Ego vs. EQ: How Top Leaders Beat 8 Ego Traps With Emotional Intelligence

by Jen Shirkani

Overview

In EGO vs. EQ, Jen Shirkani shares strategies for using emotional intelligence (EQ) as a tool to avoid career derailment. The executive leadership failure rate is high: two in five CEOs fail in the first 18 months on the job. This book teaches you how to identify the most common reasons for leadership ineffectiveness, and provides tools to raise your EQ, prevent leadership lapses, and avoid the cascading consequences they can produce. Drawing on real-life anecdotes from the author's 20 years of coaching and consulting, including stories of success and failure from the leaders of vanguard companies in energy, investment, and health care industries, Ego vs. EQ provides research and case study examples in an easy to read, practical format and is ideal for anyone currently in an executive leadership role, including business owners, and those wanting to become a dynamic leader in the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937134761
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/05/2013
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jen Shirkani, founder and CEO of the Penumbra Group, has more than 20 years of experience as a learning and development specialist and executive coach. As a sought-after speaker, she provides insight into human dynamics in a humorous and engaging way. Jen has worked with organizations from the Fortune 50 ($40B) to family-owned entities, and specializes in the application of emotional intelligence. Her corporate career includes learning and development roles at specialty retailer Nordstrom, Select Comfort (the Sleep Number Bed), and Bergen Brunswig (Good Neighbor Pharmacy pharmaceutical distributor). She holds a masters degree in Organizational Leadership and has also been certified in programs by Franklin Covey, Achieve Global, and the TRACOM Group. Her specialties include all aspects of talent management and on making common sense more common.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction The Eight Ego Traps xi

Ego Trap 1 Ignoring Feedback You Don't Like 1

Ego Trap 2 Believing Your Technical Skills Trump Your Leadership Skills 27

Ego Trap 3 Surrounding Yourself with More of You 43

Ego Trap 4 Not Letting Go of Control 63

Ego Trap B Being Blind to Your Downstream Impact 77

Ego Trap 6 Underestimating How Much You Are Being Watched 93

Ego Trap 7 Losing Touch with the Frontline Experience 111

Ego Trap 8 Relapsing Back to Your Old Ways 129

Conclusion 147

Appendix Identifying Your Ego Blind Spots 159

Endnotes 163

References 173

Index 177

About the Author 187

Editorial Reviews

As much as employees would like to speak freely to their CEOs, most bite their tongues and tell their leaders exactly what they want to hear. Shirkani, a longtime coach, consultant, and founder and CEO of the Penumbra Group, explores the blind spots that this lack of candor creates for CEOs and the eight ensuing “ego traps” that hinder their performance. The remedy for such traps is emotional intelligence (EQ), “the capacity for self-awareness, empathy, social skills, and self-regulation”—a skill set that CEOs must possess to succeed and thrive. EQ counters such ego-driven problems as ignoring feedback you don’t like, not relinquishing control, and underestimating how much you are being watched. The author helps readers break free of these traps, and she closes each chapter with three actionable R’s (recognize, read, and respond), which help develop new EQ-based behavior. She also explores other traps, such as believing that technology skills trump leadership skills, or falling back into old bad habits. Shirkani’s examples effectively show that even the most successful executives fall victim to ego traps. By embracing their EQ, company leaders can avoid the isolation pitfalls that hinder successful management careers. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly