Michael Bouton | Viatech Global

I read an article this week that said millennials have higher emotional intelligence than others, that is, they have the ability to read others better than most (HRmagazine.co.uk). I was a little shocked by this article and was researching to support their findings and was unable to find any, or even how they were defining emotional intelligence. Some were skeptical of this and actually felt the opposite was true, that millennials do not have as much emotional intelligence as others. That they are not as open or empathetic as other generations. Yet, there is some truth to the fact that they have been brought up in more a team-oriented environment throughout their education and, as a result, they may know how to function in a team better. However, working in teams does not equate to improved emotional intelligence.

I spent some time searching for research on the topic through the local university and would have to say that there is not much in the research area to really support or disprove millennials having greater emotional intelligence. I did, however, have the privilege to talk with Dr. Jack Chisum and Glenn Brown at their motivation interviewing lab. It is an amazing lab that has the ability to not only read the emotions of the face, but also in the voice and the physiological responses by the people in their lab. (https://asunow.asu.edu/20160719-solutions-emotion-reading-software-better-health-care)

They are working on providing better health care by helping patients identify their emotional responses to what doctors say and also to identify their own thoughts about their health. They can follow a discussion between a patient and a doctor and pinpoint the moment a patient’s emotions jumped and which emotion was most strongly felt. In this work, Dr. Chisum noted that an unanticipated finding in his research was that people under the age of 25 have a difficult time dealing with the emotional expressions made by people older than themselves. That is to say, when someone older than them expresses strong emotion, they didn’t know how to deal with it and it caused a strong counter emotional response in them.

While he said further research would be needed to explore the reasons for this, it was important to note that this emotional response does occur, and if people are working with the younger generation, they may want to be aware of how much emotion they are expressing good or bad. An emotional hijack will lead to a reduction in performance because the logic center becomes disengaged.

So what does this mean to you? Be aware of your own state before talking to someone under the age of 25. Be aware of the state of others as well, but more importantly be aware of the affect your state has on others, especially those under 25. The more you can do to put the person at ease when you meet with them, be it feedback about work done, or an annual review, or a potential conflict that has been occurring, the more likely you will be to engage and reach a productive outcome. In the case of the doctors, Dr. Chisum said it is good to lead with a positive or neutral conversation, like ‘How was the weather on the way to work’, or ‘so great to see you today’, ‘I can tell you take pride in …’.

Dr. Chisum also suggested you lead with their ideal image of what they hope to have happen. Where would they like to be or what would they like to see if the conflict was resolved? What would that look like to them? This line of discussion can then lead to a response such as, ‘That is great, so what do you think the next steps are for you to make that happen’? ‘If you made progress, what would short-term success look like that you would feel good about’?

So what do you do if you don’t have the great technology in the lab? There are other ways to get to know millennials such as using a DISC-based assessment to understand potential emotional triggers which are amplified by their age. This will help you understand how to adjust your communication and reduce emotional triggers before they happen.

Many supply chain industries have seen a significant demand to keep their shelves full and shipments moving. How can you do that without the right people? Many are just filling an open space, but what if you could do more and ensure that the quick fix is also a long-term gain.

Are you part of a supply company that has been forced to hire a lot of new employees to meet the emergency demands of our present economy? Despite your efforts, are you finding it hard to stay ahead of the demand and conduct the essential screening interviews to ensure you get the best workers? For many, the increase of hire is for an entry-level position, so the fast hire and quick fix seems to be the way to cope.

As an assessment supplier with 25 years’ experience, I lean towards assessing as a screening tool. Why interview someone you have no intention of hiring? It seems, in my experience, a lot of companies rely on a screening interview to assess the next steps before they pass on for further evaluation or rejection. Interviewing takes a significant level of experience and talent that not many of us are trained to do or excel at. Couple this with the 300+ biases of the human brain and there is the significant possibility that some good candidates don’t make the cut and some that should never have been considered do. This is costly for everyone.

Our working clients have found that a focus on judgment can pare down the pool of applicants to the top potentials you really want to spend your time evaluating. This saves time, money, and leads to hiring employees with excellent performance potential. Our judgment assessment is not a self-report screen, making it virtually impossible to game. The assessment is objective because it requires the potential hire to process information and come to a conclusion in a short period.

In this pandemic world, you need the ability to act fast and hire quickly, but at the same time limit the possibility of making bad hires and to know what your applicant will be like after the interview. The cost of an assessment screening is easily offset by not having to do a screening interview. It is that simple and it is more reliable.

