EI Training Improves Business Results: Case Studies

Emotional intelligence can sound like a soft skill until you look at what happens when organizations invest in it. Two well-known companies show what that investment can look like, one through a structured training program and one through a change in how the CEO chose to lead.

FedEx Express: Training New Managers in Emotional Intelligence

FedEx Express built emotional intelligence into the way it develops new managers worldwide. Every new manager went through a five-day course followed by six months of coaching, working with the emotional intelligence firm Six Seconds.

Six Seconds reported these results from the program:

• An 8 to 11 percent increase in core leadership competencies
• 44 percent of participants showed very large increases (10 to 50 percent improvements) in emotional intelligence competencies
• 72 percent showed very large increases in decision making
• 60 percent made major improvements in quality of life
• 58 percent made major improvements in influence

The pairing of a short, intensive course with months of follow-up coaching matters. A five-day course builds awareness.

Coaching over time is what turns awareness into new habits on the job.

Microsoft: Leading with Empathy from the Top

When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he set out to change the company’s culture. He made empathy and a growth mindset central themes of his leadership and wrote about both in his 2017 book, Hit Refresh. Microsoft’s turnaround in the years that followed is widely documented, and Nadella has consistently credited the culture change as part of it.

The Microsoft story shows the other side of emotional intelligence in organizations: it does not have to start with a training program. When the person at the top models empathy and openness to learning, it sets the standard for everyone else.

What This Means for Your Organization

Both stories point to the same lesson. Emotional intelligence improves results when it is treated as a leadership capability to build over time, through development, coaching, and example, rather than as a one-time event.

Building This in Your Leaders

If you want to strengthen emotional intelligence in your leadership team, I keep a small number of complimentary strategy calls open each week.

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Sources

Six Seconds. (2014, January 14). Case study: Emotional intelligence for people-first leadership at FedEx Express. https://www.6seconds.org/2014/01/14/case-study-emotional-intelligence-people-first-leadership-fedex-express/

Nadella, S. (2017). Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone. Harper Business.