Emotional Intelligence: Attrition and Attainment

We are a generation of job hoppers. We don't think of "stability" as a cool word. We believe in "moving on" to greener pastures.  As seen in most movies, each of us reach decisions, on one hand, derived after putting our brains into it; while on the other side, by being led by our hearts. Research in "Employee Hiring and Attrition" suggests that whilst most employees take up a job role based on logical reasons, employees who leave an organization often cite emotional reasons such as dissatisfaction, disagreement, conflict, burnout etc.

Let us better understand "Emotional Intelligence".

The pioneer researcher in this field, Daniel Goleman, defines it as "the ability to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and in others."

Broadly categorized, Emotional Intelligence comprises of:

·         Self Awareness

·         Self Management

·         Social Awareness

·         Relationship Management

Most hiring procedures often take the assistance of Intelligence Tests; in other words, give more importance to the Intelligence Quotient or the cognitive abilities of the person to judge his fitment for the job. Whilst many imminent psychologists have included Intelligence within the paradigm of an individual's personality, the latter is still often not touched upon due to the general dissent formal settings seem to have for the "F" word, means "Feelings".

Elucidating the aforementioned reasons of attrition, most organizations seem to be under the idea that stress tolerance and resilience are the major determiners of an employee's reaction to any situation which is an outcome of the function of the "F" word. Hiring procedures are often known to scrupulously follow a protocol of putting up situation induced pressure tests and simulation questions which are answered equally diligently by the contenders. The fact here being, when asked to imagine situations and their outcomes, the brain is at work, but when such situations play out in real life, well, the heart wants what it wants.

What's the best way to deal with this?

Unlike I.Q. which is defined from birth, E.Q. is a constantly evolving entity. The good news being, even if you initially picked your star employee on the basis of his cognitive ability, you can still develop his emotional quotient. Consistent assistance in the form of mentoring sessions, where an independent authority (preferably a psychologist) talks to the employees individually about their emotional fitment in the organization will help in this case. The best Emotional Intelligence exercise, to deal with this, would be to enable an intermittent shuffling procedure within teams that ensures more variety and less monotony in the team structure and thereby in the source of authority or leadership style.