A Perfect Example Of Why Most Emotional Intelligence (EQ/EI) Practices Fail
The Simple Part Of The Equation That Is Completely Missing
A Perfect Example Of Why Most Emotional Intelligence (EQ/EI) Practices Fail
The Simple Part Of The Equation That Is Completely Missing
Written by a human, for humans, always.
I saw a post recently...
That posed a simple question...
What does your team need to have more energy?
It is a great question...
But the answers given...
Of which there were 9 given...
Is exactly why most Emotional Intelligence (EI/EQ) practices absolutely fail.
What were the answers provided?
Time together.
Focus and clarity.
Leaders practice emotional intelligence (EQ/EI).
Care for one another.
Trust.
Feedback.
Creative expression.
Visible progress.
Shared purpose.
All interesting answers.
All of which have a place in creating a better workforce.
All of which will absolutely fail in creating more energy within a workforce.
We even see this in the statistics.
Despite growing amounts being spent on emotional intelligence training and research...
There has been a global “decrease” in emotional intelligence...
Across 166 countries...
Nearly 1% every year between 2019 and 2024...
Across 8 categories of emotional intelligence.
The question is...
Why?
The answer is also really easy...
And I personally find it ironic that the answer provided absolutely fails to address what is clear in the original question...
What does your team need to have more energy?
What is...
Energy?
It is a biological fuel that is created under certain psychophysiological factors.
Where in the answers provided...
Do you see a serious consideration of even the basics of how energy is produced?
That right there...
Is exactly why most emotional intelligence practices absolutely fail.
They do not address real psychophysiological, and particularly the physiological, aspects of what is at play.
It lives in a theoretical world where it pretends like building skills will make up for what is lacking...
Which is just not physically possible.
Let me give you a really simple understanding of the problem at play.
What happens when people are stressed?
It does not matter if it is “good” stress, known as eustress, or “bad” stress, known as distress.
What happens when we experience “any” type of stress?
Our bodies utilize “more” energy (Mg-ATP) to attempt to overcome and recover from the stressor.
Why does this matter in today’s world?
Burnout.
What is it at its most fundamental level?
It is a psychophysiological state of being...
Where the human body has been in chronic distress for so long...
That the body is physically unable to meet the required demands to overcome the stressors...
So...
The body begins to tear itself apart...
Literally...
To try to accommodate the lack of available energy.
In the workforce today...
Over 80% of the workforce is in a state of burnout...
Which has been getting worse...
And will continue to get worse given workplace trends.
How long does it take to physically recover from burnout?
Anywhere from 6 weeks...
To “over” a year.
That is the basic physiology at play.
Now...
Go back to that list of 9 “solutions”...
Where do you see that any single one of them does “anything” to solve this basic problem?
Not a single one.
In fact...
In burnout...
Our ability to “do” the skills necessary to accomplish these 9 “solutions” often becomes “dramatically” worse...
In many cases, making it impossible to actually “access” the solutions at all.
Time together...
Actually will make things worse when you have a workforce in burnout.
It will turn individual burnout into group burnout...
Which only compounds the problems experienced in the workforce.
Focus and clarity...
Require us to not be in a fight-or-flight physiological state...
Which is where we are trapped in burnout.
Leaders practice emotional intelligence...
Is nice in theory...
But the skills to accomplish this cannot be learned...
Because learning itself requires us not to be in a fight-or-flight state.
Care for one another...
Is important...
But it is, again, impossible to express this well and meaningfully when you are in constant fight-or-flight states.
Trust.
Has to be earned...
It requires real dedication and demonstration of caring for each other and our human needs...
Which are not being met if we are in any state of chronic distress.
Plus...
When we are in fight-or-flight states...
We always revert to our normal patterns...
Which, if they were low emotionally intelligent patterns to begin with...
Will only instill distrust.
Feedback.
It is important...
But for feedback to have any impact...
It needs conditions under which change is possible.
We again run into the same problem...
Where we cannot change...
Because our psychophysiology will drive us back into old patterns...
Making the feedback ineffective...
Creating distrust and feeling like the person doesn’t care for the help that is being given...
Leading to further problems of disunity on a team...
Fueling the group burnout to become worse.
Creative expression.
Sounds nice.
But creativity and innovation only occur at significant levels...
When we are not in states of distress.
They primarily happen in flow states...
Which we are physiologically blocked out of when we are in burnout.
Visible progress.
Another one that sounds great...
Except when we are in burnout...
We typically are poor at solving problems and are more likely to make mistakes...
So the “progress” that is usually made...
Actually fails to account for other things that are creating problems...
That often creates “negative productivity” in a business.
There is a reason that so many organizations believe they are doing well on paper...
But not actually making real progress...
Forcing them to utilize other methods to create the “appearance of progress”.
Shared purpose.
Another one that looks and sounds good on paper.
Another one that quickly evaporates when in burnout.
Individuals in burnout are primarily focused on one thing...
Their survival.
When they are in an environment where there are low emotional intelligence leaders...
Where they do trust others...
Where they do not feel cared for...
Where time together feels like a punishment...
What they never feel like they are contributing anything of real value...
Where, even when they are hitting targets, it still feels meaningless and appears to accomplish nothing in the larger picture...
They are not going to be contributing to the purpose.
They are just going to do whatever is required to keep their job.
This is why...
So many leaders feel extra pressure...
That everything is on their shoulders.
It is because everything “is” on their shoulders.
Their entire workforce is waiting for direction...
Because they are so completely trapped in fight-or-flight and distress...
That they do not want to be the “reason” that things fail...
And so revert to doing what they are told...
So that all the blame for failure...
Lands solely on the shoulders of the leader.
All of these “solutions” fail when you actually understand how psychophysiology works...
And I have not even gone into deep psychophysiology.
That is a “basic” problem.
It does not touch on the host of other psychophysiological problems that are usually at play in an organization.
There is a reason that most emotional intelligence practices fail.
They fail to understand the cause of the problems.
They see the side-effects...
Which is what all of these “solutions” are...
Side-effects of psychophysiological problems...
But it doesn’t resolve the problem at play.
Think of it like this...
If you break your leg...
You will experience pain...
And you can take painkillers, which will temporarily block out the pain...
But the leg is still broken...
And the painkillers will never fix the broken leg.
Most programs that exist...
Whether it is emotional intelligence...
Leadership...
Personal growth...
Are all looking at side-effects...
Which is exactly why so many people fail to get the results they want.
They need solutions to the real psychophysiological problems...
To get real results.
To Your Sageship,
Cody
P.S. - It can be Difficult to Figure Out How To Achieve…
Stress Optimization
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An Exemplar Wayset
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