Are a few BAD APPLES costing you 40%

I always believed that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) education was most effectively addressed as individual sets of skills, but I no longer think that is true.  EQ comes in communities.  We have all seen very high EQ people behave in very unconscious ways given the right-wrong environment.  We have also observed very unconscious people lifted to new levels of awareness simply by being in the presence of those few fearless among us.  It does not matter whether you define Emotional Intelligence as intellectual, spiritual, physical or mental.  We are all simply energy, and that energy is contagious.

High EQ people don’t last long in low EQ environments.  They feel the drain of duplicity and move on.  The same is true of low EQ people in High EQ organizations.  They either learn or leave.    “Bad Apples” not only negatively influence the composition of a team, but in experiments where a confederate actor simply behaved as a depressive pessimist, group performance was reduced 30-40%.[i]   If “Bad Apples” can reduce performance by as much as 40% then can a “Good Apple” do the same in a positive direction?  While the presence of High EQ individuals does have a positive influence our physiologically hard wired attention is so heavily weighted towards negative stimuli that it takes many more “Good Apples” to produce a productive pie than it does “Bad Apples” to spoil one.

The solution is not to depend on management, HR or some litigious process to curb intentionally bad behaviors but to make these behaviors less socially acceptable.  Positive Peer Pressure not only enhances group performance but awareness of the physical toll of persistent pessimism may convert those Crabapples to Honeycrisps.

We have been taught that venting our anger is good for the soul but our hearts pay a price.  Studies consistently indicate that hostility, depression, and anxiety are all related to increased risk of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular death.[ii]

The good news is that psychosocial stress is a highly modifiable risk.  Regular exercise, altruism, a sense of humor and the support of a High EQ community can all lead to happier healthier lives.   What are you doing to create EQ awareness in your organization?

Download the free 150 Page Peer Powered Performance and see how honesty and awareness can create a community of engagement and fairness.

“Twixt the optimist and pessimist

The difference is droll:

The optimist sees the doughnut

But the pessimist sees the hole.”

– M. Wilson, 1915