What Prompted You To Enquire About EQ Certification?

At the point when I started exploring the EQ certification, a considerable amount of research and guidance on emotional intelligence was emerging. The ‘soft’ and less tangible aspect of management, leadership, and just overall ability to work with others and for others started becoming more tangible and mainstream – Daniel Goleman’s model was referenced a lot, Brene Brown’s TED talks about shame and vulnerability were receiving millions of views,  everyone in the world of people development was writing or speaking about what aspects of our behaviours, skills and approaches are dictated by our emotional intelligence. Organisationally, we at SUSU knew that EI is integral to effective management and leadership, and that gaining a deeper understanding of it and having a well-developed tool to assess and discuss EI was a necessary next step to help us in empowering and growing compassionate, inspiring and high-performing managers and leaders.

Had you explored other EQ tools, if so which ones and what made you choose the EQ-I 2.0 certification?

I was aware of Daniel Goleman’s EQ model and associated Emotional and Social Competence Inventory, however, we had the pleasure of working with a leadership coach who was certified in EQ-I 2.0 and had used the assessment as part our CEO recruitment at the time. The tool, its use and benefits were explained to us so effectively, so when the opportunity came to become certified, it was quite evident which tool and certification to pursue.

What were your goals and objectives in using a tool such as the EQ? Do you feel those goals have been met? 

Organisationally, our objective was to use the EQ tool for development and recruitment. Developmentally, we wanted EQ-I to enable our managers and leaders to gain a better understanding of the various scales and subscales so they could leverage those there were strong at and look to develop in those that scored lower. We have definitely met this goal. Recruitment-wise, we wanted to have a better insight into the candidates’ social and emotional skills and utilise a few bespoke interview questions to explore pertinent areas with them as part of the selection. We utilised the EQ assessment for the recruitment of the CEO, a Director role and a number of senior management roles. However, with the recruitment challenges that immediately followed Covid, we opted to exclude the EQ assessment so as not to extend the selection process, and the majority of successful candidates had the assessment as part of their subsequent induction and initial development.

In what way has it developed leaders?

What parts of a debrief stand out for you/your client? Is there an ‘a-ha’ moment?

For many clients, it is common to see that their self-reflection on the scales/subscales at the start of the debrief matches the actual scores in the report, or at least areas of particular strength or those that are most underutilised. Another ‘a-ha’ moment usually arises in seeing how two, three or more of the subscales interact and affect each other, realising that all of them are interconnected and can be leveraged to balance each other.

What do you love about the tool? Is there anything you would change about it? 

I love how logically the scales and subscales are organised, giving a comprehensive picture of one’s EI. It is great to see each subscale analysed from the perspective of the impact it could have on one’s work, and strategies provided for how to develop or leverage them more effectively. I love the coach report that allows to have a clear overview of the interplay of each subscale with the others, making it easier to prepare and deliver debriefs. It also offers a range of coaching questions that could be used as part of the debrief reflections. The leadership report helpfully offers an additional dimension whereby clusters of subscales constitute given leadership competencies.

What is next for EQ development at University of Southampton Students Union?

We will continue using it as a development tool for our people/line managers and student leaders, and where appropriate, open it up to other colleagues through our mentoring programme.  

Would you recommend using the EQ tool with clients? 

EQ is a great tool to gain a better understanding of oneself, especially from the perspective of emotional intelligence, and how this has an impact on how we interact and work with others. I would therefore very much recommend using it with clients across all levels of the organisation to help inform current practices and behaviours as well as build those for the future.

Would you recommend training with Think EQ? 

I would absolutely recommend learning with Think EQ – the entire experience – from initial enquiries to post-learning support – has been excellent. The care and the passion about the subject matter and the customer was present in every interaction, training session and feedback debrief. I am delighted that I have completed my EQ-I certification with Think EQ.

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