We are at a crossroads...EI and AI, emotional intelligence and artificial intelligence. As AI shifts into warp speed, are we leaving behind the human element so important to sustained success. This is a challenge for every leader across all industries.

Let's take a look at how we can bring these together to find new horizons of success and satisfaction.

>> Steve: Welcome to the EQFIT podcast. Our

mission is to equip people to prosper

in every aspect of their life, whether

you're at home or in the workplace. We

explore practical ways of improving

success, satisfaction,

finding balance, and building enjoyable

and beneficial relationships. Thank you

for joining us.

Happy New Year. This is the first

episode of 2025.

We're in a new year, and I'm excited about

that.

let me give you a little insight

into where the whole podcast is

going this year. It's going

toward mindset,

it's going toward leadership and

leadership skills. It's going

toward this combination

of, advancements in technology and

advancements in what we understand about our

brain. So neuroscience, emotional

intelligence, and that's where I really want to start.

Today is

the crossroads of emotional

intelligence and artificial intelligence

in leadership. So I'm kind of combining

several things at once here, but I think it's an

important focus. Focus.

I'm very excited. I spent a

full day with my good friend Dr.

Chuck Coker from Life Thrive

on Monday of last week.

I spent the full day videoing

a brand new course, and it's going to be

called the Art of

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership.

And it covers a lot of the things that

I want to bring into this

focus today, which is how

do we juggle our

advances in technology with

the human dynamic that is always there

in a leadership role? And I'm

excited about that new course. It'll come out

sometime very soon, I'm

hoping the first quarter of

2025, and we'll make that available

to anybody who's interested. And here's

why it's so important, because

there's some secret

sauce in all of that. We have

integrated some things into that course

that nobody else has, and

it focuses on how to become

an emotionally intelligent leader

while still managing all of the different

challenges that we face as leaders

today. Well, let's dive into this

episode and really look at

where are we with the crossroads of

emotional intelligence and artificial intelligence

when it comes to leadership

and leadership impact?

Well, in leadership,

these two things seem to be at opposite

ends, don't they? They seem to be very

different, but the reality is

they are converging in a very

profound and transformational way.

Leaders today have to navigate

complex emotional

landscapes while leveraging

advanced technologies to drive their

success and the success of their team.

And all of that starts within

the leader themselves. And that's where

the emotional intelligence is so critical.

It's very difficult to

leverage technology when you

can't focus, when you can't

access your higher thinking skills.

And that's what happens with people who

don't have good emotional

intelligence skills or they're under

such pressure that they

just are continually triggered with

strong emotions. So that's what I want

to dive into and talk about. This

intersection of EI Emotional

intelligence and AI artificial

intelligence and how it presents a unique

opportunity for leaders to enhance their

effectiveness, how it can foster

innovation and how it can create

meaningful connections. No

matter how good your technology is,

at the end of every bit of technology is a

human being. And if we can't,

as leaders, leverage both

the technology and

the emotional environment to bring

those together for success, then we're

never going to reach our

capacity when it comes to potential success.

Well, let's focus in for a minute on.

I just want to share my experience.

When artificial intelligence first became

available. I looked at it somewhat

skeptically. I mean, the term

artificial is in the word artificial

intelligence. So you know, I thought, yeah, I don't know

about this, but I have to be honest with you,

I have found it to be a very

useful tool. Here's what

I want to say about using artificial

intelligence as a tool. It isn't

going to give you all of the answers and it isn't going to give

you all of the right answers. But what it

can do is it can take your

input and it can

polish it. It can bring in insights and

information from other areas. It can give you real

time insights. There are many things

that artificial intelligence can do

to enhance, and that's the key

word, enhance our

success individually as

a, as a

individual contributor, as a

leader, as even an owner of an

organization. There are so many

things that we can do with artificial

intelligence and we're seeing it everywhere

now. But the key here is don't

forget the human dynamic. No matter

how good the technology is,

it's built for us as

people. So

the m. Next thing I want to share with you

is critical because

how do we blend this? That's really what this comes down

to. You think about a

crossroads. A crossroads.

You could go left, you could go right, or

you could go straight ahead. Well, I

want to combine

the left direction, which

is artificial intelligence, and the right

direction, which is emotional intelligence. I want

to kind of bring those together so I can keep moving

forward with those

things in parallel. And that's

what we're going to introduce today. And

it's what I will continue to talk about

throughout 2025 and probably

beyond. Because it is so important

for us to stay

up to date and enhance our

skills. Enhance our knowledge, keep a

growth mindset with both

technology and with the human

dynamic side of being a good

leader.

So let's first look

at the emotional intelligence

aspects.

