Business Coach Emphasizes Soft Skills to Improve Performance

It’s not how smart you are; it’s how connected you are. The business coaching industry is increasingly looking at developments in the understanding of peak performance to help leaders and managers develop their skills. Valedictorians and technical experts are toppling from their pedestals as a large amount of research confirms a new formula for stardom in the workplace. The qualities of EQ, or one’s “emotional intelligence quotient,” turns out to be twice as important as IQ or technical expertise in determining who will succeed in the workplace.

Categorized as “soft skills,” the structure of the EQ powerhouse includes objective self-awareness, effective self-management, and the use of social/communication skills that help facilitate understanding and collaboration with others. In Working with Emotional Intelligence, author Daniel Goleman confirms the importance of EQ with an exhaustive review of research on top-ranked managers throughout the business world. Outcomes show conclusively that those with higher EQ consistently surpassed colleagues with deficits in “soft skills,” despite the presence of superior IQ and technical expertise among the latter.

Since these skills are not commonly addressed in formal education, their development is arbitrary for many. Fortunately, there are solutions. WealthBridge Connect, an elearning company that focuses on productivity solutions for businesses and entrepreneurs, focuses their training programs around EQ development in today’s workplace. Co-founder and Chief Learning Officer, Dr. J. Gregory Gillum, launched his personal journey of self-discovery through the coaching process, and it changed the course of his professional life. Recalling the moment of self-awareness, Gillum remembers looking at his business coach as he said, “I want to do what you do.” His coach responded, “Why don’t you?” Eight months later, Gillum became an entrepreneur in the coaching world. Prior to his role at WealthBridge Connect, Dr. Gillum served as the Chief Executive Officer of humanfusion, an award winning coaching and consulting firm that focused on leadership and management development.

Gillum’s mission as a business coach involves teaching the skills of EQ to individuals aspiring to realize their full potential. His ideas follow the findings of Goleman’s research: “If you can develop core competencies in this area, you will enhance your ability to rise in any organization.” Gillum’s unique approach to EQ training utilizes the integration of EQ into the four life domains, all of which are essential to success. Taken together, they encompass elements such as the organization of physical space, time management, effective focus, an objective awareness of strengths and limitations, and the cultivation of a sense of gratitude and accountability to the community and world at large. Gillum reports that as clients began to practice the disciplines within each domain, they experience a powerfully expanded sense of vision and possibility.

Gillum enthusiastically describes transformative outcomes with the coaching process. In addition to enhanced self-awareness and expanded vision, clients can anticipate dramatic increases in productivity. “I coached a group of realtors, and every top performer dramatically increased their productivity during the coaching process. One first-year real estate agent landed in the top 25 (of over 300) for her geographic area. She was astounded,” Gillum said. “I have had similar success with financial planners, small business owners and other entrepreneurs. Coaching has a dramatic impact on performance in any field.”

Gillum addresses the area of management with a technique he learned in the pharmaceutical industry called assimilation, an intervention designed for managers with work performance problems. The initial steps involve individual sessions with the manager and interviews with workplace associates who can provide additional perspective on the problem. The coaching strategy culminates in a powerful, live version of the 360 evaluation in which all parties involved in the problem assemble together. With the support of the coach, the manager must decide how to handle issues concerning employees and workplace issues. Gillum summarizes the benefits of this high-impact learning experience: “It creates public accountability and also requires everyone’s participation in getting to solutions. The manager’s performance improves, and the resulting ‘buy-in’ strengthens the sense of community.”

A critical part of the coaching experience is client behavioral assessment. To address this critical success factor, Gillum uses the Winslow Dynamics Profile (WDP), thought to be the gold standard of assessments by behavioral psychologists worldwide. WDP measures 24 critical traits, including the individual’s emotional intelligence. WealthBridge Connect is one of the few companies in the Midwest licensed to use the WDP.

Apart from his own passion for the work of WealthBridge Connect, Gillum is confident about the future of coaching. “Coaching is rapidly being legitimized in the business literature, as well as through personal and organizational validation with objective outcomes. Rapid changes in the workplace will necessitate the need for coaching as we move deeper into the information age, with knowledge workers becoming more in demand. The new work environment will require a visionary style of management, which gives employees permission to explore, question, and participate in the development of their own potential, and to contribute meaning and significance to the mission of their organizations.”

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Dr. Gillum is the Chief Learning Officer of WealthBridge Connect, Inc. As CLO, his primary role is managing the universe of information that WealthBridge members use to drive their business to new heights. He lives with his wife and two children on a farm in central Kentucky.