Million Dollar ROI!

 

New USAF study says EQ-i will save them millions

It takes some pretty specialized training to become a Pararescue Jumper. For the United States Air Force (USAF), training potential grads is a lengthy and expensive process. In 2009, each pararescue trainee spent 21 months in training focused on airborne skills, combat diving, underwater egress, and in paramedic and apprenticeship programs. When you factor in all the flight time and specialized equipment, the price tag checked in at $250K per grad. So it’s no wonder the USAF began looking into ways to increase training efficiency. Aware of a successful emotional intelligence-based employment screening and training program used with their recruiters, the USAF decided to partner once again with MHS to determine if they could achieve more cost savings. 

Why it was worth a look

Back in 1995, USAF recruiters were suffering from high rates of first-year turnover. In their efforts to increase recruiter retention, the USAF used MHS’s EQ-i assessment of emotional intelligence to study the differences between successful and unsuccessful recruiters. Using their findings from the study, the USAF developed a pre-employment screening system that led to a 92% reduction in first-year turnover and resulted in $2.7-million in training cost savings in the first year alone. A report to a congressional sub-committee stated that Air Force recruiters are twice as productive as recruiters in other branches of the armed forces. (Gourville, 2000; Handley, 1997).

Encouraged by the EQ-i’s ability to predict successful recruiters, the USAF and MHS teamed up to examine whether emotional intelligence testing could improve selection and development for two other high-cost-training jobs: Pararesuce Jumper (PJ) and Explosive Ordance Disposal (EOD).

Accurate EI testing = Better selection + cost reductions 

In 2009, the USAF assessed their Pararescue division using the EQ-i assessment.  The EQ-i is a standardized test that measures how an individual rates him- or herself across 15 emotional and social factors. Five factors were linked to successful completion of the PJ program: Flexibility, Optimism, Self-Regard, Happiness, and Reality Testing.

Figure 1:  Better Recruits in the USAF

Source:  MHS

In fact, trainees who scored higher in these areas were two to three times more likely to successfully complete the PJ program. This powerful information will be used by the Air Force to offer guidance to trainees regarding their potential for successful completion of the program.

By using the MHS EI-based model, the USAF predicts a 72–74% potential increase in training efficiency. The Air Force estimates the potential savings/cost avoidance of trainees with the requisite EQ-i skills entering the Pararescue training to be approximately $19 million per year. A preliminary study of EOD trainees is showing a different skill profile that could yield cost savings in the millions.  

If you would like information about how MHS can help you achieve bottom-line results through the EQ-i assessment, please call 1-800-456-3003 or email growyourbusiness@mhs.com.

Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions

 

New Book Links Emotional Intelligence to Stress and Decision Making

The Stress Effect: Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions—And What to Do About It (Jossey-Bass, May 2010) integrates the most powerful concepts that are shaping the future of leadership and business, such as stress, decision making, emotional intelligence, cognitive ability, and brain science. This book is endorsed by MHS president, Dr. Steven Stein and other well-respected EI practitioners, including Reuven Bar-On, Richard Boyatzis, David Caruso and Marcia Hughes. This latest addition to the EI literature is a must-read for all leaders.

In The Stress Effect, emotional intelligence and leadership expert Dr. Henry L. Thompson explores the powerful and undermining effects of stress on good decision making and what leaders can do to improve their decision-making effectiveness—especially when stressed. Dr. Thompson explains that when leaders’ stress levels become sufficiently elevated—whether in the boardroom, the classroom or on the front line of a manufacturing process—their ability to effectively use their emotional intelligence and cognitive ability in tandem to make wise decisions is significantly impaired. Until now, experts have argued that increasing your emotional intelligence will help you cope with and manage stress. The Stress Effect shows that stress actually blocks access to your emotional intelligence as well as your cognitive ability, two critical components in the decision-making process.

The Stress Effect shows leaders how to build resilience to stress and explores a variety of decision-making techniques as well as performance aids to improve decision making under stress. The book includes a free assessment of the seven best practices (ARSENAL) for building Stress Resilience to evaluate your stress hardiness.

Book reviewer Michelle K. Malsbury has this to say about The Stress Effect:

“This was one of the best books on leadership and stress that I have ever had the pleasure to read and review. I would suggest it as a text for all leadership, management, and business courses at the Masters level and above in universities around the world.”

For more information, visit www.thestresseffect.com.

