EI not IQ
by Steve Gaspar, FSA, MAAA
This article is reprinted from the July 2007 issue of The Stepping Stone, newsletter of the SOA's Management and Personal Development Section.
Establishing a successful track record on the job opens doors to other opportunities, including advancement. This is particularly the case when moving from a personal production role to a supervisory role. However, many first time leaders have high failure rates. Why? Put simply, the skills, knowledge and behaviors that make a personal producer successful are not the same attributes that create a successful supervisor and leader.
The disconnect between the necessary competencies in two successive roles can present quite a problem. Actuaries fall prey to this challenge as much as any professional group, perhaps more so. For example, in many companies the attainment of an actuarial credential, such as ASA, can lead to immediate supervisory responsibilities. Often such a promotion is done without any formal management training or additional support. Since moving into a supervisory role requires a different set of skills, why should we expect success in that situation? The segue from personal producer to manager changes the application of one’s strengths, which can be at best confusing and at worst a failure.
What skills make a good manager? While specific positions vary, ‘soft skills’ are basically a uniform requirement for any management role. Soft skills are primarily skills and attributes that focus more on interfacing with people and less on finance theory or claim triangles. Managers are not the only beneficiaries of strong soft skills. Anyone in a position that involves interpersonal interactions will benefit from having strength in these areas. That said, while soft skills such as empathy and listening are relevant for a personal producer, they are far more critical for someone who manages a team, especially a team comprised of diverse personalities and talent.
Soft skills and soft skills training have been discussed and debated for years, and there is a thriving industry aimed at providing training in this area. At the time of this writing, a Google search of “soft skills training” scores nearly two million hits. A more current way to describe these kinds of competencies is ‘emotional intelligence,’ or EI. At 1.3 million hits, “emotional intelligence training” is somewhat less prominent in Google-space, but significant nonetheless. EI is generally accepted as a measure of one’s skill in the following areas: self-awareness, self-regulation, awareness of others, and relationship management. EI is internal and external awareness and control. (See below for EI competencies and groupings according to Goleman, et. al. in books such as Primal Leadership.)
EI competencies and groupings
Personal Competence
Self-Awareness
Emotional self-awareness (monitoring one’s emotions)
Accurate self-assessment (knowing one’s strengths)
Self-confidence
Self-Management
Emotional self-control
Transparency (honesty, integrity, trustworthiness)
Adaptability (to changing situations or to obstacles)
Achievement (drive)
Initiative
Optimism
Social Competence
Social Awareness
Empathy
Organizational awareness
Service
Relationship Management
Inspirational leadership (ability to convey a clear vision)
Influence (persuasion with or without authority)
Developing others
Change catalyst (leader of change)
Conflict management
Building bonds (relationship network builder)
Teamwork and collaboration
In reviewing EI competencies, a high level of skill in any or all of them couldn’t hurt a career. In fact, many experts agree that these competencies are relevant to professions that involve either managing others or being part of an effective team. In his book, Working with Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman goes one step further. He claims that for professions in which the intellectual entry hurdle is particularly high, EI is the dominant differentiator for performance. Goleman is not the first, nor will he be the last, to reach this conclusion. Assume for a moment that this is a fact. Can you think of a profession which has an entry hurdle that is high in the area of intellectual horsepower? That’s us, folks. Assuming Goleman is correct, in spite of all of the technical training that actuaries pursue, it is emotional intelligence that differentiates the highest achievers from the rest of the pack. For some this might not feel like great news, especially considering the number of years actuaries spend on technical learning.
The good news is that emotional intelligence competencies can be acquired. And contrary to IQ, which is fixed at a relatively young age, EI can be enhanced at any age. Now here’s the tricky part. There are two key differences in enhancing EI as compared to picking up a new way to price a contingent future event. First, the time required to develop EI is greater than the time it takes to learn a technical skill. The reasons behind this difference in training time are fascinating and have to do with how the brain functions. Goleman, et. al., cover this topic very well in Primal Leadership. A simple way of looking at this issue is that it takes time to achieve sustained behavioral change, and that is essentially what enhancing EI is all about.
The second difference, which might be viewed as bad news to actuaries who are accustomed to studying and passing exams, is that EI is not enhanced by the same methods as technical skills. Raw intelligence and traditional learning tactics have propelled actuaries through college and the actuarial exams. Unfortunately, studying and memorizing are of limited use when it comes to developing EI skills. In the EI arena, academic approaches simply raise awareness. But awareness alone is not sufficient—any more than understanding that kicking your feet and paddling your arms will keep you off the bottom of the swimming pool. To survive in the water you must practice those actions until they are second nature. EI skills are similar. Beyond mere intellectual exercises, EI competencies are practiced in the real world with other people. In this way emotional intelligence skills are more similar to physical skills than IQ or cerebral skills because EI is behavior-driven.
So how does one enhance EI skills? Not surprisingly, most successful methods look something like this: become aware of the necessary behavioral change, develop a desire to change the behavior, gain understanding about what success looks like, and practice in the presence of a trusted third party. This latter step is probably the most significant. Having a professional coach is ideal, and many companies hire coaches to develop the highest level leaders of their organizations. A coach can directly observe your behavior and offer helpful advice for change. He/she can also solicit input from those closest to you to provide insight into how your behaviors are perceived. But even if your company is not providing you with a professional coach, you have your boss, your coworkers and your friends. Enlisting their help can provide real-time feedback and reinforcement. Obviously the basis of any such arrangement is complete trust in the relationship. Each “coach” needs to have your best interests in mind.
Beyond trust, coach selection should be influenced by knowledge; that is, pick a coach who has the skill you are looking to enhance. For example, if your boss is a particularly good empathetic listener, she would be a good coach candidate for that specific skill. If she just doesn’t seem to have the ability to build a strong network of relationships, then you should find someone who does have that skill-set to coach you in that area. Many companies’ Organizational Development departments also have processes set up to support such employee growth.
Reading this article or a book on EI will not get you where you need to be. And while you may be able to attend a seminar on predictive modeling to acquire the ability to use such a tool, there is not a three day EI boot camp that will result in sustained behavioral change. EI enhancement takes time, practice, patience and support.
This isn’t to say that technical skills are trumped by EI. Technical skills are a gateway to more opportunity. As levels of responsibility increase, technical skills become table stakes. The higher you ascend in an organization the more technical skills are like compulsory tumbling for a gymnast. You must do them perfectly in order to be allowed to continue on to the medal round. To win the medals you need special skills, and in the area of management and leadership those skills are the competencies of emotional intelligence.
Steve Gaspar, FSA, MAAA, is vice president and chief actuarial officer at The Regence Group in Portland, Ore. He may be reached at steven.gaspar@regence.com.