Emotional Intelligence is a critical part of the qualities of a good leader. It differentiates a good leader from a bad one. It is the hallmark of the most successful and exceptional leaders you will come across in your career life.
Your technical skills will only get you so far in your career, but if you aspire to be a better leader, you need to develop your emotional intelligence to bring out the best in others and have high-performance teams.
This article will guide you through the concept of emotional intelligence, how to develop it and its application to becoming a more effective leader of people.
What Exactly is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ) refers to the ability to recognize, understand, regulate, and manage one’s own emotions and those of others.
The term was coined by researchers such as Peter Salavoy and John Mayer and was later popularized in 1995 in the book titled Emotional Intelligence written by Psychologist Daniel Goleman.
Emotional Intelligence, which is similar to intelligence quotient (IQ), can be measured using different assessments, but IQ represents cognitive abilities, while EQ is a measure of one’s emotional capabilities.
Emotional Intelligence is a valuable tool for understanding people’s behaviors and plays a significant role in shaping relationships, including:
- Knowing how to read the emotions of others
- Having empathy for other’s feelings and needs
- Managing highs and lows in moods
- Using humor to defuse tension in conflicts
Emotional Intelligence can be categorized into two aspects: self and social. The self aspect focuses on managing our natural reactions, while the social aspect involves accurately perceiving others, practicing empathy, and fostering positive relationships.
Why is Emotional Intelligence Essential for Leadership?
Emotional Intelligence is a critical part of effective leadership. Emotionally intelligent leaders understand their emotional needs, recognize the moods of people around them, empathize, and manage them very well.
Emotionally intelligent leaders make better and more informed decisions because they can recognize and respond to situations with greater empathy.
Since emotionally intelligent leaders are aware of workplace emotions, they can foster a better working environment by recognizing high stress levels and implement strategies to reduce tension without compromising productivity.
Good leaders with higher emotional intelligence find it easier to build relationships with almost everyone on their teams.
Five Emotional Intelligence Skills for Leaders
1. Self-Awareness
This simply means being conscious of one’s own thoughts, feelings, strengths, emotions, beliefs, motivations, and behaviors and their effect on others.
Leaders who have strong self-awareness understand themselves very well, their strengths and weaknesses or limitations and specific habits.
Strong self-awareness helps leaders to understand and manage their emotions and others on their teams. It helps the leaders to perceive the feelings of others and how best to motivate them. Also, it helps to build good relationships with others.
Ways to Improve Your Self-awareness
Practice Mindfulness
This implies paying attention to your thoughts and feelings in the present moment. It will help you to become more aware of your emotions and how they influence your actions.
Seek feedback from others
As a leader; you can seek feedback from colleagues or employees to have a better understanding of how people perceive you and your actions.
If people look at you in an odd way after you say something, you can ask them to know why they reacted that way for better understanding.
Receiving feedback from others helps you understand how they perceive you. It may serve as a valuable opportunity to enhance your interpersonal relationships.
Reflect on your experience
Devoting time to reflect on your past experience and how you responded to different situations at different times will help you to understand your strengths and weaknesses.
What did you do that did not go down well with people? What went well that you would like to replicate in the future?
2.Self-RegulationSelf-regulation refers to the ability to control your emotions, thoughts, impulses, reactions, behaviors, and feelings when things happen to or around you.
A leader who can manage his emotions and reactions is better equipped to manage difficult situations.
Ways to Improve Your Self-Regulation
Slow Down
Improve self-regulation by slowing down. Don’t make an immediate decision if you are emotionally disturbed or in a heightened state. This is because you may not make an informed and good decision at that moment because of the state of your mind. Sleep on it allows your emotions to be stable and be in the right state of mind before making a decision.
Pause before Responding
This means giving yourself a little time to stop and think before replying. Pause a bit and allow your feelings or emotions to get out of the way of your thoughts.
Taking a Step Back
Sometimes, you might need to take a walk, leave the room, take some water, or call a friend so that you can be yourself rather than making a snap judgment that you may regret for the rest of your life.
Recognize your Emotions
Study yourself to recognize what triggers you and identify patterns. If you know what turns you off, when next a similar thing occurs, you will be better positioned to handle it in a more positive way.
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Emotional intelligence is an important skill that every leader or aspiring leader must possess. To be an effective and competent leader, learn or acquire emotional intelligence skills and be a leader that everyone desires to work or be with.
Watch out for the concluding part of the article.
Also Read: AI Upskilling Strategy and How to Avoid Job Displacement
