How to enhance Emotional Intelligence within organisations ?

What do you think should be done in an organisation, to enhance emotional intelligence across all of the people — no matter of the “ranking” of roles ?

Could you generalised to a more complex organisation, like a city ?

The questions are important because:

• Emotional Intelligence is now a core transversal skills in Agile, Design Thinking, Strategic personal development, Sales.
• Increasing inequality is disrupting the glue of the society, with increasing polarising effects (see the values underpinning the raise of ultra-right wings in Europe, which, behaviourally speaking, cannot feel empathy and relate with some part of population, typically minorities and “unfitted”)

Shortly, here below are some thoughts from a post of Tim Roberts, a Learning & Development coach in UK — https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/always-remember-you-your-job-title-tim-roberts/

Appreciated opinions in the discussion.

Emotional Intelligence and Unemployment

The degree of how much job titles and “standing” shapes social interactions and well being, it can be observed at the question “what do you do” to unemployed people.

Often they feel embarrassed, outcasted. Confidence to reply who do other activities for benefits of the others (e.g. I care of my nephews, I work at a charity, etc.) do not last long (“yes, ok, but what do you do”). Seems a job title (or the city where you live) became a term to tell how much “fitted” you are, kind of an expression of self-empowerment.

Unless they can provide for themselves and others (e.g. passive incomes), unemployed people are perceived as of poor value (indeed an HR will likely not hire a long-term unemployed person, in spite of their potetional).

Intergroup Intelligence Bias — be kind with who can be perceived like you

It seems that often emotional intelligence fails to establish a connection between people who do not belong to the same circle (this is also called “intergroup intelligence bias”).

The ones in the same shoes, are likely be kind between each other; if the shoes are too much different, there is gap. Actually, job titles seems to be like a dress. Purpose is meaningful, but who is interested in listen to it are the ones in the same party, the other ones who did not have the right dress code are not even there, and viceversa.

Inequality shaping Emotional Intelligence ?

I observed empathy is easier to enhance if there is less inequality between people — how much one time is valuable respect to the time of the other. If one’s time is a “commodity” respect to the other person, a question “what do you do” is much likely interpreted as where do you stand.

This is what I observed in micro-companies, where an owner tend to recall other employees who’s the boss; as well as in cities with high inequality, where people socially mingle and get to know each other, by asking what they do, and I’ve seen emotional intelligence may also be established “strategically” to estimate the potential of a person, so to invest time or not with.

In high-inequality contexts, emotional intelligence become “compartimentalised” and create bonds with people who expresses a similar “status”, but lack do address inclusion for the people who are perceived as standing at a different rank.

Addressing inequality within organisations to enhance emotional intelligence

A practice to enhance emotional intelligence within an organisation could be:

• adjust the curve of compensations and benefits between the people working in an organisation
• create temporary teams, with rotations in memberships and functions
• compulsory social service for employees, in favour of others (think that a CEO may clean your desk once a month, and that you could be exposed to the activities of the CEO once a month, and attend to decision making processes, travelling, meetings, understanding of responsibilities, etc.)

The last one is more or less like living in a shared apartment, say 4 people, once a month you gotta clean the bathroom at rotation.

Emotional intelligence is likely established between people who can map own experiences to others, and therefore in an organisation you gotta create an environment where people can feel what the other person is saying.

I believe same applies for more complex systems, as example the ones set to reduce poverty (say, a political movement; international organisation; a charity; a club of social enterprises). One should experience poverty, at least a short period, to have an idea of what it is like. Eating bread & butter or “pasta-in-bianco” one week may work. On the other side, think about the positive, sparkling effect to allow people who do not have much of a chance, to express own potential and purpose, by granting them resources to do it. And this could be as simple as allocating paid time to run not-working activities, like volunteering; prototyping for startup; staying at home for own kids; experiencing the beauty of marine reserve to feel the importance of climatic resilience; refreshing own mind-health with activities aligned with ones Purpose.