Emotional intelligence for business success

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to relate and empathize with emotions in others.  While traditional attitudes in business have preferred to closet most emotions except a prescribed few business-related qualities like drive, ambition, and single-mindedness, 21^st century attitudes assert that emotional intelligence in business isn’t just important, it may be essential for success.

21^st Century Work Ethics
Collaboration is one of the major tenets of business in the 21^st century.  Saying it’s important, however, doesn’t help businesses achieve it in practice.  One reason collaboration is so important is because business is becoming increasingly global.  Offices spread across nations are learning to work together as a result of new partnerships and relationships with new companies.  The gel that helps support collaboration in this century isn’t single-mindedness or even an aggressive business drive.  Instead, it’s things like emotional intelligence that increasingly allow people to work together—and work together well.

Management and Emotional Intelligence
When management is not emotionally intelligent, business owners see high turnover rates.  Workers, whether new to the business or veterans, simply work better when they are with emotionally intelligent people. A lack of understanding leads to conflict and, in some cases, weekly or even daily conflict.  A manager that can’t relate to others isn’t likely to have the emotional tools required to build and manage teams.  People without emotional intelligence may be quite intelligent otherwise and almost certainly are when they land supervisory positions; however, becoming a boss does not mean they have the right skills to be a leader in this 21^st century business climate.

Why Do Managers Need to be Emotionally Intelligent?
One of the main reasons to have a team of emotionally intelligent managers is because then business is likely to be better.  According to Computer Weekly, “The world’s most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence quotient or ‘EQ’ for short.” The article goes on to explain, “Psychologist David McClelland did some thorough leadership research that found that executives with higher EQ outperformed their annual revenue targets by 15-20%, and that 87% of the executives rated highly on EQ came in the top 33% of performance-related bonuses.”

Some Traits of Emotionally Intelligent Managers
When considering promoting someone to management, look for applicants who boast rewarding relationships with other people, cope well with pressure, and lead by example.  The Harvard Business Review asserts that emotional intelligence is “firm, but not rigid,” implying that some people may get better at it if it becomes a priority.  On the other hand, when you make it a point to hire and promote employees with emotional intelligence, you’re more likely to achieve both the work climate and success you want for your 21^st century business.

What do you think? On the flip side, what are some traits you’ve encountered of emotionally
idioticunintelligent managers?

Contributed by
Shafat Qazi, Founder and CEO of BQE Software, is an engineer-turned-entrepreneur who created the most awarded time billing software ever, BillQuick, while still in college. He set out to make time tracking, billing and project management easier for engineers as well as all service professionals, and continues to perfect BQE Software products hands-on today.

 Why Entrepreneurs Should Care About Emotional Intelligence

 

When asked what the most important qualities for entrepreneurs are, you may come up with a list that’s completely different from that of the next person.  

Successful entrepreneurs have a whole list of traits that serve them well in their endeavors. Commonly cited qualities might include determination, passion, confidence, and optimism – all distinctive traits of entrepreneurs and instrumental in achieving small business success.

But there’s one quality that you might not have thought to add to your list: emotional intelligence.
It’s the single quality that plays a defining role in the success of most entrepreneurs.

What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?
Emotional intelligence, otherwise known as EQ, is defined as the ability to perceive and understand the emotions of both oneself and others.

With this knowledge, individuals are able to navigate social networks, make informed decisions, and react to behavior accordingly. This quality is divided into two major categories –  personal and social competence, – each which have their own core skills.

Personal competence is comprised of self-awareness and self-management skills, which centers more on the individual’s ability to perceive his or her own emotions.

On the other hand, social competence, which is made up of social awareness and relationship management skills, determines the entrepreneur’s ability to understand and react to the moods and behaviors of others. Both are equally important for entrepreneurs and can play a major role in whether the individual succeeds or not.

Why is Emotional Intelligence Important?
Emotional intelligence provides entrepreneurs with a set of social and personal skills that can help them in any situation or environment.

The following are just a few of the skills that are enhanced by emotional intelligence:

Decision Making:
One of the major components of emotional intelligence is self-awareness, which enables individuals with the ability to accurately perceive their emotions as it happens. They are able to keep stray emotions in check, preventing them from affecting any decisions or choices. As a result, emotionally intelligent individuals are able to look at the big picture without swayed by the details.

Customer Satisfaction:
Small businesses are nothing without happy, satisfied customers. Luckily, EQ provides entrepreneurs with the ability to deliver customer satisfaction. Emotional intelligence allows the individual to be more empathetic.

They have the ability to perceive and understand the emotions of others. They are able to help customers with their buying decisions and keep them engaged, providing a more comprehensive, satisfying experience.

