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Emotional Intelligence For Consultants: How To Improve Your EQ (& Why It’s Important)

Most of the things you and I have been taught about entrepreneurship center on…

  • the hustle,
  • the grind,
  • the mental aptitude,
  • and having tenacious grit for both your goals and your growth.

Make no mistakes: these characteristics are necessary.

However, there is a growing amount of research that your emotional intelligence matters just as much as these characteristics — if not more.

In this article, you’ll learn all about emotional intelligence for consultants: what it is, why it’s important, and practical ways to improve yours.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize, understand, and control your own emotions. It’s also your ability to recognize and understand the emotions of others to better lead or affect change.

It’s about understanding that emotions drive behaviors, and behaviors drive outcomes (both the positive and negative ones).

As consultants, we are in the relationship business. The better we are at understanding our own emotions and the emotions of others, the better we’ll be at starting and developing relationships.

Why Is It Important For Success In Consulting?

If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that change is constantly happening. The emotions that follow will also continue to flow.

It’s in our ability to identify and regulate emotions in ourselves and in others. In doing so, we can adapt to changes more effectively, with less stress.

But what sort of tangible results can developing your EQ have in your consulting business?

A report by TalentSmart showed that more than 90% of top performers have a high EQ. Another study from The Hay Group shows that salespeople with a high EQ produce twice the revenue as those with average or below-average emotional intelligence scores.

Paying attention to — and being able to perceive -— the emotions of those around you gives you, the entrepreneurial consultant, the upper hand in business.

Take marketing, for instance. As a highly emotionally intelligent business owner, you are able to keep a pulse on your customer’s emotions, their feedback, and desired outcomes. You can quickly flex and adapt, delivering both what the customer needs and what they want. This results in a stronger connection and loyalty between you and your customer.

In sales, having higher emotional intelligence helps you better regulate your emotions. And this helps you stabilize negative emotions such as fear, anxiousness, or frustration, which can be quite common on tough sales calls. That ability to maintain your composure will also aid you when the going gets tough during difficult conversations and challenging times.

You’ll also build a stronger network due to your increased social skills. For you, that means better prospecting and more clients. Improving your interpersonal soft skills enable you to persuade and influence others. You’ll offer advice that people intuitively trust.

Why EQ Is More Important Than IQ

It’s not enough to just be book smart. A new entrepreneur who succeeded academically may find the world of business an uphill battle if they lack the “soft skills” connected to emotional intelligence.

Softer, more interpersonal skills such as…

  • cultivating healthy relationships,
  • moving through complex challenges,
  • and handling difficult conversations with more ease,

…are an indicator of performance and success — and are connected to those with a higher EQ.

In his book and subsequent articles dubbed, “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” Daniel Goleman states that only about 20% of our success comes from IQ, while the rest is correlated with our EQ.

Your IQ will help you get good grades and solve complex problems. But you need more than quick thinking to control your impulses, handle life’s stress, and communicate effectively with others. Those skills require EQ.

Emotional intelligence helps you with the biggest challenges of all: improving the way you perceive and handle life’s ups and downs.

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Consulting Intellectual Property: How To Sell, Rent, & License Your IP

If you’re a consultant, you’re sitting on a gold mine of opportunity.

In this article, I’m going to share some “shovels” with you that can help you to extract some of that gold — and open up new profit centers in your consulting business.

We call this the Ultimate Licensing Formula. It’s a six-step process that will help you sell, license, and rent your content to businesses of all sizes.

This formula will enable you to capitalize and monetize your IP: your intellectual property.

The Ultimate Licensing Formula looks like this:

  1. First is the possibility of licensing your most valuable IP to businesses of all sizes — and especially those that your content is suited to serve best.
  2. Secondly is to be paid well to be a Content producer for companies and retain your copyrights.
  3. Third is to find all-size companies that you will pay you to put your IP in front of tens of thousands of people you would never otherwise reach.
  4. Lastly is to use your IP as high-value marketing and customer currency: to potentially replace and outperform advertising and promotion.

Let’s dive in.

The New Knowledge Economy

If I were to ask you what the most valuable real estate in the world is, what would you answer?

People often answer:

  • South of France
  • Beverly Hills
  • New York City

In my estimation, the most valuable real estate in the world is the six inches between your ears.

Why?

Because that’s what’s known as intellectual property.

You have it. I have it. We all have it. And my experience is that many of us are undervaluing it — and not deploying it in the best ways we can.

According to the World Bank, each of us has $700,000 of unrealized, uncapitalized, and unmonetized intellectual property.

IP is now a major currency in the new economy of knowledge. In this economy, wealth is generated through the creation and control of intellectual property.

What Is Intellectual Property (IP)?

Intellectual property (IP) is what’s in your brain.

It’s the knowledge you put into forms, like courses and programs.

It’s also things like frameworks, models, recipes, and formulas.

Sometimes, these things can be just as — if not more — valuable than your other deliverables.

You can use IP to gather other people’s resources which you can use to trade, borrow, or exchange.

For example, I’ve traded my IP for vacation homes, cruises, and cash.