Linking Cultural Adaptability and EI

So much rich data suggests that emotional intelligence is linked to success in the workplace – but what if that workplace is abroad? MHS Emotional Intelligence Solutions Division is offering an exciting opportunity to contribute to the development of a new reporting option for the world-famous Emotional Quotient Inventory®.

MHS is developing a Cross-Cultural Adaptability Report as a complement to our original selection of EQ-i® Reports. This new report is being designed with input from professionals who have experienced the many facets of working, living, and adapting cross-culturally. To ensure we are providing a tool that is both effective and easy to use, we are looking for volunteers from around the globe who would be willing to fill out the EQ-i online along with a brief questionnaire about their professional experiences abroad.

We are seeking to determine which personal factors may contribute to success in overseas working opportunities. To do so, we are looking for individuals with overseas working experience in excess of 3 months that can be described as a ‘successful/positive’ or an ‘unsuccessful/negative’ experience. We welcome individuals who are still working abroad, and those who have already returned to their home countries. Participation is not limited to North American nationals – we will be pleased to accept participants from anywhere around the globe.

If you are a qualified EQ-i practitioner, you may be eligible to receive a free Development Report for each client who completes the assessment. You can use this to offer feedback to your clients without incurring the purchasing cost of the report.

For more information or to sign up, please contact Tyrone Williams at tyrone.williams (at) mhs.com.

Building Conflict Resolution Skills with EI

Conflict is neither inherently good nor inherently bad – it can be a force for positive change just as easily as a source of dissent and frustration. It is often the manner in which a conflict is handled that determines its character, and the nature of its impact.

Conflicts inevitably arise – that’s out of our hands. But by taking an informed approach to conflict resolution and management, we can learn to use conflict as a tool for shaping positive outcomes – and that’s under our control. Knowing how to work with conflict is the key to success, and such knowledge can be taught.

In Building Your Team’s Conflict-Resolution Skills with Emotional and Social Intelligence, a chapter from The Handbook for Developing Emotional and Social Intelligence, author Marcia Hughes seeks to help you and those you work with achieve winning results by assessing and increasing group and individual conflict resolution skills. With concepts reinforced by research and examples, this chapter will show you

• How to use EI assessments to identify and improve group and individual conflict-resolution skills.
• Which EI competencies are most closely related to the ability to resolve conflict successfully.
• How emotional and social skills can be leveraged to counteract groupthink.
• How to introduce and discuss the importance of emotional and social competencies to conflict resolution in a team setting.
• How to harness positive and negative emotional states to guide the conflict resolution process.
• How to overcome the common emotional obstacles that hinder the positive resolution of a conflict.

Learn how to make conflict work for you in this informative chapter – just one of 17 topics examined in The Handbook for Developing Emotional and Social Intelligence, an exceptional resource comprising contributions from some of the leading authors in the field.

To order The Handbook for Developing Emotional and Social Intelligence, visit MHS or contact customerservice@mhs.com.

Resiliency, Teaching, and Emotional Intelligence

I’ve already reported on a number of studies linking emotional intelligence in educators and school principals to various performance criteria, but there always seems to be room for more validation studies. A recent dissertation by Aileen Thompson Bumphus looked at the relationship between resilience and emotional intelligence in educational leaders.

The study was designed to help in advancing the recruitment, identification, development, and retention of effective school leaders. Aileen looked at a group of 63 public school principals from five states – Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. These leaders were administered the EQ-i, a measure of resilience, and a leadership questionnaire.

Aileen found a significant positive relationship between self-reported emotional intelligence and resilience among school principals. When she added school leadership into the model, the relationship became stronger, indicating that school leadership played a significantly positive role in the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience among school principals.

In addition, a principal’s general mood, as measured by the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) was a significant predictor of resilience. Aileen’s research supports previous studies, which showed a strong positive relationship between a school principal’s emotional intelligence and leadership. Specifically, the strong relationship was found to be between the principal’s self-perception of leadership and the Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Emotional Quotient (EQ) subscales on the EQ-i.

Reference: Bumphus, Aileen Thompson. The emotional intelligence and resilience of school leaders: An investigation into leadership behaviors. Abstract and full article available from the American Psychological Association (APA).

Emotional Intelligence vs. Personality

It seems like the issue that never goes away: the question of whether or not Emotional Intelligence is just another aspect of personality. Well, there are probably studies out there that have linked eye color, shoe size, height, weight, freckles, and countless other human attributes to personality. Maybe they can all be subsumed as personality.