Leadership:
Entrepreneurs are often responsible for leading the direction of their endeavor and clearly communicating goals to their teams. Therefore, they must be able to form a good rapport with their employees, inspiring and motivating wherever possible. Emotional intelligence provides entrepreneurs with the enhanced ability to manage interactions and form meaningful relationships. In addition, individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence tend to be more self-confident and adaptable – vital traits for any entrepreneur.

Conflict Resolution:
Whether there is a dispute with a customer or a disagreement between team members, entrepreneurs are bound to run into conflicts. However, emotional intelligence provides the individual with conflict resolution skills. Entrepreneurs with this quality are able to gauge the emotions of both parties and provide a resolution that will connect with both. With this ability, they are able to quickly placate the threat to efficiency and productivity.

 Conntributed by Sara Fletcher
Today’s Guest Poston Start Your Own Small Bizwas provided by Sara Fletcher. Sara  is interested in emotional intelligence in leadership and understanding how it affects her life. She loves to explore psychology, business, and sports in relation to her test of emotional intelligence.

Time to change!

.

LADIES and gentlemen, we are now moments away from 2014. If you are an employee, most of you will be looking forward to this time of the year as it may mean year-end holidays and bonuses.

Some of you may also be busy making your New Year resolutions. But if you are a business owner, you may be busy coming up with your business plan for next year.

Planning for the year ahead requires a bit of both reflecting on the past and looking forward to the future. Apart from my own annual business plan, as a marketing consultant, I also help some of my clients come up with their marketing plans for the year ahead, or elements of the plan.

The first order of the day is to narrow down the objectives and then come up with goals and plans to achieve those goals.

Naturally, the goals and objectives are always positive and geared towards growth. But any marketer or business owner will tell you, the marketing plan is always one of the plans that are changed the most throughout the year. Depending on what the company is offering and which market they operate in, for some companies, the marketing plan can be so fluid and dynamic that it can be changed as frequently as once a month or week.

Marketers have it tough and I often tell people who aspire to be marketing managers or want to be hired as one that if you are the type of person who likes routine work or following a set of rules, you are not suitable to be a marketer. People who are successful marketers are not just required to be able to change quickly when it comes to their marketing activities but also know how to run faster than the pack. Basically you cannot provide strategic marketing direction without knowing what is ahead or at least having the foresight to understand what will take place.

But change is something not everyone can embrace with open arms, especially for entrepreneurs. It always feels safe to stick to the same business model or plan every year. They think that as long as that plan is not “killing” the business, why not? For example, I am always amazed by one of my friends who is still using a very old handphone (I think it is eight years old) while I have already changed three phones in the span of that period.

He can afford a new one, but stubbornly refuses to get one. Two years ago, his nephew had enough of his stubbornness and bought him a touchscreen smartphone. When I met this friend again recently, I saw he was still using the old phone. I asked about the new phone and he said it was sitting in his drawer as he found it just too troublesome to transfer all his contact details from the old phone to the new one. He was comfortable with the functions of the old one and did not feel like learning the functions of the new phone.

He does not realise just how much he is missing out on.

While there are few people like my friend, I think sometimes entrepreneurs can be like that when it comes to things they need to change in their business. It could be a non-performing employee whom they know they should have let go a long time ago, but just did not want to for fear of rocking the boat.

So they end up paying for non-performance year in and year out, to the detriment of the business.

It could be products they need to retire from their offerings or offices or outlets they need to relocate. It could also be about learning new things or new technology and starting from zero again.

All are hard and uncomfortable decisions especially when change is involved. Change is risky and can be a scary path, but if deep down we know and realise that the change will bring about something better, then we should not be afraid to change. Now is the time.

Contributed by Jeanisha Wan

Jeanisha doesn’t like last minute changes, but equates the need to change with water that needs to be constantly flowing to be fresh. She is more fearful of having her business end up like the water in the Dead Sea. Talk to her at talk2jeanisha@gmail.com. Happy New Year!

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Five steps to business success for 2014

Preparations: A well-crafted business plan is like a roadmap for the year.

 How to develop a business plan for the new year

Here we are at the end of another year. For many business owners, it’s the right time to map out a strategic plan for next year. A well-crafted business plan is your roadmap to success and an easy way to stay on task for future growth, projected income and increased profits. Take one or two days now to develop a plan and you will save time, energy and maybe even a few dollars. Here’s how to develop a business plan for 2014 in five easy steps.

Set projected income

The very first thing you need to do when creating a business plan for the year ahead is to decide how much you plan on earning and what specifically you are looking to achieve. Setting these goals is only the first step, because outlining your plan for future months describes how you will get there and is the true blueprint for success.

Reflect on your current business models and income sources to help you determine your ideal income. If you’re having difficulty, evaluate these factors:

• ·Do you need to identify a different profile that can spend more?
• ·Would including a recurring element to your business increase profit?
• ·Should your pricing be re-evaluated?
• ·How is your marketing plan? How can you expand it to achieve more?

