CPTM at First Federal Bank

Who Knew Retail Stores Could Help Identify Emerging Leaders

In the early nineties, a leading retailer launched an ad campaign, “Come see the softer side.” The retailer was well known for their hard-line departments, such as hardware and lawn/garden. The apparel and home store ad campaign was launched to highlight their “softer” lines of business. Much like the retailer with hard and soft lines of business, Emotional Intelligence (EI) has both soft and hard competencies. Peak performance is achieved when both sets of competencies are mastered, which makes Emotional Intelligence (EI) a perfect tool for identifying emerging leaders.

Discipline and Commitment

When developing a strategy to identify emerging leaders, one method is to assess the individual’s hard-line performance and soft skills. A balance between hard skills such as decision-making, strategic thinking, independence, and stress tolerance and soft skills such as empathy, emotional expression, emotional self-awareness, and interpersonal relationships creates the foundation for peak performance. I recently worked with an individual who asked why a team would need to get all soft and gushy when they are already a top-performing business line. They confirmed the approach with their team is: Results, Results, Results. I explained it as an equation: A x E = R (Activity times Effectiveness = Results). If someone is not providing “R,” do they need more activity or to be more effective at the activity to generate more results? Now take the same equation but substitute the “E” for Emotion. In EI, Emotion is a feeling, which is not to be consumed with being emotional, defined as taking action on an emotion. Studies find that high-performing employees with strong, soft skills achieve higher performance than those with only hard skills. An analogy is hard skills are the tasks done day in and out and create the foundation for a house. Soft skills are what make the house a home. 

" The future of work is here; navigating the unknown challenges will be easier to manage in a positive, productive, and emotionally healthy way if we take time to develop the next generation of soft-skilled, emotionally intelligent leaders today  "

When conducting training classes, I frequently correlate exercise to learning. When you exercise, resistance can be uncomfortable at the moment but increases your strength over time. The same can be said for learning; if you are not exercising your mind muscle, you are not learning, which means you are not strengthening your knowledge or skills. True introspection can be uncomfortable, but the insights gained to improve your self-happiness and the overall impact on others makes the effort worthwhile. Getting in touch with your softer side can be laborious because identifying and accepting areas that need to be developed are not part of our normal way of being. If the recent health environment has taught us anything, we must learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. We need to be true to ourselves and commit to being disciplined, be open to self-introspection, and apply honest perspective.  

Introspection - You Can Change the Spots on a Leopard

Everyone can be an emerging leader, whether soft skills are strong or being developed. Learning to slightly adjust how you view and approach situations and apply soft skills can be simple. Ever played the game Googly Eyes, where you change the lenses in the glasses and try to guess what the image is on the card? Every day we wear perspective glasses but often forget to change the lenses. Perspective is not right or wrong; it is merely different viewing of situations. To begin seeing a different perspective, you need to change your lenses to see others' points of view as they have had different life experiences from you. Committing to learning to see different perspectives will help you approach situations in another way and improve interpersonal relationships, self-control, social perception and effectiveness, self-regard, and self-awareness. To learn how to see different perspectives, you must commit to self-introspection. Being truthful and honest with oneself will help you uncover and recognize the triggers that cause you not to change the lenses in your perspective glasses. Effectively changing the perspective lenses deepens your understanding of where the other person is coming from and what influences or triggers are at the core of your position or response. With this newfound perspective of empathy comes commitment, introspection, and strengthening of emotional intelligence skills resulting in true behavioral change. This is the pinnacle: people are drawn to you to lead them and help them achieve their highest goals. 

Perspective Competencies to Identify Emerging Leaders

It takes discipline, introspection, and practice in understanding the greater good before we can develop our soft skills to become the best version of ourselves. At this point, you can then see soft and hard skill talents in others to identify those who will be great leaders. Look for those who have the capacity, commitment, and capability for the following:

1. Express emotions appropriately and consistently: they think before they act.

2. Three power bases are most critical to leaders’ ability to influence others. These are expert, legitimate, and referent power. Emerging leaders can quickly develop a sense of who possesses power in the relationship, understand how the power dynamic influences feelings and behaviors, and have the ability to use base powers in combination and interchangeably based on the person(s) and the situation. Influence is the perception of being able to identify and flex these power bases:

• Expert power - Look for those who can pinpoint their purpose, be patient in waiting for results, and have mastered the soft skill competency to become a trusted expert.

• Legitimate power – Look for those who rise to the challenge of leadership tasks and master the use of other base powers to develop their ability to influence.

• Referent power – Earns respect and trust of others: look for those who are trailblazers and lead the change.

 1. An understanding of the different types of empathy and how to use them: 

• Emotional empathy – Ability to understand another person’s emotions and respond appropriately; look for those who are active, not passive listeners. Can they tune into the person(s) feelings and are not afraid to listen and hear what the other person is saying?

• Cognitive empathy – Ability to understand the emotions of others. Look for good mediators, calm under pressure, see the other person(s) perspective logically, do not fear confrontation, and use logic to outline their perspective.

1. Recognize, understand, and appreciate how other people feel and their perspectives and respect others’ feelings.

2. Understand and control triggers impacting emotional intelligence skill capabilities and interpersonal relationships. Look for those who understand what sets them off and can control their response. For example, a trigger could be being afraid to fail.  

3. Recognize, own, and control their emotions. Individuals who can identify their “Happy Place” can refocus, stay in control of emotions, provide appropriate situational responses, and remain centered.

4. Understand, accept, and capitalize on strengths and take action to improve weaknesses consistently.

5. Seek continual improvement, including not being afraid to ask for help or questions to facilitate self-discovery.

Discipline, Introspection and Perspective (DIP) and Change

After taking a disciplined approach to analyzing its business model and identifying missed income streams, after the major retailer’s ad campaign, it realized that the softer sideline of business could generate additional income. Evaluating growth from a different perspective provided an unexpected performance that changed the overall strategy for the company. 

Looking back over the past year with a different perspective on how the pandemic impacted work, I asked myself if we did a good job supporting workers. Our teams faced adjusting to working remotely, juggling homeschooling, taking care of elderly family members, facing their health concerns, and even family members’ loss of employment. Did we have a contingency plan to support them emotionally? Did we have the strong, soft skills necessary to lead and help them cope? Did we understand our workplace demographics and how different generations would be impacted by or respond to the challenges we faced? If we could go back in time, what would we do to prepare for the uncertainty we endured for over a year, and how could a new normal be established faster to provide a sound foundation for employees to lower their anxieties about the future? Identifying the next generation of leaders and developing their Emotional Intelligence soft skills now will not only help current leaders develop but will prepare our future leaders for managing both daily work and crises they may encounter. Developing emerging leaders' emotional intelligence and soft skills will create a pool of talent that is less likely to be negatively impacted by the presence of stressors. The future of work is here; navigating the unknown challenges will be easier to manage in a positive, productive, and emotionally healthy way if we take time to develop the next generation of soft-skilled, emotionally intelligent leaders today.