I think it's helpful if we just step back for

a second and get a general

idea of how are we

defining these things. So let's start with

emotional intelligence, which is the ability to

recognize, understand and manage

your own emotions while

influencing others, understanding what they're going

through, their perspectives. It is the

cornerstone of effective

leadership. Really, just

about every soft skill

has a foundation in emotional intelligence

competencies. If we understand

that, then we don't have to worry so

much about building out the

34 to, 40 soft skills

that have been identified. We can focus

on one skill set, which is

emotional intelligence, and then we can

develop that so that

organically those soft skills

improve. And that's what I'm talking about

when it comes to leveraging

emotional intelligence. and it is the

foundation. Now, you may decide,

as in construction. If you're building a house,

you pour a foundation. Whatever you build

on that foundation is really up to you.

You get to decide what that looks like.

You get to decide if you want this

material or that material. Well, in leadership,

it's the same thing. What, what soft skills do

you want to create in yourself? What

skills do you want to develop? What

processes, what procedures,

what kinds of communications, what types

of interactions? How do you build

connection? How do you build trust? There are

so many different elements to leadership.

So everybody's house may look a little

different, and there's nothing wrong with that.

But at the foundation

is a set of skills that will either

support that house, that leadership,

extremely well, or,

unfortunately, it may crumble. And we

see that a lot when we see burnout with leaders,

when we see people promoted into

leadership that are not given the equipping and the

training and the skills that they need to be

successful in that leadership role.

Well, now that we understand

how important emotional intelligence is,

we're combining some things

here. Dr. Chuck Coker from Life

Thrive, myself, and the founder

of EQ Fit. We have come together

and brought our 75 plus

years of experience in

leadership development to

helping people become the very best

leaders they can be. And a big part of

that is understanding people.

It's the human dynamic.

So the keys to

emotional intelligence competencies

are self awareness,

self regulation, empathy,

intrinsic motivation, and social skills.

Those are the five big competencies of

emotional intelligence. Now what do they

do? How is that important to

us as a leader? Well,

one of the biggest ones is build Trust and

rapport with your team members and with other

people. You influence your peers and even

your supervisors. It helps you to

navigate challenging interpersonal

dynamics with grace

so that you handle those things. And you look

like you're calm and collected,

which you should be. With the right development

of these skills, you should be

calm under pressure, even

when deadlines are coming, when things look

like they're not going to happen.

How do you choose to operate? Do you

fall back on skills like this that

really help you manage that and navigate that

well, or do you flounder?

Unfortunately, today we see a lot of leaders that are

floundering. I see this on Reddit

all the time. I'm on the social

media, channel of Reddit, and I am

on several different, Reddit,

there specifically, the one on leadership is the one I'm

thinking of. And what I see there is a lot of people

asking, hey, I just got promoted, you

know, really good in this tech stuff that I do. And now

I'm a leader of a team or a group or

whatever. I don't know how to become a good leader. How

do I lead people? This

is very, very typical. It's just like

the old thing where people took their

top salesperson and promoted them to be a sales

manager and basically ruin two

different roles at the same time. And I don't.

When I say ruin, there's no judgment there. It's just

simply because you're good

at one thing does not mean you're

going to be good at leading that thing.

Because leadership is all about getting things done through other

people. And there's a lot of effort and

energy and a different set of

skills that goes into that. You can't

just be an

exceptional individual performer

as a leader. You have to be a mentor and

a coach. You have to get things done through other people.

You have to build connections, build trust. You

have to have influence. You

have to understand the different

dynamics at work. And that is

where Chuck and I have come together

and created this new

course called the Art

of Emotionally Intelligent

Leadership, because it isn't taught

anywhere and that we knew this was a huge

gap. I'm very excited about the

opportunity to share that with as many people

as possible. Because what it's going to do is

it's going to remove a lot of

the frustrations and fears

and anxieties and

stressors that a lot of leaders

have. Even seasoned leaders

still struggle with a lot of these things. Well, if we can

remove those by a set of

skills that really

facilitate an accelerated

success model, for leadership, why not

do that? Right. Would you not

go out and buy the right set of tools

to fix the thing you want to fix or

to make it better? Of course you would. That's the way we

do things. So the next

thing that emotional

intelligence can do for a leader is it

inspires and motivates teams

toward common goals. How do we

set shared goals?

How do we create a culture of shared

values that is so critical to

leadership? And then we can also

adapt to rapidly changing

environments with resilience.

This is one of the most

important things that emotional

intelligence will do for a leader and for their

team. Because we don't want to just raise

the emotional intelligence of the leader,

we want to raise it of the entire team.

To do that, we will

become more agile, more

resilient, and that is going to give

you a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

So we know research

consistently demonstrates the link

between emotional intelligence and leadership success.

The higher your emotional intelligence,

the greater your chance of success as a

leader. Leaders with high EI

are better equipped to foster psychological

safety, drive employee engagement

and create cultures of innovation. Those

are three big

KPIs when it comes to leadership.

