How to Assess Your Own Emotional Intelligence [Leadership Insight]

Foreign hi and welcome to the Leadership Insights edition of the Enlightened Executive. Each episode we feature groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help you get the edge in personal and leadership effectiveness. Today we're talking about how to assess your own emotional intelligence. First of all, I know what you're thinking, Susan. Is it even possible to assess your own emotional intelligence? How am I going to convince my coworkers or peers to really be honest about my eq? I mean, is this the same thing as asking people how your pants look or what people really think of your fruitcake recipe? Well, there's good news and bad news. Let's start with the bad news. The bad news is that when you do a work friends and family360, you're probably going to get about 20 to 50% of the truth. And that's because it's extremely unlikely that your assistant is going to detail every single awkward thing that you do and your friend isn't probably going to give you all the unvarnished truth about all your annoying quirks. But the good news is just the fact that you're interested in doing an emotional intelligence assessment shows that you have higher than average emotional intelligence. And 20 to 50% honesty about your EQ is much better than nothing and much better than the non existent feedback that you most likely have. So if you'd like 100% honest emotional intelligence assessment from a professional, I really encourage you to consider a professional 360 assessment because the insights you'll discover will create an opening to uplevel your career even more. But if you want to test the waters, how do you DIY an emotional intelligence assessment? So here's what I recommend. You want to share the following questions to about six to eight people, a mix of co workers, clients, friends, family and really assure them that you want them to be honest and you won't be mad if they share less than totally positive responses with you. In fact, you have to say that you would prefer they really list some things you could be working on share that you truly want to grow and the only way you're going to do that is to get real feedback. Then when you ask for that, you want to make sure you don't get triggered when they share less than totally positive responses. Just get curious, be receptive and thank them. So here are 10 questions for a DYI360 assessment to help you build emotional intelligence. Number one what do you see as my primary strengths? Examples could be patient, concise, doesn't engage in office politics. Number two where do I most excel Examples could be client meetings. You're really good at meeting deadlines, inspiring my team. Number three, in your opinion, what strengths do I have that may not be fully leveraged, that I might not really be aware of and could use more of? So the example could be, you have great ideas for improving systems that no one knows about, or you're so extremely diplomatic that you'd be great on the management committee. Number four, where would you most like to see me develop? Example could be, well, you use a lot of ums and ahs that detract from your message. Or you could hire a more diverse team. Number five, what would you like to see more of? Well, I'd like to see more morale building with the team, more not working on weekends or setting the expectation that we need to. Number six, what would you like to see less of? Examples could be meetings that last for more than an hour, nitpicking on issues that really aren't that important. Number seven, how could I be even more effective? You could delegate more. You could hire more senior level people. Number eight, what do I not know that I don't know? Where are my blind spots? An example could be you could spend a little more time mentoring and developing others or making sure that women and people of color get equal speaking time and representation. Number nine, what would help our relationship be even better? Could be acknowledgment in front of my team that you don't dictate the process and instead focus on the outcome. And finally, number 10, what don't you know but would like to know about me, professionally or personally? Example could be why you're so passionate about our industry or what you do on the weekends. So consider what you learned from these answers and think about what you thought you knew about yourself and how others actually perceive you. And how can you close that gap? Because that gap is your opportunity to build emotional intelligence. Now imagine what would be possible with feedback that's 100% honest and objective, where people provide anonymous, structured feedback. Well, our clients say this assessment has been a key inflection point in their career. So here's the truth. Your clients and employees have opinions and feelings about the way you lead, whether you choose to become aware of them or not. And you just can't work to what you're blind to. Choosing not to know bury your head in the sand just doesn't benefit you personally or professionally. The most successful leaders I know are the leaders who live in a growth mindset. Are you that kind of leader? If you're interested in Learning about how a 360 process can change your life. We'd love to help. Just go to susandrum.com and get in touch. Hope you enjoyed today's episode, and I'd like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button to get notified when we release new content. I'll see you on the next episode of the Enlightened Executive.