Dr Martyn Newman argues emotional intelligence is a learnable set of strengths—optimism, resilience, self-reliance, and vision—that separates extraordinary leaders. EI peaks around age 50 and functions as emotional capital for attracting talent and managing teams.
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If ever there was a moment in history when we need a cadre of leaders to rise to the occasion with a particular set of well honed skills to describe a vision of what can be done, of what can be achieved, this is the moment. Over the last years, the evidence from the basements of behavioral science labs around the world has begun to point to a set of skills that in addition to your intellect, are highly determined of how well you will do in life, what you're capable of achieving, how high you can rise and what you can do with life. And you know what these things can be learnt and developed, These emotional strengths, separate leaders, great leaders, extraordinary leaders from everyone else. And this is what Davidson has done in this article. He's challenged scientific orthodoxy that believes that cognition and emotions are separate, that they run on separate brain pathways. This is, this is really broadband for the brain. I call it emotional capital. Because in business we haven't got the luxury of, of debating psychological theory. I spent most of my professional career debating psychological theory in the business community. We don't have time because we live in an age right now of time and talent and how we attract time and talent into our businesses, how we manage time and talent, how we organize time and talent, we sell time and talent. These are the differentiators today. Bruce Barton said way he said nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared to believe something inside them was superior to circumstance. Don't you love that? Now here's the good News sample of 10,000 people. Over the course of your life, your emotional intelligence begins to creep up at least until you hit 50 and then we notice a slight drop off. Those of you that are 50 in the room will also notice other things dropping off. I guarantee somehow as a leader you've got to author your own story. You've got to walk into a business and become the chief storytelling officer. You've got to be able to describe a dream and a destiny that excites and ignites people and then tell people how we're going to get there and how we need to stick together until we do get there. That self reliance, this is leaders who walk into businesses and they can sense what's over the horizon. They've got a deep emotional resilience in the pit of the stomach that takes them back in the face of setback. It's one of the greatest predictors of success in life consistently has been this remarkable skill of optimism. But my God, that's incredible. A kid comes down with a feeling and a pit of the stomach with that feeling, you can change the world. We need emotional capital, this young generation of leaders who know that you've got to move beyond the preoccupation on the bricks and mortar, the financial assets in the business and even beyond the preoccupation with the intellectual assets, the customer databases, the intellectual property, to a new focus, a focus on the emotional assets and the skills you need to do that. We now understand what they are. We have a backstage pass. But this was David Henry Thoreau who said this. He said what lies behind us, all the criticisms of the past, all the exaggerated hype of management consulting in the past and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring this out into the open, miracles happen. I put it to you men and women this morning, that's your job if you're in leadership, emotional intelligence still alive and well. Thank you very much.
