Our Founder Survey Says: You Can Build Your EQ Muscle [Part 2]
This article is part two of a three part series on our findings from our EQ for Entrepreneurs survey where we interviewed 105 early stage startup founders. Read part one here.
Building your EQ muscle
Naturally, we were curious what steps, if any, our respondents were taking to work on developing and/or improving their EQ skills.
While we were pleased to see that 41% have a coach or therapist, we felt there was a disconnect between the stated importance of EQ and a concerted effort to work on the many skills that make up emotional intelligence.
This may be because most of our respondents self-reported high EQ. Of course, studies have found most people don’t have the level of self-awareness (the cornerstone of EQ) they think they do. In addition, if you follow Daniel Goleman’s work, you know that there are 18 elements — or skills — of EQ. We encourage the entrepreneurs we work with to view EQ as a journey, not a destination.
In many ways, emotional fitness is like physical fitness. You build it through intention, practice, and habit. It’s very different from IQ in that it originates from the neurotransmitters in the limbic system of our brains, which controls feelings, impulses, and drives. IQ happens in our neocortex, which governs the analytical, technical, and logic. You can’t simply read a book and become more emotionally intelligent, but you can increase your EQ via practices. Mindfulness and breathing exercises, journaling to identify and process emotions, and practicing self-care are just a few suggestions we have for hitting the EQ gym.
Building EQ into company culture also takes intention. Here are some of the ways our survey respondents have approached building EQ when it comes to:
Hiring and operationalizing: “We screen it during interviews, we have an etiquette guide during onboarding, and it comes up in performance reviews.”
Communications, getting feedback, and checking in: “Daily stand-ups have been crucial because they allow us to see the state of the team, and keep a check of the overall mood and motivation levels of the company. We also do one-on-ones each week, as well as weekly retrospectives to not only help assess productivity but also get a better pulse on the things that worry or excite our team.”
Honesty and transparency: “We discuss the ups and the downs of the business so no one is kept in the dark, have open discussions when conflict arises, and evaluate constantly on what’s working and what’s not in terms of strategies with customers and in supporting the communication within our team.”
Coaching and development: “We invest time and resources in helping people fulfill their potential. We have a specific metric to make sure we constantly ask ourselves how much we’re expressing of our potential.”
Listening, trust-building, and empathy: “When you truly have empathy for others, they confide in you. That creates trust. Trust creates honesty. Honesty is the root of creativity as it allows a confident expression of self. Creativity comes from the self. So in short: Listening = next-level creative expression and product innovation.”
Here are some specific examples of EQ at work during the pandemic:
A few months into working from home, Ordermark sent an anonymous culture survey to get feedback
Sike Insights employs red, yellow, and green to take its team’s temperature each morning (and also offers this system as its product to other companies)
Applied VR has implemented a monthly Happiness Index survey to get a pulse on how people are doing and where they’re struggling
Directech Labs has an optional Monday Meditation session
Necessaire purchased Madefor boxes for its employees, and Toucan is allowing employees to expense teletherapy app subscriptions
Disqo and Tone Messaging have held virtual retreats with connection and teamwork at the heart of the objectives
This is part two of the findings from our EQ for Entrepreneurs Survey. Read part one and part three.
**we wrote this to spark a conversation about the importance of EQ in leadership and culture, please share feedback, insights, and /or best practices in the comments section.
About the Authors
Anna Barber
Anna is a partner at M13 and the head of M13’s Launchpad. She previously spent four years as the Managing Director of Techstars LA and is also a partner in The Fund LA, a pre-seed venture fund. A frequent speaker about the LA tech ecosystem and women in entrepreneurship, Anna’s mission is to work with diverse teams of founders to build world-changing companies. Her career has included stints as a corporate lawyer, McKinsey consultant, product executive, and entrepreneur in ed-tech, retail, and e-commerce. She’s also a certified executive coach. Anna graduated from Yale and Yale Law School and is a proud native New Yorker now happily #longLA.
Find her on Twitter @annawbarber and join M13’s founder's community here.
Robyn Ward
Robyn is a leadership and performance coach. Via her boutique coaching and training firm, FounderForward, she helps founders and startups reach their full potential. Over her startup career spanning more than 20 years — as an operator, investor, and now coach — she has worked with hundreds of leaders. Robyn is a frequent keynote and speaker on the topics of best-self leadership, the entrepreneurial mindset, and high-performing teams and cultures. She also co-teaches a “Performance Mindset for Business” course at her alma mater USC.
Find her on Twitter @rmward and join the FounderForward newsletter here.
Methodology: The EQ for Entrepreneurs survey was conducted by FounderForward from July to September 2020 among 105 founders. Respondents skewed toward the early stage, with roughly half leading companies at the pre-seed stage, and 35% in the seed through post-Series C stage. Research assistants Jama Mohamed and Oliver Hirshland contributed to this survey.