Seriously, though, for the doubters, here’s another study looking at the interrelation of cognitive intelligence, personality, and Emotional Intelligence (as measured by the MSCEIT). The study, by Drs. Eric Rossen and John Kranzler from the University of Florida, looked at academic achievement, psychological well-being, peer attachment, positive relations with others, and alcohol use.

The researchers evaluated 150 undergraduate college students. They were administered a number of measures including the Wonderlic Personnel Test (IQ), International Personality Item Pool (personality), and MSCEIT (Emotional Intelligence).

In most of their analyses the cognitive IQ measure accounted for little of the variance – including GPA (grade point average). The Big Five personality components did account for a moderate amount of the variance of a number of factors. Emotional Intelligence contributed to the prediction of positive relations with others and alcohol use. This was above and beyond the contributions of IQ (which were negligible) and personality.

The authors suggest additional studies like this with children and adolescents. As the youth version of the MSCEIT comes closer to fruition, we hope to see dozens of these studies emerge.

Reference: Rossen, Eric & Kranzler, John (2009). Incremental validity of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test Version 2.0 (MSCEIT) after controlling for personality and intelligence.  Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 60-64.

EI, Emotional Self-Efficacy and Academic Success in British Secondary Schools

The significant progress that educators in the United Kingdom have made in recognizing the importance of Emotional Intelligence and integrating it into school curriculums can be seen in the success of the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) program, on which we have often reported here in the EI Insider. The following study, submitted by Pamela Qualter, a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Lancashire, is further evidence of this dedication to providing students with far more than book smarts.

This study examined the long-term effects of Emotional Intelligence and emotional self-efficacy on scholastic achievement in British adolescents. Participants were 628 male and female secondary school students. They completed the following tests during the first few weeks of secondary school (Year 7): an assessment of EI (MSCEIT YV) and cognitive ability, an assessment of emotional self-efficacy (EQ-i: YV) and personality questionnaires. Academic achievement data were collected at Year 9 and Year 11. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that EI has direct effects on Standard Assessment Tests (SAT) and General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) English performance for boys, but not girls.  In contrast, emotional self efficacy directly predicts SAT and GCSE English scores for girls, but not boys.  In science, EI and emotional self-efficacy do not predict SAT or GCSE performance for boys; for girls, EI directly impacts on SAT scores, and indirectly predicts GCSE Science performance via its relationship with SAT performance. 

Further analysis showed that emotional self-efficacy and EI act as moderators of the effects of cognitive ability on academic achievement.  For example, it was found that boys who have high emotional self-efficacy and high cognitive abilities outperform all other males in GCSE English language and English literature; girls high on EI and cognitive ability perform better than girls of a similar cognitive ability, but lower EI, on GCSE maths, English literature, English language and science. It was therefore concluded that opportunities to develop EI and increase emotional self efficacy may offer educators significant opportunities to improve educational achievement.

CPL Leading its Industry in Behavioral Research

 Alexander James McDougall, Organisational Development Facilitator at Cleveland Potash Ltd (CPL), is quickly gaining notice for his research on the concept of Emotional Intelligence and its relevance in the mining industry.

Not surprisingly he found introducing Emotional Intelligence problematic and initially experienced much resistance. Five years ago at a conference he was asked, “how would you introduce Emotional Intelligence into an industry as heavy as mining?” His reply was “I wouldn’t use the words emotional or intelligence”.

McDougall describes the evolution of his work at CPL: “A lot has happened in the last five or six years and we now have a management team that accepts and understands that human skills and ingenuity are as central to achieving business success as academic achievements and formal qualifications.”

Emotional Intelligence is simply not all about ‘being nice’, nor is it about having a high IQ, Alex explains to CPL employees. “EI helps people better understand their emotional and social functioning and be more aware of how our own behaviours can impact on our performance and other people”.

Alex explained that the landscape in which CPL operates is changing constantly and that organisations worldwide are looking at ways to leverage their assets. Cleveland Potash is no different.  The bottom line is that a variety of businesses are looking at ways to develop the culture of their organisation, to reshape the nature of their work and how it is organised.  CPL understands that the way in which people behave, and the ways in which they are managed and perform, will be crucial to achieving its goal. The underlying theme is that the focus is no longer only on what companies produce, but on the people producing it.

