By Miriam Mishkin – HR & Risk Manager, Artemis Plastics

Concepts around the Athena Doctrine and Emotional Quotient (EQ) have been gaining traction in organizations around the world. What implication could the implementation of those ideas have on individual employee performance and the overall productivity of manufacturing companies that employ them? Let’s get a closer look.

In their book The Athena Doctrine, John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio present findings from their global survey of 64,000 men and women from 13 different countries. The survey asked participants to classify 125 human traits into two big categories: a) gender related characteristics (those traditionally associated with masculine or feminine traits), and b) which traits impact a company’s success. The survey found that traits classified as feminine such as cooperation, empathy, communication, collaboration, flexibility, and patience were most often associated with common indicators of success such as leadership, partnership, morality, and happiness. There is no doubt that there is a growing global trend away from the “winner-takes-all/masculine approach”. Business today needs to become increasingly social, interdependent, and transparent in order to respond to a fast-paced global environment. Thus, feminine traits such as cooperation, empathy, communication, collaboration, flexibility, and patience have become even more important now than ever. The more you master these traits the more agile and better equipped you are to succeed.

Another similar concept that can help boost individual and organizational performance, and is reshaping our view of what it takes to succeed in the workplace, is a person’s level of emotional intelligence, or their Emotional Quotient (EQ). EQ encompasses a person’s ability to understand and manage their own feelings and emotions, as well as those of their team.  This skill has been ranked sixth in the World Economic Forum’s list of the top 10 skills needed by employees who aim to thrive in the workplace. 

While not necessarily a feminine trait, emotional intelligence is comprised of  “softer skills” as opposed to “harder,” or technical skills. Based on a study by Travis Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, 90% of top performers studied scored higher in EQ. In addition, Dr. Daniel Goleman found that star performance in every field depended more on emotional intelligence (“softer skills”) than on I.Q. or technical skills (“harder skills”). 

How can we leverage these ideas to transform our organization with feminine and emotionally intelligent traits?

One approach is to develop a company culture with core values that mirror feminine traits most associated with success.

At Artemis Plastics, one of our core values is collaboration. We have differentiated ourselves from other manufacturers through strong collaborative structures internally and externally. We believe in building solid relationships with and between our employees, customers, vendors, community members, and all stakeholders. This collaborative culture is part of our company’s DNA, and makes us who we are. 

In addition, we have trained all of our managers on EQ skills and introduced them to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test. They now have a broader appreciation for their own perspectives, strengths and challenges as well as those of their peers and teams. We also include many EQ factors on our informal and formal Performance Evaluations.

Building up on our collaborative culture and training our team on Emotional Intelligence have led to happier and more engaged employees who take less sick days, make fewer mistakes, and work together more readily to solve issues before they become problems. For example, Artemis Plastics had zero health and safety incidents during the entire 2019 year.

However, there is still room for improvement. For example, when it comes to providing their ideas, we notice that women mostly choose to post their ideas anonymously in a suggestion box vs. men who are for the most part comfortable sharing  them face to face. This tells us that even though we have made efforts to foster a more collaborative workplace, there are refinements to be made.

Nevertheless, the progress we have seen has been very encouraging, and has motivated us to continue to fully embrace and promote feminine and emotionally intelligent traits at all levels of our company for the benefit of all stakeholders, and particularly, our employees and customers.