Greater Success And Sales Using Emotional Intelligence to Engage Staff and Clients : And What's This Got To Do With Intergenerational Advice?

Research studies have related team performance and team characteristics to effective leadership behaviours. The leadership behaviours in play encompass emotional intelligence and further, emotional intelligence becomes a precursor for the demonstration of transformational leadership.

The conclusions that can be drawn drawn are that facets of brain dominance and emotional intelligence may be potentially useful predictors of transformational leadership behaviours.

So what is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is described by Herbst and Maree and again by Schelecter and Strauss as a cognitive ability that involves the processing of emotion.

Other models define emotional intelligence in terms of behaviours and skills, including stress management skills (such as stress tolerance and impulse control), self-management skills (such as self-control, conscientiousness and adaptability), as well as social skills (such as conflict management, leadership and communication).

Overall however what is critical in understanding how effective a persons level of emotional intelligence is, is the requirement to understand how an individual perceives, understands, utilises and manages emotions.

Leadership comprises both intellectual and emotional facets and both these facets need to be attended to during the training of managers in order to equip them with sufficient leadership skills.

Transformational leadership behaviour has been found to be positively related to team-leader emotional intelligence and both these are said to be positively related to trust (both in the team leader and in team members) and to team commitment.

It seems that leaders are important creators and sustainers of the processes and dynamics responsible for effective teams.

So in the financial services world - effective client engagement and client servicing comes from having exceptional teams, team members and team dynamics that support a culture of ownership and empathy with the client.

Further the team needs to be crystal clear on the outcome that the business is creating for the client.

Without a leader that can define in client terms the vision for the business with a meaning and relevance that staff can not only believe in but also share the vision and help create it - then the business is only positioning itself for transactions with clients and not transformations of clients and the business itself.

Businesses that are not defining a vision, purpose and message for clients, sharing that vision with staff and building capabilities to deliver on the promise may do well in the short term in purely a transactional sense.

But the businesses that are shaping messages to win the hearts and minds of clients will be the businesses that truly capture the attention and the longevity of client loyalty.

The longer they are able to do this, then the longer they will be able to build their capabilities further to provide true family advice, true intergenerational offerings that deliver on providing the unspoken needs of clients.

Motivation : Getting The Very Best Out Of Yourself

So our planned post about socials communities is on hold! Because we wanted to uncover the core of your motivation.

We had the chance to speak to an individual yesterday with a valid goal and a thought out process but a fear of letting go of the past and accepting the positive of their future.

No one, repeat no one can motivate you.

Oh you can be inspired no doubt and the inspiration from a person or event can be highly emotionally charged and resonate so powerfully that you can't help but move forward with your goals. But unless you have discovered within the motivation that is self generated and as such self perpetuating then that brick wall looms large and fast approaching.

The pre game address from a great orator and coach can get you running onto the field revved up and that adrenalin rush leads to action that can get results fast. What happens when things get tough? In that third quarter of the game? Do the words in that pre game address cause our second wind, those heroic efforts that change the course of the game? Or is it what is inside use that leads to winning or just missing out?

Think about where you are right now.....in your business, in your sales year, in your relationship, in your friendships, in your life. Now imagine it is your third quarter in the game you are playing but the final whistle sounds now....that's it....game over.....where have you finished?

In your business have you achieved what you wanted? Are you ahead / behind?

In your sales year ....what percentage of target have you finished on.....is it 90% or is it 110?

In your relationship.....what have you missed out on doing that you regret...should you have proposed, started a family, said "I love you"......or should you have exited the relationship here, here, here and there!!

In your life.....do you look back and smile...satisfied.....or is there so much more you wish you could have done?

Now how does this all feel?

So you finished on 90%. Could you have made 100%, 110%? What more could you have done, differently, the same with more consistency ....if you had just more time what would you do to feel....better?

How does 90% feel knowing 110% was there if you had just tried that little bit more? If the voice in your head was less concerned about fear and more concerned about sending you positive messages.

And what if you are on 110% how does that feel? And knowing how good that feels...how does it positively change things for you and your world....what are the consequences of hitting your goal....so what do you need to do to capture that feeling, bottle the very essence of it....what would you do to make sure, guarantee you are going to feel that way.....and extra sales call a day .....?

So what if you should have spent more time with your family...one more hug, one more "I love you" that you should have said....or maybe your priorities are spot on and you know they know just how much you love them as you never left that to chance.

Understanding how you feel on reaching that future goal, what it would mean, what would change in your world ....is the first step in visualising and outcome to provide positive motivation to keep you on track ...you need to imagine how it feels emotionally and physiologically.....only then can you synthesise your body and mind to delivering that goal for you. The movie of your life becomes inherently positive ...it's the slide set you want shown at your funeral the movie you want to see over and over again. It's the Disney feel good, rising above the odds story.....not the B grade unlikeable character that no one warms to or respects...."I hated that guy in that film"....is that who you want to be?

But here's the rub. There is no finish line. When the final whistle blows, there is another game starting. There is always something else to work towards. Once you accept that then you are ready to accept that if you live your life like the final whistle is about to blow and as such make every second count then you can live without regret, able to smile at your efforts, reflect warmly and without questioning what if.

Finally this quote from poet Kim Rosen may resonate for you ...."when you welcome what you've been running from, your life is no longer shaped by trying to avoid it"......visualising the ideal you and working towards it is a great first step.

"The Trusted Advisor". Process? Mindset?

With so much talk, data, conversation and method, post FOFA on becoming a "trusted advisor" PCE wanted to in this post unpack one of the components of being a "trusted advisor".

Now to start...some perspective. The concept of the "trusted advisor" has been around for a long time. From Bacarach to Beddoes...from books published in 2000 by Robert M. Galford, 2005 by Charles H. Green, and 1997 by David H. Maister. In fact so widely discussed has this concept been that anyone fooled into believing that this is a new concept is incredibly naive.

But recent study has packaged up this concept into something more accessible. For a start one does not necessarily have to pay thousands for the process or take significant time out of the business to learn the process. But in saying that there are vast advantages in doing that. The concept has become accessible indeed but correspondingly more difficult to enact.

Without the process implementation just simply does not occur.

Further the key ingredient in becoming a "trusted advisor" is emotional intelligence.

Simple huh?

What is required at this point to help an adviser become a "trusted advisor" is the development of their EI.

What must occur is 4 fourfold:

1) Ones way of thinking needs to be refined so that a consciousness develops that challenges familiar notions of ourselves and others, challenging the truth of assumptions.

2) That then in turn allows us to assess the opportunities and the constraints that characterise our lives and the lives of others. It makes us look for a better way. And reveals what we and others can accomplish to reach our goals more effectively.

3) Doing this enables us as the "trusted advisor" to shape not only our lives and that of our clients but that of society. This is about being aware enough to give back.

4) And finally once self aware, we can easily recognise human differences and we can lead the way in confronting the challenges of living in a very diverse and changing world.

Critically thinking about ours and others strengths and weaknesses and being able to articulate that effectively to ourselves and others is the core of EI.

A process that you can implement is then in fact a great idea.

So when next the concept of a "trusted advisor" is rasied, look for the process.

Or keep reading PCE!