Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher 174: Susan Packard — Leaders That Have Emotional Fitness
We’ve got to work on ourselves before we can work on anybody else. As leaders, emotional intelligence is something we constantly have to work on and improve upon. Today’s guest dives into how you can become emotionally fit in work, leadership, and life.
Susan Packard is the author of two books, including her most recent book, Fully Human. Throughout her career, Susan has had her hand in developing long-lasting TV brands like Food Network and CNBC, and she built HGTV into a $15 billion business when she was COO for the organization. Today, she mentors both men and women who are curious about their promise and wanting to grow their potential.
In Susan’s book, Fully Human, she interviewed a wide range of leaders to get into their heads and really find out what makes successful people tick. Susan found out that it takes some time to build emotional intelligence. In Western culture, people don’t really stop to ask themselves what they want out of their life; instead, they are so laser-focused on producing, doing, and keeping busy, even if it’s to their detriment.
A leader with a good emotional IQ knows when to give their employees a break and doesn’t try to demand too much of their time away from home. Susan shares a story from her HGTV days. She was working late to deliver some important budget-related documents when she noticed that there was a big financial mistake in her work.
At prior careers, this mistake would have meant Susan would have been reprimanded in some way, but not at HGTV. When Susan told the CFO about the mistake at 12 a.m., he told her that they would both come into the office early that morning, look it over together, and fix it together before sending it off. The calmness in the CFO’s approach made Susan feel respected and trusted. A leader with emotional intelligence knows when it’s important to work together and not punish people for being honest.
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