Ey eq from hunch to hard data

From Hunch to Hard Data: the importance of EQ confirmed

Photograph of EY Belgium
EY Belgium

Multidisciplinary professional services organization

5 minute read 19 Jan 2023

EY research finally provides clear evidence on the areas leaders should focus on to increase the success rate of their transformations.

In brief:

  • EY research emphasizes the critical role of emotional intelligence (EQ) in successful organizational transformations.
  • Six key drivers are linked to the emotional journey of employees during a transformation.
  • The need for leaders to create a context that fosters these drivers and supports a culture of strong leadership is vital to a successful transformation.

For many years we have known that leadership, driven by emotional intelligence (EQ), is a critical driver of success in organizations. We have watched organizations thrive under leaders who seemed to have an edge in emotional intelligence skills. Think about Zappos where Anthony Hsieh put many initiatives in place to meet both the physical and emotional needs of his employees or Virgin Galactic where Richard Branson built a culture of caring and vulnerability. These are no exceptions, there are many more examples of successful companies benefiting from the strong EQ of their leaders. So, truthfully, we have always known that it is a driver to success but we never had empirical proof. Now we do and it is ground-breaking. In our latest research, EY has proven without doubt that leadership - and specifically EQ - matters most. Our research has shown that the specific leadership skills required to make a transformation successful include:

  1. Consistent and ruthless alignment towards a common purpose, which sets the context for the six drivers we will discuss below.
  2. The right mentality and capabilities to lead the change, where emotional intelligence is crucial to navigate the emotional journey of employees throughout the transformation.
     

Research insights

In a joint research project, EY and Oxford Saïd Business School identified the key to significantly increase the chances of successful transformations: putting humans at the center of transformation efforts. To drive this mindset of Humans@Center, the leadership team (top and mid-level management) need to excel at implementing six distinct drivers linked to the emotional journey of their employees during a transformation, for the entire transformation life cycle. This emotional journey is the red thread in every transformation, which highlights the importance of the two required leadership skills mentioned above.

Discover the six key drivers that are linked to the emotional journey and will boost transformation outcomes. 

As mentioned before, one of the key skills leaders should have is the ability to create the context for each of these six key drivers. For example, future-fit leaders inspire others to believe that a seemingly unreasonable goal is possible and make them feel personally motivated to make it happen. By fostering an organizational culture of strong leadership at all levels, an organization can ensure being well-equipped to navigate the upcoming change and sustain the transformation over time. Forward-looking companies have understood this strategic importance of creating the context for each of the six drivers and therefore invest in leadership development focused on this, significantly increasing the probability of successful transformations.
 

A crucial skillset for leaders

Now that we highlighted the importance of managing the emotional journey of employees throughout transformations, as well as the importance of setting the context for the six drivers, we can dive deeper into their link to the EQ of leaders. In any industry, leaders have to conduct a continuous and delicate balancing act between emotional and rational components linked to the behaviour of their employees. While recognizing the importance of the rational component, we need to think of the emotional component as equally important. Therefore, leaders need to pull on the following five layers of EQ to drive transformational success.
Self-Awareness

Are you aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, and are you comfortable acknowledging them?

Self-Regulation

Do you practice self-control by taking a moment to reflect before responding or taking action? Can you handle situations that are beyond your control?

Motivation

Does money and power drive you, or are you genuinely passionate about your work? Are you open to accepting new challenges?

Empathy

Do you possess the required communication skills to respectfully communicate with everyone, including people from different cultures, religions and ethnicities?

Social skills

Can you present your perspective effectively without distancing or offending others?

How EY can Help

Leaders often focus on leading and managing others, but forget about the first layer. However, this first layer proves to be essential. Only by understanding themselves, leaders can gain insight into their own leadership style and discover how it impacts others. Being skilled in these five EQ-layers can determine the respect leaders earn within their organization as well as the success of their organization and transformation.
 

Empowering emotional intelligence in transformations

If there is one key take-away here, it is to not leave the success of your transformation to chance. Transformations are not just about the process, it requires preparing and enabling an EQ and IQ driven type of leadership across the organization. It is all about giving leaders not only the permission but also the duty to connect with their emotions so that they can connect to the emotional journeys of their teams. Our specialized EY teams can help you transform leadership behaviours and attitudes within your organization, to make it resilient to change and able to transform at any time.

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    Summary

    EY Research finally provides clear evidence on the areas leaders should focus on to increase the chances of successful transformation and change. Leadership is one of the single largest influencers on a transformation’s success, and getting this right, will not only save significant amounts of money for organizations, but employees and leadership will be happier, more productive and more likely to perform at their best for years to come.

    About this article

    Photograph of EY Belgium
    EY Belgium
    Multidisciplinary professional services organization
    Related topics
    Workforce
    Transformation

    EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.