“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Carl W. Buechner
Do nice people finish first or is it last?
Some recent research suggests that developing social skills and having accurate appraisal of our strengths and development areas might really pay off–really in dollars and cents.
Ten years after graduation, high-school students who had been rated as conscientious, collaborative and cooperative by their teachers were earning significantly more than classmates who had similar test scores but fewer social skills ($3,200 more yearly on average), according to Christy Lleras assistant professor of human and community development at the University of Illinois study ((Lleras, C. (2008). Do skills and behaviors in high school matter? The contribution of noncognitive factors in explaining differences in educational attainment and earnings. Social Science Research, 37, 888-902)).
The study analyzed data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, which followed a diverse group of 11,000 tenth graders for 10 year. The study tracked not only scores on standard achievement tests but teacher ratings on such qualities as the students’ work habits, their ability to relate well to peers (social skills), and their participation in extracurricular activities which indicates the ability to interact well with both students and adults. Indeed, social competence seems to help explain career success in these students.
Envisia Learning, Inc.  recently analyzed over 2,000 leaders who have taken our Emotional Intelligence View 360 (EIV360) that was designed to measure self-management, relationship management and communication skills. By comparing self to other ratings we can characterize leaders as being either accurate or inaccurate in seeing how others experience their interpersonal style and behavior. In fact, we describe three styles: 1) Overestimators (they rate themselves higher than others); 2) Underestimators (they rate themselves lower than others) and 3) Accurate Assessors (either seeing themselves as largely competent or not but at least aligned with how others experience them).
In our analysis we found that 41.7% would be characterized as “over estimators†with 12% having extremely elevated views of themselves relative to how others rate them (maybe they are right but the differences are approximately one standard deviation above the average self-other difference).
We tested (using a statistical test called Analysis of Variance) whether the direct reports who live day and night with their bosses would rate their overall emotional intelligence higher if they had a more accurate view of their strengths and development areas. So, we split the leaders into two groups based on the average self-manager differences: 1) Those who were “Overestimators†and 2) Those who were “Underestimators†and compared the ratings of EI by direct reports.
As expected, direct reports who worked for leaders who had self-enhanced views of their social skills rated them significantly lower (p = .03) compared to those who were more humble and realistic in their self-ratings. It would appear that the most emotionally intelligent leaders truly have a more realistic and accurate self-awareness and insight about their interpersonal competence.
It seems like people with social skills might actually have better capacity to navigate the interpersonal world…Maybe being nice really does pay off in the long run….Be well…
[tags]surveys, Envisia, Envisia learing, retention, talent management, engagement surveys, job satisfaction, worklife balance, job stress, emotional intelligence, competent jerks, stress, job burnout, leadership, heart disease, talent management, engagement, productivity, bad bosses, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack[/tags]
Ken Nowack
Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)