Set incremental goals 

The key to success in creating a business plan is detail and consistency. And every goal needs to be broken down into smaller tasks and objectives to ensure you are reaching your target audience and you have a plan for how to obtain your new income level.

Even the best plan is useless without milestones and success at reaching large goals comes from knowing how to create smaller, more attainable objectives. Simplify your income goals by this equation: Income per client x number of clients x frequency of clients = income. Clearly defined and manageable objectives- six months, monthly and weekly- will give you the momentum you need to reach difficult milestones while keeping a larger goal in view. Besides, this process gives you a bird’s eye view of exactly what income level needs to be reached within a certain time frame to stay on track for success.

Map out marketing

After determining what your income stream should be, it’s time to create a formula for acquiring the clients. The most effective way to reach a target audience and the only way to secure new customers is through marketing. After all, if no one knows you exist, no one will buy your products or services.

Take a long hard look at your current marketing activities and decide which strategies are effective and can be reused, even expanded, and which should be discarded. The right marketing can bring a steady stream of new clients, as well as build brand loyalty and solidify trust with existing customers.

Here are the most effective and commonly used platforms for acquiring new clients. Make sure to allocate sufficient time and budget for each:

• ·Strategic Print Advertisement (Appear in front of your ideal prospects)
• ·Online Marketing Strategies (Content to educate and entice)
• ·Media Recognition (Position yourself as the expert authority)
• ·Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+)
• ·Networking and collaborations

Develop your team

Now that you have clearly defined, obtainable goals and a strategic marketing plan, it’s time to start thinking about how you are going to make it happen. It’s nearly impossible to achieve all of your goals by yourself and the best plans are always complemented by a strong team. Decide who you need and how they will help you achieve your milestones within your deadline.

Virtual teams are always an option, and can execute elements of your business plan simultaneously. On the other hand, you can also evaluate a current team or bring in someone new to free up time for you to execute growth campaigns.

Evaluate expenses 

Unfortunately, like everything in life — business costs money. However, by carefully evaluating all of your marketing activity and tracking return on investment stringently, you’ll have a better idea of where the money is going and how best it should be spent. Many business owners make the mistake of looking exclusively at gross profits, neglecting net profits. Make certain to record everything and be very clear about profits before taking on any new activities. This disciplined approach will help ensure that your ideal income is indeed profits.

Crafting an effective business plan is easy with a few good tips and the right information. By defining incremental goals, developing a marketing strategy, building your team and keeping an eye on expenses, you will be more than ready to charge into 2014 with spirited enthusiasm as you watch your business transform.

Contributed by Pam Siew

> Pam Siow is the founder of ThinkSpace. A renowned business coach within the region, Pam helps hundreds of business owners and corporations gain true success and profits with her knowledge and real-world experience. Find out more at ThinkSpace.com.my/ Internetbizownersclub.comnow.

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It is a small world

The world is actually quite small

EVERY week, I go to the nearby wet market to stock up on provisions. One of the stalls I have to stop by is run by a young man who knows that I am there to collect my weekly quota of 20 kampung eggs.

Recently I asked him if he might want to consider starting up an online service to provide home delivery to his regular customers. After all, even the major hypermarkets are going big time in providing such a service to tap into the trend of people being so busy that grocery shopping needs another approach.

His reply tells me once again that true wisdom rests among ordinary people who truly know what the real world is all about. You can grab quotations from wise men and manage­ment gurus but sometimes the real gems are from people like my egg seller.

He basically told me that it is better for me to come out and get the chance to meet people rather than stay in the house. Every moment in any public area, he said, is fresh and unpredictable.

“You can bump into people you have not met for a long time or come across something interesting that cheers you up when you are feeling down,” he said.

The egg seller is correct to say that every moment in public is fresh and unpredictable. I have always believed that nothing happens by chance. Some call it divine appointments but it is this connection of one human to another that opens up a myriad of possibilities.

Through such encounters, we learn that the world is actually quite small once we start connecting the dots and learn that the person we have just met is actually not quite a stranger after all.

As much as I love the written word, I find that it is the spoken word, with all the body language appended, that conveys the true meaning of what we want to say.

To tell someone you are sorry through a card is easy even if you do not really mean it. But to say you are sorry up close and personal, you’d better mean what you say or else.

Those who are less socially inclined than I am will disagree when I say that we are not created to be solitary beings. We need company to flourish in thought and in deed.

We can talk about feeling the pulse of the people and of being connected to the grassroots, but if we are only doing so from the comfort of our living room or office, we will never get the real picture.

Some of the things I read online will make me think there is absolutely no hope left in the country, but when I am out there, I realise that this is just not the case.

Take a ride on the bus or the LRT, drop in to see a friend at the hospital, take a walk around the neighbourhood, have a chat with the grasscutter ...

