I was listening to a podcast the other day about corporate culture, featuring Pat Lencioni. Lencioni is the author of multiple best-selling books and owner of a company called The Table Group, which works with companies and advises them how to create a strategic organizational plan and ultimately make their business more successful. He discussed how positive, humble, and hard-working individuals largely contribute to a company’s success.

Lencioni explained that his two sons have just entered the workforce and said “If I could give them anything, its emotional intelligence. It’s the opportunity to understand people and work with people and know how your actions and words affect them. It’s way more important than intellectual capacity… it absolutely is about having the right character qualities” (Ramsey, 2017). He clarified that being smart is definitely important, but it isn’t just intellect that creates success. Having employees who are able to work with people and communicate well creates a healthy culture, which makes your company more successful.

This podcast really got me thinking. In customer service, you have to be a “people” person. In order to service customers well, one must be able to communicate with others, show empathy, and relate. Customers want to know they are valued. This isn’t just the case with customers, though. We need to demonstrate good emotional intelligence when working with coworkers. Think of someone you know who is really successful in the workplace. Chances are, they are really good at working with other people. Positivity is also very important. I’m a firm believer in the idea that energies are contagious. If you have happy, positive employees, you are more likely to have happy customers.

Lencioni finished up by stating that, “you want to get people that have experience but you really want to have people with the behavioral skills” (Ramsey, 2017). These are the types of attributes that companies are looking for. If you want to be successful in the workplace, you need to have a variety of skills, not just experience or knowledge. Positivity and emotional intelligence are critical for success in pretty much every type of occupation. It can even benefit you in other areas, such as in your personal life.

Please feel free to comment below and join in on the conversation! I also encourage you to check out this insightful podcast from The Dave Ramsey Show.

Source: Ramsey, D. (2017, July 19). #8979: Author and Speaker Pat Lencioni Joins Dave in Studio (Hour 1). The Dave Ramsey Show. Podcast retrieved from https://www.daveramsey.com/