What is Emotionally intelligent leadership:
“EQ is the dividing line. For the most successful people in any organization, technical skills get them in the door, but EQ enables them to go up the ladder.”
Emotionally intelligent leadership
Case Western Reserve University Alumnus credits social work education for his success in business
As principal of his Guttman Development Strategies, Howard Guttman (LYS ’76, SAS ’77) provides his clients - such as Mars Inc., GlaxoSmithKline and Walmart - guidance on team alignment, coaching, and development for leaders. Guttman emphasizes a a horizontal, high-performance organizational model which requires teams to work together—and relies on lessons Guttman learned as a student at Case Western Reserve University. Action magazine interviewed Guttman to learn how studying social work prepared him for the corporate consulting space.
EQ is the dividing line. For the most successful people in any organization, technical skills get them in the door, but EQ enables them to go up the ladder.”
What led you to CWRU?
I was in the nonprofit world. I wanted to get a master’s in library science because libraries serve as a base for community development. After a couple of library science courses, I realized it wasn’t a great fit, but still wanted to work with communities.
I proposed a dual degree with the School of Information and Library Science and the School of Applied Social Sciences. In the end, I never did anything with libraries, but being able to assess needs, understand data collection and contract with clients has served me my entire career.
How does a social work degree prepare someone for the business world?
A greater sense of process and assessing individuals. Most who come out of business schools and into consulting are one-dimensional.
Process and facilitation skills, understanding of dynamics, and a systems approach are huge differentiators.
How do social work graduates bring emotional intelligence to a business?
Trying to create high-performance, horizontal organizations, it’s an emotional quotient (EQ) game. It presumes people have technical competence—finance people understand numbers, human resources people understand talent acquisition - but that’s not the game. It’s having emotional intelligence to understand how you impact people. Most people who don’t make it don’t fail because they’re not good technically, but because they’re not able to build and
sustain organizational support for themselves.
EQ is the dividing line.
For the most successful people in any organization, technical skills get them
in the door, but EQ enables them to go up the ladder.
What’s one challenge you overcame for which your social work background
equipped you?
A CEO felt discomfort regarding a particular business situation. His concern started to reflect feelings of self-doubt he’s had for a long time versus the presenting issue. I thought back to when I worked at Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center or practicums with women in need. It’s the same skills, except he happens to be a CEO of a multibillion-dollar company versus a mother struggling to pay for her kids.
You’re still trying to tap into core emotional issues. In the corporate world, many times there is a facade people have because they don’t want to demonstrate that vulnerability.
Written by Lauren Dangel