Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

A report published by the Capgemini Research Institute concludes that within the next 1-5 years, emotional intelligence will become a must have skill among both business executives and employees.

Companies that focus on the importance of Emotional Intelligence or EQ can expect improved productivity, increased employee satisfaction, growth in market share and revenue generation, and cost reductions. Employees can more easily adapt to the increase in client-facing roles and take on more interpersonal and communication-focused responsibilities which require EQ skills. What’s more, the demand for emotionally intelligent employees is expected to increase by six times over the next 3-5 years.

I am honored to have been featured in a wonderful book on Emotional Intelligence titled, How to Be an Emotionally Intelligent Leader (While Crushing Your Goals), by Cheryl O’Donoghue. She discusses the EQ attributes or “superpowers” that make an emotionally intelligent leader and provides a self-assessment for readers, enabling you to discover your own personal EQ skills.

Cheryl also includes 20 profiles of emotionally intelligent leaders who demonstrate their own emotional intelligence skills, giving you real-life examples of ways you can use your EQ superpowers to make yourself more relevant, respected, and indispensable at work and in life. I’m proud to say that my Emotional Intelligence leadership story is included in chapter 21.

I recently sat down with Cheryl for a chat to discuss one of my emotional intelligence skills.

Here is the video and a transcript of our conversation.

 

Lisa M. Masiello and Cheryl O’Donoghue discuss emotional intelligence in the workplace and Lisa’s leadership superpower.

 

Emotional Intelligence Transcript:

Cheryl O’Donoghue: Hello everyone. Cheryl O’Donoghue here to talk about ways you can activate your emotional intelligence leadership superpowers to fuel your success and become a leader who is relevant, respected, and indispensable. Those three words, relevant, respected, and indispensable, accurately describe our guest today, Lisa Masiello, chief marketing officer and founder of TECHmarc Labs, Inc.

Hello, Lisa!

Lisa Masiello: Hello, Cheryl. It’s so great to be with you today. Thank you so much for asking me to participate with you.

Cheryl O’Donoghue: Oh, well, I've been looking forward to this all week. I absolutely loved writing your chapter and for those of you following along, this is chapter 21 in the book, How to Be an Emotionally Intelligent Leader. And I love this chapter, Lisa, because, you know, it was all about you and how you developed and amplified your top leadership superpowers to overcome obstacles, achieve your goals, and to do so with greater ease and confidence, and just so many rich insights.

I thought, you know it would be cool if we could talk about one of your EQ leadership superpowers in particular, number 16. This is #16 from the assessment and the attribute was, “I'm comfortable doing something for someone without expecting a favor in return.”

So, tell us about that leadership superpower, how it works for you, and how it has helped you in your career, Lisa.

Lisa Masiello: You know, I think that attribute is so underappreciated, it’s so undervalued, and so infrequently thought of. In my career, I'm at a senior executive level position now and I think back in my career when I started and how I came along and I think of all of the people who really supported me, taught me things, helped me on my journey through my career. Now it’s my opportunity to give back to the others who are a little bit earlier on this journey than I am.

The people who supported me throughout my career, they didn’t ask for anything. They were open, they were helpful, and they just provided. Whatever questions I asked, whatever I needed, they were there to support me. And I think that’s the way we should all be. And that’s the way I try to act when anyone comes to me and asks me a question, asks me for advice, wants to know how to do something, maybe I know someone they’d like to connect with, I’m always happy to support them and give them anything that I can.

Cheryl O’Donoghue: So, you know this is not an easy superpower.

Lisa Masiello: I think you have to be conscious of it. And really realize that, you know, it might a cliché. Sometimes we think of it as a cliché to say, “whatever you put out there comes back to you,” or “what goes around comes around.” But it's true. And so, if I give out my time, my service, my support, my expertise, it comes back in many, many ways.

Cheryl O’Donoghue: So, this raises a point, and I wanted to see what you thought about this. It seems to me that if someone is out there listening in and they say, you know, this is kind of hard for me to do. I think sometimes it's because we may be coming from a place of scarcity. Let's say there's not a lot of advancement in our company, especially for women, let's just say. And so, if we're coming at it like there's only one job available and I don't want to really be helping somebody out because then I might be left behind, what’s your sense on that and what recommendations would you give to somebody who is struggling in that area?

Lisa Masiello: Well, it's not a zero-sum game. You know, it's not that if you win I lose, or if I win you lose. We're all in this together. I think you can see that a lot of times in small businesses – in startups and small companies where those companies are successful because everyone has come together.

They’ve all supported each other within the organization, and everyone has one goal. One objective – for the business to be successful. If the business as a whole is successful, then everyone in the organization will benefit from that success.

And so, that’s why I've never been afraid to help share my knowledge or my time or whatever it might be, because if I'm helping a coworker and I know we're both going to be successful and the more successful we are, the more successful the organization is going to be.

Cheryl O’Donoghue: I love that. I love the fact that you're coming at this from a place of abundance and not scarcity. What wise, wise words indeed. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for your awesome insights and sharing that with all of us today. For those of you who do not know what your emotional intelligence leadership superpowers are, go to Amazon, get this baby, How to Be an Emotionally Intelligent Leader (While Crushing Your Goals). Take the assessment, and remember, all the book royalties go to support the humanitarian nonprofit Mission Sisters Who Work (now Aspire2STEAM.org) so they can fund scholarships and programs for underserved women who dream about having a career in business and STEM and being treated equitably and with respect.

So, with that, Lisa, thank you again. Have a wonderful rest of your day.

Lisa Masiello: Thank you, Cheryl.

Cheryl O’Donoghue: And to everybody else, enjoy your day as well. Take care, bye bye.

Lisa Masiello: Thank you, bye bye.

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