It also gives you an opportunity to potentially take equity in a business as a consultant. If you can improve the value of your client’s business, you could make an equity deal. IP is equity.

IP is also content marketing. If your IP can help your client generate more leads or traffic, you’ve got valuable IP. Your IP doesn’t necessarily have to show them how to do these things. But, if you can deploy it and it opens new markets, generates leads, or reactivates customers, you’re producing valuable IP.

Why Every Consultant Should Play The IP Game

IP is a great game to play. Not only is it a great game, but you already possess it. It gives you the opportunity to use it as a unique and valuable skill — a skill that can pay off for the rest of your life.

Selling your intellectual property is easier than selling your products.

By separating out your IP as a separate asset, you can create another revenue stream with the same clients you work with.

With IP, you capitalize on your intangible wealth. Since it’s intangible and intellectual, it has infinite possibilities. It can generate cash flow. You can have a bigger impact because you can deploy your IP in ways that you might not be able to sell consulting services or sell products.

Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.

A big part of creating and leveraging your IP is putting aside your preconceived notions and to start looking at the value of your intellectual property in a whole new way.

Don’t think inside the box. Don’t even think outside the box.

Instead, throw the box away.

Information Products vs Intellectual Property

30 years ago, I went to a Jay Abraham seminar — one of the greatest marketers in the world.

He gave us two big boxes full of videos, audio, reports and other goodies. There was no way we could bring it back with us on the plane, so they had to ship it to our homes.

30 years later, I moved out of my home from New Jersey to California. And I happened to find that box, which I had never opened.

The information game is a box game, even when it’s digital. You put it together into a “box.”

The IP game, on the other hand, is about essence. We reverse the process from creating it into form to going back to the essence that created it.

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Consulting Leadership: How To Lead Your Firm & Clients

Young businessman listening to his colleague explanations and looking at him

As the owner of a small firm, what consulting leadership style will help you build a successful business?

In this article, you’ll learn effective forms of leadership to help you start, grow, and scale a consulting firm in 2023.

You’ll learn…

  • The importance of leadership skills for consultants;
  • The characteristics of a consulting firm leader;
  • A consulting leadership model you can implement to achieve greater results;
  • Examples of consultative leadership in action;

    The Importance Of Consulting Leadership Skills

    Why is it important for consultants to develop their leadership skills?

    Being a better leader is critical for increasing employee engagement. And higher employee engagement means…

    • Successfully achieving your KPIs, goals, and key metrics,
    • higher profitability,
    • higher productivity,
    • higher quality products & deliverables,
    • higher retention rates,
    • less absenteeism.

    If your business were a ship, you as the leader are the captain.

    You’re the one responsible for setting the destination and leading the team to that destination.

    Whether you’re leading a team of 2 or 20, you’re still the leader.

    Leadership is leadership, no matter what industry you’re in. And leadership begins and ends with the leader: you.

    As the leader of a consulting firm, your team is looking up to you. It’s your responsibility to take ownership of the business and make sure you are showing up as the best version of yourself as often as possible.

    You can have a great team, but if you’re negative, it will affect everyone else on your team. People aren’t going to want to be around you, and they’ll leave.

    Or, if you’re full of doubt and don’t believe you can accomplish what you set out to achieve, you’ll have a tough time attracting A-players.

    Before you start hiring employees or any team members, the most important aspect of leadership is how YOU show up: your actions, thinking, and beliefs.

    So, whether you’re an independent consultant or you already have your first few employees, begin practicing your leadership skills now.

    How?

    You can start by leading your clients.

    Like your team members, your clients also look to you to take them to their desired future state.

    They’re investing in you because they trust that you can lead them from where they are now to where they want to be.

    Don’t just complete the consulting work. Lead the engagement. That means taking ownership of the project and delivering the result that your client expects.

    Now that you understand the importance of leadership in your consulting firm, I’ll break down several characteristics of successful leaders.

    Characteristics Of A Consulting Firm Leader

    What are the characteristics of an effective leader for a consulting firm?

    Having led Consulting Success® for over 13 years — and having interviewed hundreds of consulting firm leaders — here are a few best practices.

    1. Empower & Support Your Team

    When you’re leading a consulting firm, it’s more about empowering and supporting your team rather than trying to do everything yourself.

    The central question for you becomes: “how can I make sure the team is empowered and supported to create?”

    Some leaders will shift away from doing client work completely. Others will decide they want to keep being involved in the client work and delivery..

    I still work directly with select private clients. But I’ve hired an amazing team of experts that support our clients inside of the Clarity Coaching Program — many of whom can do a better job than I can.

    When you’re leading your firm properly, your clients will continue to get amazing results without you being the one who serves them directly.

    And because you’re building an effective team, it means you’re able to make a great impact and help more clients.

    2. Make Sure The Right People Are In The Right Roles

    Do you have the right people? And are they in the right role?

    If you have an A-player in the wrong role, they might feel like a B or C-player just because they aren’t in the right spot.

    Or, you might just have the wrong person. We found that companies choose the wrong candidate — one who doesn’t have the right skills for the job — 82% of the time.