Leading with Empathy: Creating a Community of Emotional Intelligence Champions

Our people-centered culture is our foundation at Splunk, backed by the fact that employee experience is our #1 company priority. To help maintain our Splunky ways, it’s important that our leaders set the example. There is nothing more impactful than how we make others feel—and we want Splunkers to feel safe, valued, supported and that they belong here. 

That’s what drove Marvin Green and Bonnie Rosensteel to create emotional intelligence training for Splunkers after being inspired by the successful emotional intelligence program led by Rich Hua at Amazon Web Services, which upskilled over 350,000 Amazonians and customers to date. To keep our people at the center, we need to lead with Empathy, Purpose, Inspiration and Connection (EPIC). And the way to do that is through building emotional intelligence. 

“In the past, jobs were about muscles. Now they’re about brains, but in the future, they’ll be about the heart.”  – Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University

Why Emotional Intelligence, Why Now?

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. Emotions are what drive people and the decisions they make, even the subconscious ones. In order for people (especially managers) to be effective, Bonnie and Marvin feel we have a responsibility to become as fluent in emotions and how to manage them as possible. The goal is that these skills will enable Splunkers and their teams to perform at their highest levels, allowing them to be more innovative, while showing empathy and inclusion. 

“100% of customers are people. 100% of employees are people. If you don't understand people, you don't understand business.”  – Simon Sinek, author

It’s no secret that the pandemic changed a lot about our society and work. Many of us work from home, and we're increasingly dependent upon our devices and technology, creating additional separation between people. The truth is, we’re neurobiologically wired to interact with other humans. The EQ program’s mission is to put humans back into the center of work relationships, bridging the gap to what the future of work will look like. 

EQ training and awareness can help a manager build better relationships so that they can learn what drives each member of their team. What are their dreams and passions? Where do they want to grow and not grow? Is anything going on in their life that might impact their work? Unlocking this insight and building psychological safety can help your team to thrive and grow together. Research shows that when employees feel they have people around them to share their dreams with, they feel connected to their work and motivated to stay with managers who are helping them grow. 

About the Program

At Splunk, there are currently two tracks in the EQ program. For individual contributors, there’s a three hour virtual workshop. For people leaders, there’s an eight hour in-person workshop, including an individualized skills assessment. Leaders can continue their growth and development afterward by requesting additional individualized offerings such as a Psychological Safety Assessment or be paired 1:1 with a certified EQ-i coach. 

“We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think.”  – António R. Damásio, neuroscientist

^{Simon Davies, SVP & General Manager, APAC, delivering a welcome to the workshop in Sydney, Australia}

The program is led by a network Splunkers who facilitate the interactive workshops and help evolve the program as needed. This team of EQ champions has grown to include operational roles and marketing, in addition to supporting the workshop and coaching offerings (while continuing their Splunk day jobs). Volunteer workshop facilitators and coaches each go through a learning path that includes EQ-i and EQ 360 coach certification, workshop immersion, teach back facilitation training, and finally shadowing a live, in-person workshop to get their wings. 

A Community of EQ Champions

Setting up the program this way has built an EQ community within Splunk. Passion for growth and community is what keeps the EQ Champions team going. Participants know they have others to reach out to during and after the program for support and coaching in real-time scenarios. 

This community was an important element for Sandeep Khaneja, VP, Technology Strategy & Innovation. He felt that it was important “to go through this together and get to a point where we're all running at the same pace, in the same direction, with the same goals.” The program has created a shared language and framework for leaders and their teams to work better together. He continued, “we understand how to work together, how to communicate with each other, how to think differently and rewire how we look at things. This program has made it easier to do business here.”

Another benefit is the sense of surety the program can provide. For Akil Crawford, Director of Global Services, he feels less anxious and stressed after participating. He shared, “I think the degree of ease through which I navigate my day-to-day would hands down be the biggest benefit that I’ve received.” 

Keisha Stephens, Director, People Operations, has taken advantage of both the community and coaching available after the workshop. During her coaching sessions, she said that, “I feel very comfortable sharing about problematic work situations. The privacy and openness established for these conversations started in our first session.” Together with her coach, Keisha was able to work through prior obstacles or roadblocks (and teach the reframing exercise to her team), make better connections across her team and feel more confident leading through change.  

Already leaders and their teams are seeing tremendous results from the emotional intelligence program. Keisha put it best when she said, “Here at Splunk, we value empathy heavily. Learning about the different types of empathy and how to respond will make me a better leader.”