Now let's switch to artificial intelligence.

And yes, we're still on the definitions,

but just to give you some flavor and some

color behind why all of this is

important. Artificial intelligence,

with its capacity to analyze vast

amounts of data and identify

patterns, offers unparalleled

tools for decision making,

operational efficiencies and

strategic planning. Terrific.

Right? And by the way, when it comes

to emotional intelligence, we know that

artificial intelligence is data, ah, driven, but

so is emotional intelligence. I have

several different types of

assessments, one that we've created

ourselves between Chuck and myself,

that help people see their emotional

intelligence in a data driven

format so they understand what are the strengths,

where are the gaps, where do we need to work on

to improve our skills?

So when we think of artificial intelligence and

what it can bring to us, AI,

technologies like predictive analytics,

natural language processing, machine

learning, they are reshaping

entire industries. How is that

happening? Well, better data, better

decisions, right? It's going to enhance

decision making through real time

insights. It's automating repetitive

tasks, it's freeing leaders to focus on

strategic initiatives. And it's also

going to free leaders up to spend more

time building connection and trust so they

have greater influence, which is the whole emotional

intelligence side. This is where EI

and AI start to come together and

they can identify workforce trends and

optimize team performance. AI is going to

be a wonderful tool I'm already using it.

I'm enjoying the use of it. It's helping

me get my experience,

knowledge, my skills,

available to more people, but also just

provide better information, better insights

for people. And it's allowing

me to take this data driven

approach to human dynamics. All of the

different assessments that I do, it's helping

me bring those together in a way that is so much more

impactful. So

the integration of AI into leadership

is not without its challenges. And we know that

you probably already experienced it.

There's ethical considerations, there's data

privacy, and there is potential

for dehumanization,

which requires leaders to balance

technological advancement

with human centric values.

This is where we've got to bring

EI and AI together

to really have the success we want as leaders.

Okay, let's do that. Let's actually

start to pull EI and

AI together so that they're

working together instead of working

at, at differing places as

pulling apart. No, we don't want that. We

want pulling together. So

how do we do that? Well, at, the crossroads

of EI and AI, leaders

find a powerful synergy that

amplifies their impact. So here's

some key areas we can focus on. We've already

talked about number one, which is enhanced

decision making. AI can provide

leaders with data driven insights, but

it is emotional intelligence that enables leaders

to interpret these insights with empathy

and wisdom and bring that into their

team. For example, predictive

analytics may identify employee burnout

risks, but an emotionally intelligent leader

uses this information to engage

employees with care and implement

supportive measures. Number

two, personalized leadership

AI tools can analyze individual team

members, work patterns, their preferences,

feedback, which enables leaders to

tailor their approach. When you

combine that with empathy and

social skills from emotional intelligence,

leaders can create personalized development

plans that resonate deeply

with each individual. As

demonstrated in my work with

personalized assessments and coaching,

a leader can get the same kind

of impact if they

leverage these tools that I get when I do

this with my clients. Number

three, building resilient teams.

AI can monitor team dynamics and flag

potential conflicts or

inefficiencies. Leaders with strong

EI skills can use this information

to mediate conflicts

constructively, fostering

collaboration and psychological safety.

The Life Thrive habit story

assessment model is a valuable

tool in this context.

Now I want to take a minute and talk about

that. The habit Story comes

from a company called two Story. So Life

Thrive and EQ fit. Where Chuck and I

coming together and kind of merging

our efforts and our experience, we

are leveraging this habit story assessment

which is Going to have AI components.

There's going to be an AI coach

for that. And that is the

type of benefit you can

get by when bringing

that, by bringing AI

and EI together around a

very, very practical

and very impactful

approach to understanding productive and

counterproductive habits. When you can

do that, it really

accelerates the understanding

and insight that you can

gain. And then what do you do with

that? Well, you can literally

create very

customized development processes

for individuals, including yourself as a

leader. So this whole

concept of using

AI and EI together, the

habit story assessment that we use from Two

Story, it does exactly that

and it is incredibly impactful.

Honestly, it would take me

two, no, probably three or

four different assessments

to get the same

approximate information that I get

out of the one assessment, which is called habit

story. Measuring someone's productive and

counterproductive habits, their response patterns and

their emotional state. And it's

incredibly valid and

it's powerful. I'm using it right now with several

different clients. Why do I spend some time talking

about that? I, want you to see

how we literally can bring AI and

EI together in a very

useful way for leaders and for

their teams. The fourth is Driving

innovation. Innovation thrives at the

intersection of technology and human

creativity. AI can identify

trends and suggest solutions,

while EI enables leaders to inspire

their people, manage resistance,

manage and navigate conflict for good

outcomes, and cultivate a culture of

curiosity and innovation.

