In Training & Development - February 2008 (download article in PDF)

Two excerpts:

A decade ago any talk of emotional intelligence would draw strange looks. Now many organizations include it among core competencies required for high performers.

Where emotions were once dismissed as raw and inappropriate in the office, they are now utilized as data by savvy leaders, according to Joshua Freedman, chief operating officer of Six Seconds Consulting in San Francisco.

“Leaders don’t care about emotional intelligence,” Freedman says. “They care about a business problem they have. Emotional intelligence is a tool they can use in the service of solving the problem.”

Instead of encouraging individuals to act differently, training in emotional intelligence teaches participants to observe and analyze their own behavior while also taking note of peer reactions.

“Most corporate training focuses on behavior such as shaking hands and making direct eye contact,” Freedman says. “Emotional intelligence teaches you to pay attention to what drives the behavior of others. Emotions are data. They are real. The training takes a logical approach to emotions.”

Six Seconds, emotional intelligence, and social-emotional learning is a feature story in the January issue of O Magazine - The New & Improved Self-Esteem (p 162) (download a PDF)

Two excerpts:

“The shift in thinking by researchers like Dweck and Baumeister dovetails with a revolutionary educational philosophy called social and emotional learning, or SEL, which takes the eminently sensible position that if students are going to be intellectual risk takers, they need to feel safe, and teaches a wide range of skills to help them navigate the world. “

“The value of self-mastery skills is already taking hold in the workplace, with organizations ranging from American Express to the United States Marine Corps integrating SEL into their leadership training. At Fed-Ex many senior managers now complete a course named Legacy, developed with a California-based international nonprofit named Six Seconds. One of the exercises is called Sneetch Marbles, inspired by a Dr. Seuss book. The group is divided arbitrarily into Star-Bellied Sneetches and Plain-Bellied Sneetches, working together with an equally arbitrary set of rules as an assembly line rolling marbles through pipes. But the Star Bellies have all the information and power; the Plain Bellies can’t speak unless they’re called on, and they don’t get any treats. Some of them mutiny, some want to please the boss-like Star Bellies, some undermine the process, some start cheating, some check out.

Then everyone is asked questions: What helped them be engaged or disengaged? Were they optimistic or pessimistic? Did they notice anybody else’s feelings? Did they find any purpose in the exercise? “It creates an opportunity for all kinds of interesting discussions,” says Joshua Freedman, chief operating officer of Six Seconds. “This work tells you your patterns: When I think the rules are unfair, I cheat. Or When I think it’s not going well, I blame others. Or When I think the senior manager is a jerk, I rebel. Even at very high levels of corporations, we’re all still in the schoolyard. We feel vulnerable and we’re protecting ourselves. But once people become aware of a pattern, they’re asked if it’s getting them what they really want.” Then they can change it.

Six Seconds’ COO, Joshua Freedman, was interviewed for Feb ‘07 Redbook:

Are You Smart About Your Feelings?

Five ways to boost your emotional intelligence.
By Tara Rummell Berson

Excerpt:

Cultivate your curiosity.

We frequently ask questions out of habit without really caring about the answer (for example, asking someone, “How’s it going?” as you speed by her in the hallway). “Try honing your empathic skills by asking a question you want to know the answer to,” Freedman suggests. It could be as simple as, “How is it going with that new babysitter?” When you ask, look the other person in the eyes and wait for her answer. She’ll see that you’re truly interested, so she’ll answer thoughtfully — and likely ask how you’re doing. Creating these moments for emotional understanding has its perks, Freedman adds: Your blood pressure drops when you’re fully attentive to what someone else is saying — plus, you’ll develop more satisfying relationships.

Interview on The Leader’s Playbook

Today’s guest is Joshua Freedman the author of At the Heart of Leadership, and an expert in Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Change. He is the COO and one of the founders of Six Seconds, one of the oldest and leading EI programs in the world. Joshua is a master EI trainer having trained over 10,000 people in 10 nations.

Listen to the interview online

Pacific chaplains meet for professional development course

Pacific chaplains meet for professional development course
Lance Cpl. Terence L. Yancey

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa (March 16, 2007) – Navy chaplains from installations across the Asia-Pacific region gathered on Okinawa for a professional development training course March 7-9 on Camp Foster.

Representatives from Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network taught the course. The network is a nonprofit organization, endorsed by the Navy chaplains, dedicated to helping individuals and organizations “recognize, understand and manage feelings.”

