Elephants Before Unicorns: Emotionally Intelligent HR Strategies to Save Your Company

by Caroline Stokes, Darrell West (Foreword by)

Overview

How do you hire, onboard, and retain a great team?

You start by viewing your company through the EQ lens to discover your organizational obstacles—the elephants standing in the way of your company's success.

Headhunter and executive coach Caroline Stokes delivers a blend of recruiting and emotional intelligence strategies essential to helping you identify and tackle your elephants and acquire and retain key hires—those unicorns—that will help your company stand out, stay resilient, and drive growth.

Each chapter walks you through an organizational obstacle, gives you easy-to-implement advice, unpacks a key emotional intelligence factor, and offers questions for reflection so you can unlock your team's ability to hire the best candidates for the job. You'll also learn how to:

• Take a human-centric approach to your recruiting process
• Create an onboarding process that fits your company culture
• Deliver honest feedback with emotional intelligence and empathy
• Sharpen your negotiating skills so you can focus on what matters most to key hires
• Break your team's addiction to busy and reclaim your creativity
• Find the root cause of your fake unicorns

Plus, get an inside look at how industry leaders are setting the pace for diversity, inclusion, and support to help you navigate today's workplace landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781599186580
Publisher:	Entrepreneur Press
Publication date:	09/24/2019
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Caroline Stokes is a human capital entrepreneur helping everyone move forward in the 4th industrial revolution. She founded FORWARD executive headhunting and executive coaching company designed for global innovation leaders and hosts The Emotionally Intelligent Recruiter podcast and learning platform to help recruiters evolve in the AI age.

Table of Contents

Foreword Darrell M. West xv

Introduction xxi

Emotional Intelligence: The Better Way xxii

Top Talent Will Make Your Company Resilient xxiv

Who This Book Is For xxvi

How to Use This Book xxvii

Chapter 1 Defining Emotional Intelligence 1

The Five Components of Emotional Intelligence 3

View Your Company Through the EQ Lens 6

Chapter 2 Discover Your Elephants: Workplace Diagnostic 9

Workplace Elephants: A Diagnostic 11

Chapter 3 Elephant: Your Hiring Process Is Too Fast 17

Manage Stress and Enlist Help 19

Why "Go with Your Gut" Isn't Good Enough 20

Ask References the Hard Questions, Then Listen (Really Listen) 22

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 24

Questions for Reflection 25

Chapter 4 Elephant: No One Likes Your Recruiters 27

How the Recruiting Landscape Has Changed-And How It Hasn't 29

The Recruiting Dance 30

How to Not Unconsciously Drive Your Best People Away 32

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 34

Questions for Reflection 36

Chapter 5 Elephant: Your Recruiters Don't Know Their "Why" 37

Finding My Own Why 38

The Recruiter Satisfaction Gap 40

Lagging Satisfaction Leads to Lagging Development 41

What Recruiters Can Learn from Agile Methodology 42

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 44

Questions for Reflection 45

Chapter 6 Elephant: Your Employer Brand Isn't Compelling 47

The Words You Use Define You 49

Case Study: How Redefining Your Employer Brand and Its Language Can Change Everything 50

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 51

Questions for Reflection 52

Chapter 7 Elephant: Your Onboarding Process Is Outdated and Impersonal 53

What If Onboarding Were Fun? 54

Tips for a Less Painful Onboarding Process 55

Best Practices for Onboarding 58

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 59

Questions for Reflection 60

Chapter 8 Elephant: You Don't Know How to Give and Receive Effective Feedback 63

Why the Feedback Sandwich Is Hard to Swallow 64

Trust: The First Building Block of Effective Feedback 65

How to Gain Integrity When Giving Feedback 65

Case Study: How Creating a "Self-User Manual" Can Position Your Teams for Success 69