And boy, do we want that as leaders.

And then number five, ethical

leadership. AI brings ethical

dilemmas that demand emotionally

intelligent leadership. So in

essence, you have checks and balances

here with both of these.

AI keeps you on track with the data and

the information and the trends. EI

keeps you on track morally, ethically

and in a values driven

basis. So leaders need to

navigate decisions about data,

use. Algorithmic biases

and the human impact of automation.

Self awareness and empathy are critical in

ensuring ethical considerations that

align with organizational values.

This is a lot to take in, but I want

to give you a primer on this because we're going to

unpack this as we move through the

rest of this year and who knows,

maybe into the future for quite a while.

So what are the practical applications for a

leader when we talk about these things?

Number one, leverage

assessments. Use

tools like the assessments that

I provide to my clients, especially the

emotional intelligence assessments or the leadership

360s that are based in

emotional intelligence. Use

these and that habit story

assessment to measure and develop

emotional intelligence competencies.

Remember, that is the

foundation for pretty much

every soft skill there is out there. What are soft

skills? They're everything from

communication to interactions to

work ethic, to the way

that we inspire and motivate and

encourage and exhort. And I mean, there's

just so many different soft skills,

but they come out of a set of

skills called emotional intelligence.

Embrace continuous learning. I can't

stress this one strongly enough.

Stay informed about AI advancements and how they

can complement human leadership. And I think

that's the key word. How can they complement

your leadership? Encourage teams to engage

in skill development that integrates

emotional and technological

competencies. Foster

collaboration. Create

interdisciplinary teams that blend technical

expertise with emotional intelligence.

This diversity of thought drives innovation and

balanced decision making. Balance is a

key word. there's two words I put

together a lot, boundaries

and balance. And that's embedded

throughout what I'm talking about today. Getting the right

balance is determined by the

boundaries that you set and how you

use the tools and the skills, the

knowledge and the experience that you have.

The next one. Prioritize humanity.

While AI can optimize

processes, maintain a focus

on the human element. Use emotional

intelligence to build

those connections and build that trust

so that you're getting authentic

relationships which will inspire

trust. It ensures technology

serves rather than replaces

the human connection.

Let me draw this kind of to a close here.

The crossroads of emotional

intelligence and artificial intelligence,

these two things coming together,

is really a new frontier in leadership.

We've got to find a way to balance

these and to balance them in a way

that gives us an advantage. It isn't just

about managing them, it

isn't just about surviving them.

How do we thrive under this?

By integrating the human centric

strengths of emotional intelligence with

the data driven power of artificial

intelligence, leaders can unlock

unparalleled potential in their

teams and frankly in

themselves. The frameworks and

tools offered by people

like life thrive, Dr. Coker and myself

at EQ Fed provide practical

pathways for leaders to

navigate this intersection with confidence and purpose.

Let me take a side light here for just a minute.

Does this sound promotional to you?

Well, yeah, it should

because I do want to promote what we do, but

probably not for the reasons most people

think. I promote it because I

see the benefit and the

positive transformation that happens when

I am able to work with people and

help them decode all of

this stuff that seems so fuzzy and so hard

to understand. Emotional intelligence,

the mindset, you know, growth

mindset versus fixed mindset,

organizational development, team development,

all of these things that you've got so

much coming at you from so many different

directions. It doesn't have to

be that complicated. There

is a pathway that leads to

productivity, performance, and

profit. And profit comes in

a variety of ways. It isn't just about

dollars. It's also about

culture. It's about a place you want to go

to work. It's about a team that you want to work

with. It's about leaders that are worth

following. That's what I'm talking

about. And that's why I'm so strong

in my passion

for sharing the kinds of things that

I do and that my strategic

partner, Chuck Coker, does. As I've

said, sometime in this new year,

probably very soon, we will release that

new course. And this is not a promotion for that.

I'm just letting you know there's a resource coming.

And when that comes, we will let you know about

that.

I would very much like to hear from people

about their challenges in leadership,

about what they see with artificial

intelligence, what they see with

emotional intelligence, and

what their questions are

around. How do you combine those

in a leadership role to really have

your optimal impact as a

leader? So feel free to comment

on this. Feel free to reach out

to us. Go, to our website,

eqfit.org and

send us a message. I would love to have a

conversation. Conversations don't cost

anything. I am more than happy to have

conversations with people about

what they're seeing, what their challenges

are, and what maybe some potential

solutions are. So as we

enter into this new year, let's start thinking

of a new mindset, because a new

mindset is going to allow us

to get new results and

better results in most cases.

Thank you for joining us for this episode.

If you have any questions about this week's

episode, or maybe a suggestion

for future episodes you'd like us to

explore, please contact us through our

website@eqfit.org

for more information and inspiration.

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and Youtube@eqfit.