“The purpose of the program is to provide ideas, concepts and tools to the chaplains and to facilitate team and individual changes effectively,” said Tom Wojick, a senior consultant for Six Seconds.

The training program, which is used by many organizations and individuals worldwide, was specifically tailored to the unique mission of Navy chaplains for the course here, according to Wojick.

“Many chaplains serve in assignments where they are the only chaplain,” said Capt. John H. Lea, III, the Force chaplain for U.S. Naval Forces Japan. “As a result, they don’t always have someone to talk things through with and get perspective from. This course provides them with useful tools to help them gain added insight and perspective.”

During the course, the chaplains spent three days learning the three-step emotional intelligence model - know yourself, choose yourself and give yourself, according to Wojick. They then learned how to apply each of the steps to themselves, their relationships and their organization.

According to the Six Seconds Web site, http://www.6seconds.org, “by teaching chaplains emotional intelligence skills they can share with their constituents, we believe they will help the forces be both more effective and better able to follow their values.”

As a final project, the chaplains got into groups and put together presentations targeted toward specific demographics within the military using the Six Seconds techniques.

One group of chaplains put together a presentation geared toward junior enlisted Marines, using humor to put across the Six Seconds techniques.

Another group created a presentation geared toward senior leadership. They discussed how commands affected by or responding to natural disasters can use the Six Seconds methods to deal with the stress while providing support to those who rely on them for comfort.

Afterward they were given feedback from the other chaplains and the Six Seconds consultants.

The Six Seconds team has visited several military installations across the U.S. and overseas to teach Navy chaplains.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Yoshimi Miyazaki yoshimi@6seconds.org

New Books Teaches How To Get to The Heart of Leadership

For over a decade the concept of “emotional intelligence” has been a buzz around the world, and while many books have defined the concept, now there is finally a book which shows leaders how to apply it.

San Francisco, May 31, 2007: In a business climate fraught with rapid change, globalization, and an elusive pool of top talent, how do leaders forge competitive advantage? The science of emotional intelligence provides critical insights into the answer, but how do leaders put the concept in action? A new book by one of the world-leading experts shows how.
At the Heart of Leadership: How to Get Results with Emotional Intelligence (www.EQleadership.com) challenges the notion that we should leave emotions at the door. The book shows why emotions are critical to top performance, and how leading organizations such as the US Marine Corps and FedEx are using this science to gain an edge. Most importantly, the book presents a simple process for leaders to be smarter about feelings, which makes it “…an important read for any leader 
looking to take it higher,” Arlene Pfeiff, Vice President, Technologies, American Express.
Written by Joshua Freedman, arguably the world’s top authority on how to leverage emotional intelligence for organizational performance, the book presents his decade of experience teaching these skills around the globe. Full of current research and extensive notes, the book has a solid scientific basis – including an introduction by Dr. Peter Salovey (Yale University), one of the inventors of the science of emotional intelligence.
But it’s not a book about theory: It’s a how-to guide. With many examples and practical techniques, the book helps leaders grow. In the words of US Navy Captain Tierian Cash, CHC “The concepts in this book give leaders the tactical edge they need to handle the complexities of change. This is a practical approach to leading with emotional intelligence that can help leaders stay on course to accomplish their mission.”
A free excerpt is online: www.EQleadership.com

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Press Kit is online: www.6seconds.org/press/

Performance Management

Published March 2007

Crossing the Cultural Divide with Emotional Intelligence

Joshua Freedman

The Bridge of Emotional Intelligence

Culture is a body of shared knowledge — the knowledge of what is appropriate behavior. Geopolitical and organizational cultures tell people how to get by and how to get results. Culture shapes our values, language, customs and even the way we define success. So, it’s no wonder culture has such a powerful effect on performance management.

It was hard enough managing performance with a more homogeneous workforce of employees from the same country, similar backgrounds, shared experiences and common language. But with greater globalization and more mobility, many cultural differences are emerging and converging in the workplace. The divide can be wide.

Even within a single country, norms and language can vary widely. Within the same organization, there can be dramatically different cultures, each providing different rules of appropriate behavior and unspoken assumptions about “the right way” to perform.

The only thing people seem to share universally is the assumption that everyone else sees the world from the same perspective they do. As a result, what seems like a simple request or interaction can become messy and convoluted.

