Emotional intelligence refers to a person's ability to have successful social interactions, gauge emotions, and understand the perspectives of other people. For instance, someone with a lower EQ will often struggle with basic social situations, feel awkward or out of place, and not necessarily know how to respond to common interactions. Employees with low EQ may not only be dissatisfied but can make the people around them less satisfied as well.

Why Worry About EQ?

It might seem the simplest solution would be eliminating employees with lower EQ from the workplace, but that kind of policy would prove to be a big mistake. Lower EQ may often be associated with neurodivergent conditions like autism and ADHD – protected disabilities –  but also conditions that actually can serve as superpowers.

In fact, neurodivergence has been shown to have many benefits in the workplace. Knowledge-based fields like law, finance, engineering, and creative services like advertising and marketing are typically spaces where neurodiverse employees have an advantage over neurotypical workers. Neurodivergent brains are wired differently. Those differences actually can help with creativity, pattern recognition, and problem-solving – skills that add a huge value to those professional fields.

Improving how neurodivergent employees are managed can address EQ concerns while increasing their productivity and happiness in the workplace. There's plenty of evidence highlighting how cognitive-focused jobs benefit from the skill sets associated with ADHD and autism, and employers who leverage those benefits will have a competitive advantage.

The cost of managing low-EQ employees doesn't require a huge investment, either. Too often though, people in leadership roles fail to maximize the output of their neurodiverse employees because they simply don't have the tools or understand how to support their employees.

Understanding How Emotional Intelligence Impacts the Workplace

Let's consider Sarah, a 28-year-old, graphic designer with autism, who works for a marketing agency. When we last checked in with her, she was struggling to complete her work on time because of the distractions of the open-office plan. After relocating her desk to a more secluded part of the office, Sarah started meeting her deadlines, and her performance improved. However, her low EQ continued to be a concern.

Sarah is a very talented artist, and she really loves design software. In fact, one of her superpowers is an uncanny ability to learn new software systems faster than others. Autism often leads individuals to have an intense focus on tasks they find appealing. In Sarah's case, that means understanding every aspect of her design software. And her talent and skills are also the source of her discontent.

A person like Sarah with a low EQ may argue frequently, dismiss other people's points of view, disregard their feelings, and even ignore the effects of their actions. For Sarah, she's a junior graphic designer at the firm reporting to several senior managers. However, these senior-level designers aren't as well-versed in modern software.

In meetings discussing their projects, Sarah often argues with the senior level managers like Phil, the Creative Director, about the best way to complete a design. What's even worse, when the meeting is over and she gets to work, she often ignores Phil's ideas because she thinks his process is a bad system. She knows better, she tells herself, disregarding Phil's opinion. Due to Sarah’s rigidity, she gets stuck in a fixed mindset.

Sarah got lucky. She was almost fired from her job when she turned in a project where she completely ignored Phil's artistic direction. There was no time to adjust the work before the client meeting – and fortunately for Sarah, the client loved the direction she took. But the incident was one that earned her a reprimand.

Phil has a growth mindset. He's regularly enrolling in training sessions offered by the company, and he works with a professional business coach to improve his leadership skills. After a half-day session about understanding universal supports in the workplace, he realized he could do more to assist Sarah in future projects.

First, Phil will give Sarah an opportunity to explain her reasoning. His open mindset means he is willing to consider how other methods and ideas can be beneficial and can be persuaded if Sarah's ideas are convincing. Afterward, he will then lay out his own reasoning for Sarah. Often his experience or long-standing relationship with a client informs his choices, even if it might seem like his ideas are out of fashion.

Improving EQ Is Easier Than You Think

Individuals can work on improving their EQ all on their own. The Professional and Executive Development at Harvard's Continuing Education Division offers some important tips. Another less formal way of improving EQ might be as simple as reading a novel or other fictional book, since reading stories has been shown to increase empathy. Individuals might also want to seek professional assistance, whether to improve their EQ or learn tactics to manage team members with neurodivergence. Professional coaching specialists like Dr. Jo Abramo focus their practice on helping individuals with neurodiverse conditions.

Businesses should consider booking a training session where whole teams can learn better ways of supporting each other, foster an open mindset, and grow productivity in a happy, healthy workplace environment.

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