you can always choose how you react to it.

Understand your values - Take time to understand what you believe in and what your values are. Understand your driving values: things that get you going and that create ambition. Also, list those values that are your 'away from' values: those that cause you to avoid things because of fear. Spend some time to understand your high valued principles as well. These are important values and principles that you do not want to compromise. If you know what is important to you, decisions will be easier to take - ones which do not compromise your values.

Be Accountable for your actions - Remember, you have a choice in everything you do. If you don't already, take accountability for your actions and decisions. If you make a bad decision, learn from it, but face the music and take responsibility for it. You gain respect if you do and with respect comes great Leadership.

Re-examine why you're a Leader - When times get tough, it is fairly easy to forget what you really love about your career. You must take some time to remember why you wanted this job and what your long term vision is. Try to remind yourself daily where you are, where you want to be and how you will get there. If you are still unhappy try to get to the root cause to understand why. Once you highlight this, you can then act to do something about it.

Goals - For every one of your goals, write down the reasons why you absolutely want to achieve them! These reasons will give you motivation when times are hard.

Turn negative situations into positives - Every time things are difficult, ask yourself, "What can I learn from this?" Is there anything that you can take away and introduce so the situation doesn't happen again? Write your learning points in your journal.

Learn and understand conflict resolution - Leaders must know how to resolve conflicts between their team members, customers, or vendors. Learning this skills is imperative if you want to succeed as a leader.

Learn how to praise others - As a leader, you can inspire the loyalty of your team simply by giving praise when it's earned. Learning how to effectively praise others is a fine art, but well worth the effort. Remember that journal - record your actions, review it daily and polish your skills!

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Emotional Intelligence Theory: Highlighting and Developing Leadership Skills

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Leadership is Emotional, and Emotional intelligence theory and Leadership go hand in hand. - but first, some quotes: Emotional Intelligence - "is the ability to monitor one's own and other's emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one's thinking and actions" (Salovey & Mayer 1990).

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Watch his video and explore and evaluate his views. Try a search of emotional intelligence videos to see if any contrasting views are out there.

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Look at this in full post and then view original and consider the response by Steve Barham, what is your evaluation of his answer?

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As a leader, you are exposed to varied situations; you meet different people and undergo a range of experiences. The common thread through all these is the array of emotions that are created within you. Emotional intelligence is not about these emotions - it is about the manner in which you interpret and then act on them. That is what makes you a true and inspiring leader.

There are two aspects of emotional intelligence at the foundational level - once we understand them, we can decide whether using them in leadership is necessary. Getting insights into them will enable you to take an informed decision on whether the leadership situation you face requires emotional intelligence to deal with it.

The first one is self-awareness and the second is awareness of the emotions of those around you. To make emotional intelligence wholesome, these two aspects need to move together to the next level which is application.

Self-awareness: Your understanding of your own emotions as well as how you react to different situations and people is critical. For example, how do your emotions impact your relationship with team members, when a tight project deadline is given? Or how do your emotions influence your decision-making when you think of promotions and performances of team members? Or how do your emotions help mitigate a situation that is created due to friction between two colleagues? These are just a few practical examples to give you a perspective. As a leader, if you face these situations or anticipate them, the use of emotional intelligence to manage them is imperative. It is only by being emotionally intelligent you can ensure that such situations will have positive outcomes and no negative impact on the business.

Awareness of the emotions of others: Research says that emotional intelligence has become a key leadership skill. Why is that? While the application of emotional intelligence on leadership has been discussed frequently, EI becoming a key skill is a recent development. The reason is that leaders need to be able to gauge the situation and people, prior to each business decision. With the world economy showing steep highs and lows, and the changes in our business environment becoming difficult to predict, leaders are constantly under pressure to make the right decisions. And that can happen only by understanding the underlying emotions that drive the business and the workforce. Only an emotionally intelligent leader can have that perceptive ability.

An HBR study shared that there is a clear link between empathic leadership and financial performance. Have a look at the graph below.

Therefore, emotional intelligence needs to be used in leadership because, in today's world, the softer skills, attributes, and the ability to hone them for business impact create a competitive advantage. Emotions are at the core of these attributes and assessing how they can affect the financial performance of the organisation as a whole is what leaders need to focus on. Even on a relative comparison scale with respect to IQ, EI has been rated as a more impactful competency for leaders to develop.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

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The use of emotional intelligence in leadership - is it necessary?

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As a leader, you are exposed to varied situations; you meet different people and undergo a range of experiences. The common thread through all these is the array of emotions that are created within you. Emotional intelligence is not about these emotions - it is about the manner in which you interpret and then act on them.

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Daniel Goleman Introduces Emotional Intelligence | Big Think

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How do you see yourself with regards to Emotional Intelligence? Do you use it/utilise it in your department