More optimistic employees are more successful even in a highly technical IT firm. Using the SEI emotional intelligence assessment, researchers found optimism predicts almost 18% of job success. The finding reinforces the importance of hiring and training for this learnable skill. It also provides and edge to employees who want to be recognized as high performers.
It’s no surprise that optimists might identify themselves as more successful than their pessimistic counterparts, but does their boss agree? That’s the finding from new research by Six Seconds. The study confirms that even in a technical position, emotional intelligence skills are key to job success.
The study tracks a highly technical information solutions team at NextiraOne in Italy. Fourty-four IT team members were assessed using the “Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment,” otherwise known as the SEI. Scores on the test were compared to scores on the company’s performance management system. Just over 17.9% of the variation in performance scores were explained by the Optimism scale on the SEI.
NextiraOne is a leading provider of integrated enterprise network, IP telephony, data, voice and converged solutions and services that enable effective business communications (www.nextiraone.com).
Six Seconds’ COO Joshua Freedman explains the significance of the finding: “Optimism has been widely linked to performance in people-oriented jobs such as sales. This study shows that even in a highly technical role, emotional competence is key to success.” Freedman is one of the world’s top authorities on developing emotional intelligence to improve performance. His global team of consultants, trainers and researchers helps companies from Schlumberger to FedEx with leadership, sales, and organizational effectiveness.
The study, described in a white paper (www.6seconds.org/sei/optimism.php), offers an important edge to employees and another to businesses:
• For employees who want to be recognized as a top performer, increasing optimism provides a valuable edge.
• For companies who want every competitive edge, hiring and training for this kind of emotional intelligence skill is a cost-effective way to increase performance.
The strong link between optimism and performance is specifically tied to supervisor perception. Using a “multiple regression” statistical analysis, researcher Lorenzo Fariselli of Six Seconds Italia (www.6seconds.it) performed the analysis. Fariselli says, “In this study we see more evidence that the emotional intelligence assessment measures factors that are important to real life performance.” This data helps confirm that the SEI tool is one of the most effective measure of emotional intelligence available.
The SEI is a statistically reliable, web-enabled emotional intelligence test. Compared to other similar tests, SEI report offers the most extensive report with over 20 pages of practical interpretation with effective development suggestions. With two self-correcting indices, a consistency scale, 104 items, and 14 different norms applied in each report, it also uses the most advanced statistical analysis in the scoring algorithm. The SEI is available in English, Italian, Chinese, Indonesian, and Spanish. Strengths, Development, Group, and Leadership reports are available. Details and the Technical Manual are available online (www.6seconds.org/sei/).
Six Seconds
Six Seconds supports people performance and positive change. Founded in 1997, the organization now has offices in 10+ countries and certified practitioners in over 100, and is the world's preeminent resource for putting emotional intelligence into action.