Then you will learn that the world we live in is a wonderful place because the people make it so.

And we do so by not merely looking out for our own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

In this season of Christmas, it is my hope that we do our part to reach out and love one another. We can, and we will, make a difference.

Contributed by Soo Ewe Jin. He wishes all Christian readers a blessed Christmas with a gentle reminder that this is the season not only for giving but for forgiving as well.

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Innovation Value and key Drivers to Success

The ability to increase business value through innovation is a critical success driver for most organizations. The markets that we operate in provide both opportunity and risk from an innovation perspective as they are rapidly changing.

Markets provide opportunities if we get it right and threats if we do not, particularly given the intense competitive nature of most industries. Our quest to realize innovation results is further complicated by the complexities involved for most firms – the sheer number of players to potentially coordinate with in the value chain; rising costs; margin erosion; increasing regulatory, customer and consumer demands; evolving business models; shorter cycle times; and new sources of competition, just to name a few.

The good news is that if you can get it right, you stand to gain a competitive advantage and will reap the benefits of increased revenue and profits. Hence, the lure of identifying new growth opportunities, increasing volumes and market share, securing a competitive advantage, improving margins and strengthening brand loyalty, provides a powerful incentive to be successful at product innovation. However, the challenges that organizations face do not make this easy. Developing new products and technologies is consequently one of the more complicated initiatives an organization can undertake.

Take for example the telecom market wars occurring over the past year. Samsung and Apple have emerged as two clear winners that have been able to leverage powerful innovation machines. The competition (Nokia and Research in Motion) have stumbled badly in their respective innovation capabilities and ultimately paid the price in the marketplace.

Figure 1: The Innovation Performance Framework

The Innovation Performance Framework™ (Figure 1) is a useful framework that examines the complexity and addresses some of the challenges in product innovation by separating them into four key themes: product innovation strategy; portfolio management; new product development process; and climate and culture (see Figure 1 for illustration). Interestingly, past studies suggest that organizations that excel or master these four key themes do, in fact, achieve better results from their product innovation efforts.

Let’s examine some of the challenges innovators have in each part of The Innovation Performance Framework:

Product Innovation Strategy: It all starts at the top. If there is not a clear and crisp product innovation strategy that supports the business strategy, problems begin. Some key challenges are: Do we have one? Is it clear? Is it the right strategy? Is everyone aligned? Are people walking the talk? Are there realistic expectations on new product revenues?

Lack of a product innovation strategy tailored to support the strategy of the business is often cited as a most common problem.

Portfolio Management: This is the strategic allocation of resources that ensures innovation efforts advance the product innovation strategy. This is also the prioritization of projects in the pipeline to ensure that resources are being tactically deployed on the right projects for the right reasons. Some key challenges are: too many projects and not enough resources to get everything done, difficulty in deciding which projects to select (when evaluating multiple projects that are competing for the same resources), difficulty in optimizing the portfolio of projects (i.e. short-term versus long-term, high-risk versus low-risk), poor alignment on priorities, and resources that are simply stretched too thinly.

Idea-to-Launch Process: This is the roadmap or playbook that takes each project from idea to launch including all of the activities and decisions that must occur in order to be successful. Some key challenges are: not enough high quality ideas; not having a standard playbook that can be used repeatedly for projects; leadership that cannot articulate the importance of their idea-to-launch process; employees who have not received training or have not developed a knowledge foundational base on and around innovation best practices; not tailoring the development process to support the business strategy and project needs; being unable to say no to projects and/or the need to be realistic with actual time and resource expectations that otherwise lead to unrealistic speed-to-market pressures; expectations for resource commitments to work on projects that are not in the official process; too many minor projects that negatively impact the resources available for innovation projects; and the inability to yield effective decisions in a timely manner (i.e. everything is a high priority thus creating ‘gridlock’ which in turn results in significant delays). It is no wonder given the above why achieving and then sustaining success is so difficult for many companies.

Climate and Culture: This is ‘the way the organization works’: the typical behavior, norms, values and leadership style that enables or hinders product innovation performance. Some key challenges are: difficulty in striking a healthy balance between ‘discipline and focus’ and ‘flexibility and judgment’, driving projects to successful completion while managing cross-functional teams (i.e. shortage of trained project leaders, staff turnover, gaps in necessary skills, lack of training and/or experience), management of failure, and poor support from other parts of the organization. In other words, creating and supporting a climate and culture that supports innovation company-wide.

How is your organization performing at product innovation and how does it compare to other companies? Without clear metrics and a way to compare them it can be difficult to know whether you are doing good or bad at product innovation; whether your investment in R&D is producing the desired results, and what areas of your performance in and around the Innovation Performance Framework might need to be improved or strengthened. The good news is you can change, the question is do you want to?

Contributed by 

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