By: Joshua Finley

It could be argued that business evolves much like a living organism. Like any organism, a business strives for greater efficiencies to outcompete its rivals. The search for efficiency has spawned various theories aimed at optimizing output, including treating employees as units of production.

One of the popular theories is Scientific Management (or Taylorism), which gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It emphasizes efficiency, standardization, and productivity, treating workers as interchangeable parts. Henry Ford famously applied Taylor’s principles to the assembly line for manufacturing automobiles. Workers were treated as cogs in a machine and found the extreme specialization and repetitive tasks alienating, reducing job satisfaction and making them feel dehumanized.

Thankfully business gurus have recognized that employees are not simply units, they are human beings and perform at their full potential when their emotions are taken into account.

One leadership guru who champions a more holistic view of employee motivation is Christie Kerner. 

Christie holds a Master’s in Management and Leadership and is the founder of the Modern Leadership Academy, where she empowers others to lead their team to success. With over 30 years of experience in leadership and company building, she has a proven track record of transforming concepts into multimillion-dollar ventures, scaling global teams, and guiding leaders in enterprises with thousands of employees. 

Her expertise spans advising both startups and established organizations on growth strategies at all stages while maintaining a people-centric approach.

The Value of Emotional Intelligence

Kerner believes that helping leaders grow their emotional intelligence and business skills will allow them to live a more energized, happy, and fulfilled life, and become leaders of teams that are more strategically focused, more motivated and more in tune with a company vision. The results of her six-step mentoring and coaching approach have empowered leaders to get the most from their sales teams – and supercharged their sales funnels. 

Emotional intelligence (EI or EQ) is the ability to recognize, understand, manage, and influence emotions—both your own and those of others. It encompasses key traits like self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. These qualities enhance decision-making, leadership, teamwork, and communication, making emotional intelligence essential for success in both personal and professional life.

“Emotional intelligence is an essential part of the leader’s toolkit because it profoundly influences everything we do. It’s a mindset that enables individuals to be more aware and empathetic toward those around them, fostering actions and interactions that are more meaningful and beneficial. If organizations are to get the most from their sales teams, emotional intelligence is essential,” says Kerner.

The Six Steps to EQ-Driven Success

One of the challenges of applying the theory of emotional intelligence to a business setting is how to coach or mentor senior leadership in a way that is structured and focused on actionable outcomes. Kerner has distilled her approach into six steps that are designed to provide leaders with the EQ skills they need to get the most out of their sales teams.

• Session 1: The coach listens to the client’s story and goals to understand their journey and aspirations, helping to create a personalized success plan.

• Session 2: The coach helps uncover the client’s unconscious motivators, empowering them to overcome negative self-talk and build a strong foundation for guiding others.

• Session 3: The client will identify their ‘zone of genius’ (or area of mastery)  and plan to maximize focus within it, learning effective delegation to enhance their capacity.

• Session 4: Together, the coach and client will co-create a simple action plan that sets clear accountability and outlines steps for powerful change.

• Session 5: This session focuses on long-term change strategies, allowing the client to address imposter syndrome (Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern where individuals doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud, despite evidence of their competence and success) and bridge the gap between their current and desired state.

• Session 6: After establishing a strong foundation in emotional intelligence, the client will focus on developing their team members, and preparing for sustained leadership success.

According to Kerner, this approach is designed to explore facets of the client’s emotions and psychological motivators in a way that is both approachable and sensitive to the time constraints of leaders.

“We’re living in a business environment that is characterized by speed and nimbleness. During my 30 years of immersing myself in the challenges that business leaders face, there are two that stand out. The first is that executives are time-poor and the second is that they want results.”

With numerous successes under her belt, Kerner’s approach is one that simply works. It enables leaders to compartmentalize their approach to growing their emotional intelligence and avoid the pitfalls of sidelining other strategic concerns. It’s a scaffolding approach that will provide leaders with the emotional tools and strategic plan they need to take sales teams to the next level.

According to the 2023 World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs’ report, qualities associated with EQ such as curiosity, resilience, motivation and a commitment to lifelong learning and self-awareness are increasingly recognized as essential business skills. These foundational skills are the key to unlocking the sometimes latent potential of any sales team.

According to Kerner, “The business world is changing at a speed that was unthinkable only a few decades ago. Research has suggested that EQ can be the key to success in an ultra-competitive business environment, and I’m focused on providing leaders with the tools they need to take their organizations and themselves to a whole new level.” 

This is just a sneak preview into the foundational kickoff of working with a modern leadership coach. To learn more about leadership and how you can get coached by Christie Kerner, founder of the Modern Leadership Academy, visit christiekerner.com or her LinkedIn page.

Published by: Nelly Chavez