Why Your Boss Lacks Emotional Intelligence

Why Your Boss Lacks Emotional Intelligence Over the past century, the heartless, no-nonsense CEO has become something of an icon—and a cliché—in American society. Hollywood would have us believe that the Machiavellian chief exec is still alive and well. Whether it’s the Donald from The Apprentice or Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock, these eat-the-weak-for-breakfast-types seem to be as powerful as ever. But that’s just TV, right? How about in the real world? Do businesses today still allow these inhumane relics to survive? To find out, we analyzed the emotional intelligence profiles of the million-plus people in our database—workers from the frontlines to the C-suite. We discovered that the answer is yes, organizations today do promote the emotionally inept ... except when they don't. Allow me to explain. We found that scores climb with titles from the bottom of the corporate ladder upward toward middle management. Middle managers stand out with the highest emotional intelligence (EQ) scores in the workplace because companies tend to promote people into supervisory positions who are level-headed and good with people. The assumption here is that a manager with a high EQ is someone for whom people will want to work. But things change drastically as you move beyond middle management. For the titles of director and above, scores descend faster than a snowboarder on a black diamond. CEOs, on average, have the lowest EQ scores in the workplace. The trick is, for every title in the graph above, the top performers are those with the highest EQ scores. Even though CEOs have the lowest EQ scores in the workplace, the best-performing CEOs are those with the highest EQs. The higher you go above middle management, the more companies focus on metrics to make hiring and promotion decisions. While these bottom-line indicators are important, it's shortsighted to make someone a senior leader solely because of recent monetary achievements. Even worse than metrics, companies also promote leaders for their knowledge and tenure, rather than their skill in inspiring others to excel. Companies sell themselves short by selecting leaders who aren't well-rounded enough to perform at the highest levels for the long term.