The top 3 revelations from our EQ-i assessments
As retirement coaches, helping people design their career encore with Futurum Group’s ENCORE Coaching Programme, Graeme Menzies and Sarah Harrison encourage clients to explore themselves deeply to identify their goals for the future. Aware that as coaches it’s important to walk the walk as well as talk the talk, the pair decided to complete (EQ-i) assessments, just before Christmas, to focus on their own emotional intelligence.
The assessment was a standard format multiple choice of five answers from a sliding scale of Never > Always responding to more than 100 questions about different behaviours and scenarios. The reports that came back were transformational for both coaches.
Challenged our perceptions of EQ-i
“The report that came back from my assessment challenged my perceptions of myself and my definition of Emotional Intelligence.” explained Harrison. “Graeme and I were lucky enough to be guided through our reports by coach and mentor Tony Underwood, retired England Rugby International and former Emirates Airline Pilot, who knows a thing or two about the importance of EQ-i and resilience for performance and team success.” Underwood’s organisation Wordplay helps to build high performance organisations – the EQ-i assessments being part of their extensive offer including resilience and leadership programmes. He helped translate the meaning of the results in each of the coaches’ reports.
“The first thing that surprised me,” said Harrison, “Was hearing that EQ-i is not about achieving high scores in the assessment, but more importantly about achieving balance across all of the different sections. The sections include Self-Perception, Stress Management, Self-Expression, Interpersonal and Decision Making – with several further subheadings beneath each of these.”
The second revelation for Harrison was learning that her previously held perception of someone with high EQ-i was missing the mark. Before this assessment she perceived someone to have a high EQ-i if they:
Listen well to others
Demonstrate empathy towards others
Invest time in their personal/professional relationships
Radiate positive energy
Are always approachable and available
It turns out this is only part of the picture when describing someone with high EQ-i as Harrison explains: “EQ-i is as much about how individuals show up for themselves and their own emotional needs as it is about how they respond to those of other people and this was an angle I had never previously considered.”
Third revelation: The ‘cost’ of high scores
Menzies found some of the themes emerging from the assessment quite surprising. “Where this assessment returned the most valuable insights for me was in the correlation it reveals between high scores in certain areas and low scores in others. It clearly demonstrates how there is usually a ‘cost’ to excelling in any of the behaviours. One example might be a very high score in empathy correlating to a lower than average score in assertiveness. On reflection this could indicate a need for the individual to prioritise their own opinions and needs a bit more,” he adds.
The holidays have been a great opportunity for the pair to absorb the new insights and reflect on the impact of any imbalance in their scores. They both agree that it is helping them to approach 2022 with a greater understanding of what it is to be an emotionally intelligent leader, coach and human being in an ever more demanding world.
If you’re interested in discussing the ENCORE Retirement Coaching Programme for yourself or your people, contact Sarah Harrison or Graeme Menzies to schedule a free consultation. We can offer the EQ-i assessment as part of the ENCORE coaching programme or can arrange these separately.
