Leadership Growth During the Pandemic

A government agency facing lower employee engagement, increasing absenteeism and employee turnover looked to leadership development as a potential resolution. Knowing a new approach would be necessary, they looked at integrating emotional intelligence (EQ) into their leadership development and adopted the Emotous Leadership SuperSkills program, an EQ based program designed to educate participants in the leadership competencies necessary to lead in today’s world of uncertainty, complexity, and change.

However, shortly after launch, COVID hit leaving 1/3 of the population with depression and/or anxiety (World Economic Forum) and more than 50% with burnout; this shifted the program from a desire to improve the status quo to an essential program to address new level mental wellbeing and performance challenges. They were not alone, globally EQ and emotional wellbeing was declining; their decision to bring EQ into their leadership couldn’t have come at a better time.

Within the two years following the program launch nearly 1,000 leaders participated with remarkable results, starting with a 67% lift in positive emotions. Why is this important? Positive emotions open cognitive functioning, allowing them to be more innovative. Considering the increasing uncertainty, fear, and change they faced, their ability to effectively manage their emotions during the pandemic was quite important.

This organisation is responsible for the leadership development across government departments, so the decisions they make about their learning programs will have real impact on the organisation’s effectiveness and wellbeing.

As the program launched, no one would have guessed just how relevant it would be to their leaders’ and staffs’ ability to navigate what was about to happen. The pandemic hit just a few months after the first group completed the program and despite the critical workgovernment had to manage at that time, in the two years that followed, they put close to 1,000 leaders through Emotous’ Leadership SuperSkills program.

This program was chosen because it not only integrated emotional intelligence into the organisation, it also improved key leadership success factors, such as effectiveness, relationship, wellbeing and fulfillment. The program also provided skills and tools to enhance how leaders would work with their teams, shifting from an older leadership mindset of positional ‘power over’ staff to one that engaged and empowered their staff.

In fact, since ‘power over’ leadership is based on fear and intimidation, the graph above also provides evidence why this older style of leadership is not nearly as effective as using our positional power to enable our staff’s success to make them feel more empowered and safe. What makes these results so significant is they were realised at a time when EQ and mental health was falling globally, as outlined in the graphic below.

These results accounted for growth nine months after program completion and six months into the first wave of the COIVD-19 outbreak when EQ globally was dropping sharply, and negative emotions had increased by 95%. This level of growth amidst the COVID outbreak shows the impact Emotous’ Leadership SuperSkills program can have on performance and emotional wellbeing, even during challenging times.

For information on how you can bring Leadership SuperSkills into your organisation, please contact us at info@emotous.com.