The Emotional Intelligence of High Performance with Scott Greenberg

SPEAKER_1 (0:04)

The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

Stephen Sakach (0:17)

Well, welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here once again with my co-host, Tullio Siragusa, and we've got a special guest who we'll introduce in a moment.

So every business leader wants high performance, which might result in happier customers, more consistency, greater resilience when things change, and stronger teams. Today, we are exploring the emotional intelligence of high performance. Tullio, tell our audience about who we have on the show today.

Tullio Siragusa (0:50)

It'll be my pleasure. Our guest today is Scott Greenberg. He's a business performance expert, workforce leadership speaker, and author of The Wealthy Franchisee and Stop the Shift Show.

Scott is a former multi-unit franchise owner and operator for Edible Arrangements where his locations earn strong sales rankings, customer service recognition, and management awards. That experience shaped his practical approach to mindset, emotional intelligence, leadership, and team performance. That's what we're talking about today. Today, Scott speaks, writes, and trains leaders on building high performance cultures, managing frontline teams, improving customer experience, and creating systems that help people and business thrive. Scott, welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast.

Thank you. Your book almost had me say something else. I was like, what? I'm just saying.

Scott Greenberg (1:48)

I have to tell you, when I came up with the name, I envisioned being on podcasts like this, and watching people, and it's happened, and I giggle every time, but you got it right. You deprived us of the laugh, but you got it right.

Tullio Siragusa (1:59)

After, I was like, did I just say that right?

Scott Greenberg (2:03)

If you said it wrong, it would convey the same idea. I talked about the book, so you're fine either way.

Tullio Siragusa (2:10)

All right, cool.

Stephen Sakach (2:13)

Scott, from your experience, as Tullio mentioned, as an operator, speaker, advisor, why is emotional intelligence so closely tied to business performance?

Scott Greenberg (2:27)

I look at emotional intelligence as everything that's happening under the hood of a business. For an automobile, it's not just about how it's driven, but it's about what's going on underneath, and emotional intelligence is what's going on underneath for each of us, and it directly impacts everything that we're doing.

You certainly know from marketing how important it is to speak to people's emotions, and this is something Aristotle talked about thousands of years ago when he talked about the rhetorical triangle and needing knowledge, trust, and emotion. He called it something else, but the importance of all three of those things to influence people, and most people would agree of the three, the emotional part is what's most important because we're driven by emotion. So I think we need to be self-aware and tap into other people's emotions so that we can have influence.

Tullio Siragusa (3:21)

So, you've said the mindset, emotional intelligence and leadership skills shape business outcomes. So what do leaders often underestimate about their own emotional influence on the team?

Scott Greenberg (3:38)

It's a great question. I think that so often, first of all, they're not self-aware. They're just focused on the task. It's like being a hive just trying to make the honey, not realizing that their emotional state impacts everyone around them. So they're not acting with self-awareness, and they're not acting with the awareness of the emotional experience of those around them, whether it's an employee or even a customer.

They're just manufacturing and selling widgets, but they're not thinking about how that manufacturing and how the transaction makes people feel. So I think that lack of awareness, it's a missed opportunity and it creates problems in the wrong kinds of feelings.

Tullio Siragusa (4:18)

I can't agree with them more because I actually wrote a blog about this a few weeks ago, because this is big movement. It's like be yourself, just be yourself. But just being yourself sometimes without accountability lacks emotional intelligence because maybe you're in a bad mood. You show up at the office and you just share that mood with everybody. That's not going to inspire anybody. So maybe in that moment, shift your context. Like you said, be aware of your emotion because it might impact all the people in a negative way, especially if you're a leader.

Scott Greenberg (4:48)

Yeah, that advice concerns be yourself. What if you're a jerk?

Stephen Sakach (4:52)

Right.

Scott Greenberg (4:53)

I'd say be someone else, right? Right. But no matter who you are, we have to think about what conditions are we creating for those around us? Are we elevating the way they feel or are we having the opposite effect?