How we developed Morgan Stanley’s finance leaders of the future through the application of emotional intelligence.

Consultation

Morgan Stanley came to us at the start of 2023 with a desire to develop the emotional intelligence of their emerging leaders, part of a programme of leadership learning designed to enhance the skills of the organisation’s emerging talent.

The aims of Project Catalyst were to enable participants to:

• build high impact communication skills by exploring concepts of personal impact and influence, communicating with different audiences, and using multiple approaches and techniques to build a personal brand,
• build effective network and stakeholder management skills by exploring how to proactively build networks across the organisation and create value for stakeholders,
• create paths to accelerate careers by exploring different dimensions of career achievement through working with people, working on the business and working on self.

Naturally, a well developed EQ can support the achievement of all of these goals and we were therefore able to work with the client to produce a suite of support to help bring the learning to the leaders. 

Our Recommendations

We consulted with Morgan Stanley to understand their objectives through this piece of work. Form there, we recommended an EQ tool that would enable participants to consider their areas of emotional strength ; those that work well for them in their current role and could be further developed in future roles. We also used this tool to explore their areas for development and how, by making even the smallest changes, could lead to the biggest improvements.

The EQ assessment was supplemented with a 90 minute feedback session with an EQ qualified practitioner who sought to work with each participant in a personalised, offering tailored, bespoke development. Our coaches collaborated to pull out key themes facing Morgan Stanely’s aspiring leaders and from there, we were able to work with our partners at the Executive Coaching Consultancy to design a follow-on programme of learning specific to the needs of the participants. 

Rollout

Think EQ managed the process end to end, removing the administrative burden and project coordination requirement from the client. Over 100 participants were provided with a 90 minute online EQ session with one of our EQ-certified practitioners in the space of 4 weeks. Participants had one point of contact for the seamless scheduling of appointments. 

Our coaches reported that participants arrived into sessions fresh form having undertaken theior report and with the energy to participate fully. Together, they explored the various Agile EQ mindsets, what this meant for their current role and any future roles. Participants took away actions to follow up on, centred around their dicussion and new found self-awareness.

Measuring the Impact

From the individual assessments and out collaborative approach to measuring with the help of our coaching associates, we were able to give Morgan Stanley insights into what it feels like to be an emerging leader in the organisation. Honest, candid feedback allowed us to then tailor their follow on work and provide tangible, feedback-based training to address the themes raised.

From the observations, the following commonalties were reported:

Sustainability

It’s essential to know what’s happening in your organisation but what then? What will you do with then information? We worked with Morgan Stanley, and our lead partner, The Executive Coaching Consultancy, to build a programme of tailored learning that focused on addressing some of the issues and themes highlighted through the Agile EQ sessions. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it therefore Morgan Stanley left with tailored recommendations on how to move forward to further develop their leaders on an ongoing basis. 

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