China is today a world leader not only when it comes to production but increasingly also within the financial sector and as a leader of foreign investments. Young Chinese professionals are coming into the market place with high ambitions and expectations of a fast and successful career. In speaking with many leaders of Chinese and multinational companies I have heard, time and time again, that their greatest challenge is to recruit, develop and retain the best people. With these different demands on organizations, a different kind of leadership, focusing more on relationships and interpersonal skills, will be needed.
What has happened is that the “soft skills” have become very hard and that EQ has moved from ”nice to have to necessary to have”.
Kandidata Asia ran our first EQi certification workshop in Beijing together with our partner Merit Solutions in March. We had a truly skilled and EQ interested group of professionals who attended this first certification. It was interesting to discover that the Chinese learning style is a bit different from what we are used to in the west and points to the importance of cultural customization of trainings to the local culture.
Some 80 companies responded to an invitation on a presentation on Emotional Intelligence and Leadership. The presentation was done with a Chinese interpreter and elicited a lot of interest with HR professional lining up after the lecture to discuss how Emotional Intelligence can be introduced into their organizations. We are presently working on customization of our EQ training program that will be introduced in Beijing in late Spring. It is all very exciting!