Emotional Intelligence: Why is it Necessary for Leaders?

When you think of a ‘leader’, what are the words that come to your mind?              

While we know that being a leader requires technical skills, cleverness, and rational decision making to mention a few, there is another essential skill that we keep overlooking. It’s emotional intelligence. What is it that we need to learn to have a better understanding of how emotional intelligence can help us become more effective leaders?

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, manage, and express our own emotions, and the emotions of the people around us. It is also the capability to identify different feelings and label them accordingly, and to use it as a guide for clear decision making, to adapt to different environments and in result, to achieve one’s goals. Understanding what emotional intelligence is and having it, is essential for success,and is especially important for someone who leads.

For example, who is more likely to succeed – a leader who gets mad and throws tantrums when he’s stressed out, or a leader who stays composed, in control, and calm to think of a way to resolve the situation? Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist, provided the five key components of emotional intelligence.

Self-awareness

Being self-aware means you always know how you feel, how to manage your emotions, and how these can affect the people around you. As a leader, you have to have a clear understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, style, personality, preferences, and limitations and channel them to your subordinates. If we are self-aware, we are then empowered to make changes not just on our areas of strengths but also on our weaknesses. It will also lead you to influence your team members to work on their skills to achieve not just one’s personal goals, but the whole team’s aspiration.

Self-regulate

If you have the tendency to blame others when something goes wrong, stop, think, and reflect. Stop to think what went wrong and how it did not reach your expectations. Reflect seriously and start again on how to achieve your goals. As well as that, it is important for you to admit your mistakes and to bravely face the consequences. Knowing your values will always lead you to sound decision making. It will help you to have a clear unbiased evaluation of the situation,which will lead you to the right action plan. Self-regulation shows a leader’s flexibility and accountability.

Motivation

Have you ever asked yourself why you’re doing your job? As we spend some time doing our tasks, it’s inevitable to forget why you’re there. It’s important to take some time to go back and remember why you wanted the job. Being motivated will also help you to see the positive even in difficult situations.

Empathy

It’s easy to defend your ideas. But as a leader, it’s a must to take some time to look at things from other people’s perspectives. An empathic leader can help develop the people in their team, to call out members who are acting unfairly, to provide constructive feedback, and to listen to people who need reassurance and guidance. What would you get from being an empathic leader? You will earn the respect and loyalty of your team.

Social Skills

How well do you communicate? Leaders who have good social skills are good communicators. They are good at conveying their thoughts to the team, to enthuse them, which usually results in the team wanting support them in a project. Managing and resolving conflicts are also easier for a leader who is a good communicator. If this is your weakness, how can you improve and build social skills?

Learn how to resolve conflicts.

Conflicts are inevitable especially if the members have strong personalities. It is essential to know how to detect and resolve conflicts in a team when they arise.

Improve your communication skills.

If you are having a hard time to convey your thoughts clearly, then you have to work on organising your thoughts. Good ideas are not enough if you don’t know how to first share them to your members.

Learn how to praise others.

Giving compliments to people who deserve them won’t hurt you. As a leader, you have to learn how to appreciate their efforts by praising them when they’ve done a good job.

To be successful, leaders must have a concrete understanding of how their emotions, actions, and judgments affect the people in the team. The better a leader relates to the members of their team, the more successful he or she will be. Furthermore, it is essential to take time to work on self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills for you to be effective on your role. To make a career among the leading Workforce, Join the Best Emotional intelligence Specialist Improve your emotional intelligence by contacting me today.