Organizational EQ

We usually think of emotional intelligence as a characteristic of individual people, and sometimes use it as a way to judge whether someone could be a good fit in a collaborative space. But have you ever thought that, just like people, organizations display emotional intelligence? Hey, organizations are made up of people, so it follows that they too can be rated on their EQ. How an organization uses emotional information to guide its actions is a measure of its emotional intelligence. Some organizations are very good at this; the ones that are not are the ones who usually use “corporate speak” to frame their relationship with individuals in and out of the organization. When the EQ is low, the organization acts as if all that matters is the entity itself, but not the individuals in it.

There are many ways in which an organization can improve its EQ; one of the most effective is storytelling. With storytelling organizations can provide spaces where many voices and stories can be heard. Access to a wide range of voices and stories across the organization can create spaces for more connections, which may lead to empathy and understanding. Storytelling can increase EQ when the story of an organization reflects not only the experience of the senior leadership, or the founders, but all of those who contribute to it. Organizations with high EQ know that there is not only one story or one storyteller. They also know that they must create spaces for stories of vulnerability and failure, because they understand that life is a series of constant approximations.

Storytelling can increase EQ when the organization uses stories to discover and understand itself. Who are we as an organization, beyond the slogans and branding? Storytelling can help an organization lead with emotion when it uses stories to connect to its members or customers in a way that allows them to feel acknowledged, seen and appreciated. To improve its EQ, an organization can use stories to learn to listen to its constituents, not as statistics, targets or data, but as people whose lives may not be very different from the lives of those who inhabit the organization itself.

A hallmark of high EQ is the intentionality and sincerity with which organizations use stories to create a real sense of community, not an imagined one. When storytelling boosts the EQ in an organization, it speaks “human”, not corporate or insincere, because it leads from a place of shared meaning and experience. What is the EQ of your organization or your team? How would you use stories to enhance or improve it? What about your EQ? What’s your story?