Keep in mind we are reacting to the current situation, trying to provide the best solution for the immediate need. Hiring for high-performance team members well suited for the job, the culture, and management style is a different challenge, but should not be lost in the moment.

Find out how you can reduce some of your risk of hiring by using our judgment screen as a part of your process. Gain insight in ready time that will improve your long term outcome.

Let us show you a path to bettering hiring practices at a lower cost. Find a time to talk https://www.timetrade.com/book/BLVWM

I had a consult with an international company that is losing people due to diversity issues manifesting themselves as lack of respect. I’m guessing it may even go farther than that. They thought using our DISC workshop could help with understanding. We agree, but think other attributes are equally if not more so important. What I shared with them was what we have learned over the years.

We have spent a fair amount of effort trying to understand why communication, understanding, acceptance and valuing can be sometimes catastrophic. Behavior was our first stop and it has proven valuable helping people understand how their own behavioral style invokes an emotional response to people with very different behavioral styles and even more important, how their behavioral style invokes emotional responses from others, both positive and negative. With that understanding, a person can adapt to others that are different to minimize the emotional response that so often gets in the way. Quite often that can be enlightening and foster change in a team.

Behavior is only one part in conversation and understanding. Behavioral assessments are great tools because they are so easily understood. There are many assessment variations based on the four basic behavior styles. Your style can be identified as a bird, an animal, a color, a piece of jewelry, and I imagine many more. All of those have pretty simplistic style descriptions and designed to show that we are different and that diversity is not only ok, but can make us better as a team. Having that knowledge gives us the option to interact with others in a manor more appropriate to their behavioral styles, lessening a negative emotional reaction and allowing clearer understanding and acceptance.

Understanding your own behavioral style and an ability to read other styles and adapt to them productively has proven over the years to be a great team productivity enhancer. But behavior is really the tip of the iceberg. Other things can get in the way. One of those being attitudes. Accumulated over your lifetime your attitudes, driven by your passions, are due to exposure to your family life, your community, your associations and groups, all areas that make up your experience and culture. For some, individual attitudes can be extreme in both a positive or a negative way. You may be broadly aware of what you are passionate about, the driver of your attitudes, but unaware of how it unrealistically affects your perception of others as well as how you treat them. In a recent conversation with one of our instructors she told me she was having a difficult time with a colleague that had a synergistic behavioral style. Once they discovered their attitude in the economic realm was at polar opposites, they were able to respect each other’s position and have a better dialog through understanding and debate as opposed to arguing.

We have also become very interested in how information processing influences our biases creating understanding challenges that affect our understanding, acceptance, judgement and trust. All of these affect our ability to effectively communicate and value others.

In a recent Inc. article, Management Consultant Steve Tobak argued that employee engagement is NOT important to business. He called it the management fad of the millennium which made our team at Viatech Global cringe.

Employee engagement is one of the most important parts of your business.

As an established business you have developed the majority of your products and services. While there are changes, the overall strategy, mission, vision and values have been established and implemented. Now you’re handling internal and external customers, employees and managers.

Employees who are not engaged tell bad stories about your company

Appealing, like Steve did in his article, to the bottom line orientation may appeal to some companies in some situations. The reality is that companies seeking long term success and growth perform differently as proven in Good to Great and Firms of Endearment. Take a look at the relationship between employee turnover and stock prices. In almost all cases the companies with lower turnover have higher stock prices AND they receive better customer ratings.

Even bottom line thinkers understand the cost of hiring and training new employees – or they should. It costs $3500 to hire and train an employee who makes $8 per hour. Over time these costs add up and can be avoided by creating a workplace culture than engages and retains employees.

Over time companies will experience three types of thinking and organizational culture – traditional, practical and intrinsic. Each experience helps a business learn and grow.

Traditional is the old system approach fathered by Fredrick Taylor. Everyone is seen as a cog in a wheel and people are replaceable parts. This philosophy is dated in some respects while in another it creates great efficiencies within organizations. The problem is when this is the only focus of a business. People will leave because they want to be valued.

The practical view is to look at people and their skills and experience in terms of how they can contribute to the success of the organization. There is a focus on results and processes and an attempt to have the right people in the right place for the highest productivity. This, like the traditional approach, still leaves out the passion for why people do what they do.

The intrinsic view is to not only have the right people in the right places within the organization. This approach recognizes that people will do what they do for their own reasons. Communicating the mission, vision and values of the organization creates passion. The passion is translated into increased productivity and high level customer care. The employee is no longer just a cog in a wheel; they understand how their role impacts the larger organization. That is powerful to the bottom line!