Emotional intelligence comes to USTRANSCOM

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. – It’s quite possible that you are smarter than a sixth grader, or even the Ph.D in Quantum Physics next door, especially if you’re talking about the other kind of smart, known as emotional intelligence.

“Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand your emotions and your skill at using this awareness to manage yourself and your relationships with others,” said Brig. Gen. John Michel, U.S. Transportation Command, chief, Change and Learning Strategy. 

“If you think about it, we often have relationships at work that require us to be at our best,” Michel continued.  “And at times, with all the things we have going on, it’s very easy to allow our emotions to hijack us and get the better of us.  So, emotional intelligence is a way to self-regulate, to become more aware of what your emotions are doing so that you can use them in a way that is constructive.”

According to Michel, many Fortune 500 companies incorporate emotional intelligence in developing their employees and leaders, especially beyond middle management. 

“So what they found in the research is that 80 or 90 percent of success in leadership beyond middle management is more by EQ than it is by IQ,” Michel said.  “It’s all over academia, all over the business world.  It’s in pockets of the military.  In fact, the United States Navy has been investing in emotional intelligence for years.”

And now, it’s come to USTRANSCOM.

“The reason we’re bringing it into TRANSCOM is (because) it is so essential,” Michel said.

 “We don’t own anything.  We really just serve other folks.  It’s a very humble, servant-oriented place to be.  If everything we do is actualized through other people, on behalf of other people, if we’re not cognizant of the impact we have, the way we come across, the way we do our business, we’re not being effective.  And if we read our own surveys, we have a lot of work to do there.

“For over five years we’ve been hearing people want us to be better collaborators.  People want us to be able to listen better,” Michel continued.  “People want us to be more empathetic to what they’re saying and, by the way, these are all manifestations of emotional intelligence.”

Michel said as a result, USTRANSCOM is making the single largest investment, probably in the Department of Defense, and certainly in any COCOM in the area of emotional intelligence.

According to Diana Roach, USTRANSCOM chief, Change Management, the goal is to have everyone currently assigned to the command, and future workers, trained in emotional intelligence. 

 “We've trained three key leaders to conduct this EQ workshop to help us on our journey to change our corporate culture,” Roach said.

The first workshop to introduce EQ was held Jan. 28, in Building 1900 East’s Seay Auditorium. 

According to Roach, a series of five, one-hour workshops that will delve into self awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management, will be held over the next few months.

Mary Jo Varel, a USTRANSCOM civilian employee attended the initial session. 

“It was very informative and worthwhile,” Varel said.  “I think it all comes down to being concerned about people and taking time to express an interest in them.  It's more than just work, work, work.  We need to be personable with people. 

“I plan to attend future briefings on the topic,” Varel continued.  “It’s applicable not only to the workplace, but to life in general.”

“The audience was engaged, very responsive to the interactive format,” Roach said, “and provided positive feedback that they were happy they attended and are now excited about taking the follow-on series of one-hour workshops. 

“The idea behind introducing, or for some, refreshing, people to Emotional Intelligence is to make a change in how we talk and listen to each other,” Roach continued, “because we heard in the surveys over the past few years there is room for improvement.”

According to Roach, the one-hour EQ workshops can be attended in any sequence as long as you’ve attended overview (EQ 101).

“The workshops can make a difference,” Roach said.  “Investment dollars were small compared to what we hope is a big return.  It will be a big return if people realize the benefit they can receive both professionally and personally and invest their hearts and minds to finding out their EQ and make changes as appropriate.”

                                                            - USTRANSCOM -