Is there a way to cut across cultural difference and understand one another at a human level? If we access the intelligence of emotions, are we just using another cultural filter, or does universality exist? Are some aspects of emotional intelligence (EQ) more or less influenced by culture? And how do we use this concept to improve performance?

Training & Development Magazine, June 2005: Key relationship factors predict more than halfo of the difference between low and higher performers, finds a new research study by the Institute for Organizational Performance. Trust along prediicts 46 percent of the difference.

Download a PDF: Training & Development Magazine, June, 2005

Study: Wisdom not automatic benefit of age

By Kathy Gurchiek, 2/20/07

In the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, the character played by the actress Kathy Bates is stunned when two young women in a red VW zip into an empty parking space at the grocery, stealing a spot that she had patiently waited to claim.

“Hey, I was waiting for that spot!” the Bates character shouts.

“Face it, lady, we’re younger and faster!” one of the women tauntingly replies.

The Bates character snaps and in a fury repeatedly rams her car into the rear of the VW, then tells the gobsmacked screaming girls with a smile, “Face it, girls, I’m older and I have more insurance.”

Better insured, maybe, but not necessarily wiser, according to a recent study that found that emotional intelligence (EQ) does not develop automatically with age.

Emotional intelligence is “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships,” according to an SHRM research paper quoting from psychologist Daniel Goleman’s book, Emotional Intelligence (Bantam, 1998).

The relationship between emotional intelligence and age varies slightly, according to a study of 405 Americans in April 2006 using the emotional intelligence assessment tool of Six Seconds, a nonprofit international organization that promotes EQ.

Significantly, the study found that most people will improve their emotional intelligence simply from their life experience. In addition, it found that the popular belief that wisdom comes with age is overstated.

“While a majority of older people are higher in EQ, there are many young people with higher EQ scores than their older counterparts,” it notes.

“In addition, some of the aspects of EQ can only be developed through training. So many of our social, educational, and business systems discount the contributions of young people,” according to the study. “If emotional intelligence is a critical competence in the current world context, then leaders need to take note of their younger people as an important source of human capital.”

The study examined three aspects of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, and self-direction. It found that:

• Self-awareness increases slightly with age.

• Self-management does not increase with age. It requires specific training to develop and is less likely to develop automatically through life experience.

• Self-direction is more strongly affected by age, influencing empathy and the use of principles and values to drive a person’s behavior.

All this “suggests emotional intelligence is a developing ability” to which accumulated life experience likely contributes, researcher Lorenzo Fariselli of Six Seconds Italia said in a press release. Fariselli conducted the study analysis for Six Seconds.

However, some aspects of emotional intelligence are developed only through training, according to the findings.

“We often hear managers talk about the ‘generation gap,’ complaining that young employees are not motivated or service-oriented,” Joshua Freedman, author and Six Seconds director of programs told HR News in an e-mail.

“Our study does not support this perception-the younger people in the study score just as high on intrinsic motivation and optimism, two competencies key to being motivated and proactive. So if managers are perceiving a generation gap, the source may not be competence-it may be fit and communication style.”

He added that “while there are several competencies that increase with age, there are some that do not. This means companies must create training if they want people to develop the self-management aspects of emotional intelligence-they can’t rely on more senior people to develop these strengths simply through experience.”

In a speech at the Society for Human Resource Management’s 37th Annual Employment Management Association Conference and Exposition in March 2006, psychologist and author Goleman noted that emotional intelligence is twice as important in star performers as is cognitive ability.

There are plans for a future Six Seconds study to repeat the research using a larger sample, checking how different demographics, such as job role and education level, work with age to affect emotional intelligence in different ways.

Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News. She can be reached at kgurchiek@shrm.org.

Related article:
Emotional Intelligence: Our Most Versatile Tool for Success, SHRM White Paper, September 2005.

January 2007:  Chief Learning Officer :: Industry News

Emotional Intelligence and Age

There are many assumptions about emotional intelligence and age. Popular literature and “common sense” assert older people are wiser and more aware, but is this true?

Existing research indicates a slight relationship between emotional intelligence and age.

Using the Six Seconds’ Emotional Intelligence Assessment (SEI), a study of 405 Americans shows emotional intelligence (EQ) increases slightly with age. The relationship is r = 0.13 (p < 0.01) — slight but significant.