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 71

Questions for Reflection 72

Chapter 9 Elephant: Your Employees Are Disengaged 75

The Company "Why" Drives Employee Engagement 76

See the Whole Person 77

Drive Engagement with a Growth Mindset 81

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 83

Questions for Reflection 84

Chapter 10 Elephant: Your Workplace Isn't Safe for All Employees 87

What All Leaders Should Ask Themselves 88

Recruit Diverse Unicorns, Then Aim for True Inclusion 90

How Organizations Become More Inclusive 92

Case Study: What We Can Learn from Google 93

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 94

Questions for Reflection 95

Chapter 11 Elephant: You're Cagey About Negotiation 97

How Negotiation Can Be a Win-Win 99

Don't Leave Your Would-Be Unicorns Hanging 101

Money Isn't Everything 101

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 102

Questions for Reflection 103

Chapter 12 Elephant: You and Your Key Hires Don't Receive Coaching 105

Everyone Needs a Coach 106

Case Study: Tom and the Looming Culture Clash 107

Beware Unconscious Incompetency 108

Coaching: A Safe Space for Professional Growth 109

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 111

Questions for Reflection 112

Chapter 13 Elephant: You're Addicted to Busy 115

Break Your Busyness Addiction and Reclaim Your Creativity 116

Strategies for Breaking Your Busyness Addiction 118

Float Sessions: My Favorite Mind Cleanser 119

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 120

Questions for Reflection 121

Chapter 14 Elephant: You Need to Re-Skill Your Teams-But How? 123

Before You Decide to Re-Skill Your Team 124

Getting Buy-In from Your Teams 126

Technologies That Can Take You to the Next Level 127

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 131

Questions for Reflection 132

Chapter 15 Elephant: You Resist Emerging Work Trends 133

Seven Emerging Work Trends You Should Be Paying Attention To 134

Creating the Workplace of the Future 140

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 141

Questions for Reflection 142

Chapter 16 Elephant: You Keep Attracting Fake Unicorns 143

Recruiting Problem? First, Look in the Mirror 144

Put Yourself in Your New Recruits' Shoes 150

Case Study: Finding the Perfect Mix of Unicorns 151

The Emotional Intelligence Factor 153

Questions for Reflection 154

Chapter 17 A Better Way to Handle Your Elephants 155

Institutional Caring 156

What a Strong Mission Can Look Like 159

People First 160

Chapter 18 Where We're Heading 163

Artificial Intelligence: Neither Good Nor Bad 164

The Future Is What You Make It 165

Acknowledgments 167

About the Author 169

Index 171

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"More money goes into bureaucratizing the workforce than inspiring the millions of people who turn up to work hoping to be able to do a good job each day. If more organizations paid attention to the lessons of this book, they would find both their work and their lives transformed."
—Margaret Heffernan, CEO and author of Willful Blindness

"In Elephants Before Unicorns, Caroline Stokes does an enlightening job of bringing emotional intelligence to the hiring, onboarding, engaging, developing, and leading aspects of people in organizations. Starting from her own frustration in big brand organizations, she followed her heart to discover the magic of what makes great organizations so special. There’s a lot you can use here to help transform your organization for the better. And it might save you some of the frustrations Caroline went through to get there."
—Steven J. Stein, founder and executive chairman of Multi-Health Systems, coauthor of The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success and The EQ Leader

"In the advent of AI and robotics, fears abound about the future of work. Drawing on her vast experience as a business coach, Caroline cuts through the doom and gloom and offers an uplifting view of the next industrial revolution. In this informed, practical guide she demonstrates how tackling “elephants” or oft-invisible obstacles, while developing emotional intelligence is critical to success in an AI future. I recommend her book to people leaders who want to lean into their power and shape a future-forward workforce."
—Christopher Young, VP of Entertainment Creation Products Autodesk

"Want to get ahead in the talent wars? In Elephants Before Unicorns, Caroline Stokes has created a wise, practical success manual for modern leaders. If you seek to build talented teams—and ensure your organization thrives in the age of AI—pick up this book now."
—Dorie Clark, author of Entrepreneurial You and Stand Out, and adjunct professor Duke UniversityFuqua School of Business

"Caroline Stokes’ Elephants Before Unicorns is a must-read for business leaders. What worked for companies in the past will not work for forward-thinking organizations hoping to attract and retain the superstars of tomorrow. With humor and heart, Caroline brings her experience to bear in sharing how companies can win the war for talent and thrive in the AI age."
—Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times bestselling author of Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

"With Elephants Before Unicorns, Caroline Stokes brings her years of experience, emotional intelligence and must-learn lessons for business giants. In a time where hiring the right players for your team has never been more important, this book has the winning formula for any and every hiring decision. I recommend you ride this wave with Caroline and watch the magic happen."
—Ian Curran, president and COO of Sega of America

Elephants Before Unicorns is a must-read for organizational leaders, from CEOs to stressed-out recruiters. When it comes to transforming the how and why your organization finds talent, every organization has problem areas holding us back from potential greatness. Caroline does a wonderful job of helping us discover and address these elephants in our own organizations so we can all thrive!
—Tim Sackett, president of HRU Technical Resources author of The Talent Fix

"A mindful organization starts with mindful leaders. Elephants Before Unicorns is an invaluable resource for leaders who want to evolve their companies’ emotional intelligence and create a happier workplace for their teams."
—Jacqueline Carter, partner at Potential Project International and author of The Mind of the Leader: How to Lead Yourself, Your People and Your Organization for Extraordinary Results