Coaching and Emotional Intelligence

Substantial research points to the correlation between EI and success. Daniel Goleman, a key figure in the EI movement found that EI accounts for almost 90% of the performance differential between average and star performers. Harvard Business School research has shown that 90% of the time, it is EI that enables people to be promoted above other candidates with similar IQ and technical skills. Research conducted by the Centre for Creative Leadership found that 75% of careers are derailed for reasons related to emotional competencies.

One way of developing your EI is to develop a ‘coaching mindset’. Coaching is a lens through which to have empowering conversations.

For much of my career in legal practice, I felt that lawyering inherently valued cognitive intelligence (IQ), pragmatism and efficiency, over relationship, connection and empathy. Coaching is a valuable toolkit for lawyers, legal practice managers, partners, and business owners to have, and perfectly complements other skillsets us lawyers employ daily.

However, coaching is not just a skillset – it is a way of leading and managing, a way of treating people, a way of thinking, a way of being. Sir Robert Whitmore, a luminary in the world of coaching, describes transformational coaching as the practice of emotional intelligence.

Integrating coaching skills into your professional life will inevitably support you to have more empowering connection with yourself and others. Learning the coaching skillset and developing a coaching mindset, will in turn develop your EI.