Multitasking has long been praised as a great thing. Well, I say it’s a curse – and let me tell you why.

When you’re multitasking you are not really giving anything your full attention. And if nothing gets full attention, it’s not getting all of you. And are you at your best if you’re not tapping into all of you? I’d say no.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who recognises scenarios such as these:

Responding to emails while on a conference call – missing out on some key information that was shared at some point

Checking text messages while listening to what the children did at school – not really hearing how their day has been

Checking the phone while in meetings – sending the message to the other meeting participants that they are less important (even if not meaning to)

Working on a presentation and getting distracted by the pinging sound of an email in the inbox – going to check the email and losing trail of thought on the presentation, having to spend more time than needed on it

Sure, it’s good to be ABLE to multitask when needed – when a crisis hits, when a deadline looms – but to operate out of a multitasking mode all the time is to waste our capability away.

A more effective mode is to be 100% present in whatever we do, whomever we’re with. It may not work all the time, but any improvement is an improvement.

Try it out, it’s pretty cool – being 100% present.

It’s time for a rethink! Now!

Rational competence and rational solutions are hailed in most organisations.

Yeah, so what? you may think. And you would be right; it may not be a bad thing in and of itself, but the social aspect of the work place; how well people understand each other, how people communicate and work together is even more important! And for too long this has been ignored by many companies and institutions. There are probably rational reasons for this, such as believing that it’s not important or that it’s hard to impact or control.

BUT it cannot be swept under the carpet. Organizations that wish to achieve the best possible results ignore this at their own risk.

Recent brain research shows that social contact is a bigger motivation factor that money or even physical needs (read more in Why Organizations Fail by David Rock). And this is of course not a new human phenomenon, it’s as old as the human race – but most organizational systems are structured in such a way that it doesn’t factor in these very human needs enough. Even though the systems, the infrastructure are created by people. It is as if we think that business is something purely rational….

Personally I’ve lost count of how many people I have met over the years whom expressed that they are expected to be rational at work, and pretty much nothing else. And at least as many who have shared their frustration with not feeling understood by others at work…..

With this in mind it is not so strange then that so many change initiatives fail (70%!). Rational thinking doesn’t work when the emotions are engaged through fear and concern during change. And if most of the change communication focus on the rational reasons for change (”surely people must understand that….”) then it’s probably not so strange that people resist change which makes the process slow and unwieldy and the chance of success is minimised.

Organisations that want to succeed now and maybe even more importantly in the long run, need to consider these very human aspects of business much more than they do today.

Hire/develop leaders with both rational and social/emotional competence
Develop/train employees in communication, self awareness and self leadership, empathy and co-operation
And use the infrastructure/organisational systems as a way to work effectively together, not just as a rational system
What do you say? It’s time for a rethink, isn’t it!

Is that you?

Leadership is changing fast. And emotional intelligence is climbing to the top of desired leadership abilities. The ability to relate to others, to “get people”, to see people, to value others, to take care of how we impact others, to connect with people in such a way that they want to go that famous extra mile. Emotional intelligence is about being clever with people – ourselves and others.

Although, let’s face it, wasn’t great leadership always about emotional intelligence?

Don’t we all remember those leaders we’ve had (and I hope that you, like me, have had at least one!) who were about more than the job – more than the technical abilities, more than just a “goal achiever”. Someone who just made you want to go to work. Someone who made you see that work is fun.

When I first became a leader, some 24 years ago, there were no great attempts to try to help leaders be just that – people who lead. I might have learned the technicalities of the job as a manager, but I found it very difficult to deal with the difficult situations. A lot of is was gut instinct and either you had it or you didn’t.

Leadership development has come a long way since the early 90’s but sadly very few leadership development activities, even to this day, have the desired effect. Not because they are bad, but because they rarely change behaviours. And that’s what leadership comes down to, behaviours.

Or like Maya Angelou so eloquently said:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

We all have emotional intelligence (in different ways) AND we can create more of it. It’s all about our behaviours and how they effect others.

Watch this space – emotional intelligence will continue to grow in importance. And that’s good, for people and for sustainable businesses.