Two cheers for emotional intelligence in leadership

Facts, studies and graphs are the one thing, but how does emotionally intelligent behavior REALLY affect your leadership practice?

Cheers #1: Emotional intelligence makes you more successful and more effective in interactions with others

Going beyond facts and business realties and diving into the world of emotions and human needs will help your interaction skills big time.

In detail that means: 

• You experience a higher acceptance of your decisions.
• There is a higher trust level towards you.
• Identification with both you and your organization increases.
• It sparks enthusiasm and engagement.
• It creates empathy on two levels: emotionally and rationally.
• You have to deal with resistance and conflicts less frequently.
• The working atmosphere influences business results up to 20 to 30 percent.
• Perceived working atmosphere depends on the behavior of the leader (50 to 70 percent)

Cheers#2 Emotional intelligence makes you understand your emotions and those from others

Daniel Goleman found out: The higher our EQ, the better we understand our own emotions and those from others. Why is that important at the workplace? It’s important because emotions are nothing else than energy. They are either energy boosters or energy drainers and the more you know about what gives you energy and what takes energy from you, the better you can use your energy.   

So as a conclusion of that, the shortest definition of EI in my opinion could be:

Emotional intelligence = Energy management: how to use your energy in the most effective way!

For an emotionally intelligent leader that means:

• You know what you feel in each situation and how that effects your reaction or your decision making process.
• You have a wide range of emotional vocabulary.
• You know which emotions trigger something positive or negative in you and how that shapes your perception and your decisions.
• You know how your friends shape your reality and your level of tolerance.
• You know your mindset patterns and your relationship patterns.
• You can actively work with all that knowledge to improve team culture and business results.

How to grow your emotional intelligence skills

So which behavior and skills can you show in order to be/become emotionally intelligent?

• Energy management: Find out how you do recharge your batteries and make sure to do it regularly.
• Fixed vs. growth mindset: Reflect on how flexible you are and what is important to you.
• Thinking strategies: How many thinking strategies do you use?
  Make sure to have a variety and to apply them as needed.    
• Emotional vocabulary: Learn to accurately describe emotions and reactions from yourself first, then from your employees.
• Relationship skills: How often do you communicate directly and how often “between the lines”?
• Giving feedback: Give your feedback techniques a fresh-up and use them frequently.
• Conflict resolution skills: Check your behavior in conflicts: How do you act? Do you respect emotions?
• Dealing with change: When change rumbles hard – how do you cope?

What does that mean for you?

Well, whenever an impulse “hits” you the reaction you have is either showing or hiding your emotional intelligence and has a definite influence on your team and business results. And as a leader today we owe it to ourselves as well as to our employees to make sure we master that skill.

Got interested?

In the online learning world of Think Beyond you find a practical Emotional Intelligence Toolbox for leaders – to refresh what you already know and to learn what you still need in order to be just the emotional intelligent leader you want to be!

Check it out HERE