As part of the OD initiative, led by Alex, approximately 50 to 60 people have been involved in the EI programme. Initially the people taking part have been senior management and supervisory personnel, as it is now widely understood that successful leadership is based on the emotional and social behaviour of an individual.  CPL has discovered that the assessment of someone’s Emotional Intelligence is a powerful tool for both understanding and developing an individual’s leadership skills.

The Dell Scholars Program: Emotional Components of Student Success

This summer the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation’s Dell Scholars Program will begin a study to determine the Emotional Intelligence competencies that best contribute to the success of their scholars.

The primary purpose of the EI project is to generate strategies and support networks to promote the social and emotional development of every Dell Scholar. The Scholar program is unique in that it places greater emphasis on a student’s determination to succeed than on the student’s academic record and test scores.

This approach of looking beyond grades has prompted program organizers to consider incorporating Emotional Intelligence as a means of developing the potential of prospective scholars. Program director Kevin Byrne is excited about the prospects. “A college education opens so many opportunities for young students to pursue their dreams,” said Byrne, “We hope to send every scholar with everything they need to be successful in school. The students will hopefully inspire others in their families and communities to dream big and empower their minds with higher education.” The following description, taken from the foundation’s website (www.msdf.org and www.dellscholars.org ), goes into more detail on the unique focus of the Dell Scholars Program:

The Dell Scholars Program is a need-based scholarship that recognizes academic potential and determination in underserved and low-income students. Most of the Dell Scholars are first-generation college students, and are chosen because they participate in an approved college readiness program and maintain at least a 2.4 grade point average on a 4.0 scale while dealing with personal responsibilities at home or in their communities. Requirements also include graduation from an accredited high school, demonstrated financial need and intent to enter a bachelor’s degree program at an accredited higher education institution.

Dell Scholars receive $20,000 each to continue their higher education over six years. In addition, the Dell Scholars program provides its students with technology, resources and mentoring to ensure they have the support they need to obtain a college degree. These additional resources have contributed to the program’s retention rate of 89 percent, well above the national average of 22 percent for these students.

More than 1000 scholarships and $14 million in scholarship funds have been awarded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to date.

Byrne and the Dell Scholars program retention manager Oscar Sweeten-Lopez will be sharing additional details of their Emotional Intelligence initiatives during the Higher Education Symposium on Emotional Intelligence at Georgetown University on October 2 and 3. If you wish to join us, please visit www.mhs.com/eisymposium for registration details and the two day agenda.

Emotional Competence and Customer and Staff Loyalty

Dr. John L. Avella, President of EQ International Perspectives, generously contributed the following article in which he details his work on the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and customer and staff loyalty.

How a customer service provider deals with emotions (theirs and the customers’) in a customer interaction can influence the outcome of that experience. That outcome can be positive, negative or neutral. (Price, Arnould and Deibler, 1995), and positive outcomes encourage customers to return continuously and provide a lifetime income stream for the organization. Additionally, positive customer-staff interactions encourage customers to publicly praise the organization, and this word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective and cost efficient form of advertising (Reichheld, 2006). These positive experiences are the foundation of customer loyalty and can increase the value of each customer by 25-50% while saving millions in advertising costs.

The literature is rich with research about the role of emotions in the customer experience and the role of positive emotions in customer and staff loyalty. Some examples would be Rosenberg (1998), who points out that emotions reveal what is important for customers, as well as Yu and Dean (2001), who detail the importance of positive and negative emotions in predicting customer loyalty.

I have focused my own research on a training process that enhances emotional competence. For my research, I actually implemented this training process in four companies and at Columbia University.

This training process utilizes the following: an Emotional Intelligence assessment—the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i®)—confidential assessment feedback, behavior change planning, workshops, one-on-one goal coaching, and organizational strategies for effective learning transfer. This process has produced statistically significant increases in the participant’s emotional competence and customer and staff loyalty. The training also benefits managers and non-customer-facing supervisory staff. When managers are involved in the loyalty training, there is a substantial reduction in staff turnover. This powerful competitive advantage helps these loyalty leaders grow at twice the rate of their competition.

In a study I conducted at Columbia university, the participants as a group had statistically significant changes in six emotional skills measured by the EQ-i. In one of the implementations, the group that experienced the training had a 20% decrease in turnover. Lastly, in implementations where customer loyalty was measured, there was an increase in loyalty from 22-33%. Participants immediately recognized the competitive edge of using an EI-based program.

For more information on Dr. Avella’s work, please contact him directly at john@eqinternationalperspectives.com or visit the EQ International Perspectives site.