Emotional Intelligence

Hey Leaders,

How strong is your Emotional Intelligence? Otherwise known as EQ or Emotional Quotient.

Emotional Intelligence is certainly under-recognised as a leadership competency but is critical. It’s a trait we could all improve on as people, not just leaders, to make the world a better place.

What is it exactly?

the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior

What are the common areas we should be aware of?

i) Self Awareness — Your ability to recognise your own emotions and moods, and the impact this has on your people. Leaders must be positive and optimistic, their energy and demeaner has a profound effect on the team and their environment.

ii) Self Regulation — The ability to control and regulate your own emotional impulses or moods. An individual maybe completely unreasonable and rude to you, but as a leader, you need to be able to respond in the right professional way. Recognise human behaviour and emotions are driven by previous events or something which happened earlier on in their life, you cannot control that or necessarily understand fully where their perspective has come from. What you can do is try and understand what they are saying and help them move forward in the right direction.

Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

iii) Empathy — Your ability to put yourselves in someone else’s shoes and see things through their eyes. Their perspective maybe completely different from yours based on their own values, beliefs and experience. Your people are going to go through rough periods during their career under your leadership, it’s called life. You need to be there to support them. Just because we have rules and policies doesn’t mean they are always right. Speak up if your feel like you are doing your people a disservice, challenge your HR or Leader to try and see things differently and be human about the situation.

iv) Social Skills — This doesn’t mean being the life and soul of the party. But someone who sees value in establishing common ground and strong meaningful relationships with people. It’s a healthy way to lead your life.

v) Internal Motivation — A general drive to improve things, upgrade your own skillset and be a better you without extrinsic motivation. This hunger and desire is inspiring and can stimulate your team to follow suit.

Emotional Intelligence is so important. Whether it’s your career, family, relationship or any other area that’s important to you. By being more consciously aware of your own emotions and other peoples, you will be a better leader and a more effective communicator. This isn’t something you gain overnight but by consciously focusing on it each and everyday you will become more and more aware. It will certainly serve you well by being familiar with the 5 common areas above as you navigate through life.

All the best

David

Resources Of The Week

• YouTube - Brandon Burchard - What Great Leaders Actually Do. When I discovered this video I was instantly glued. Brendan talks through the 6 Es of Leadership and what behaviors make us great leaders.

• App - Calm App - leadership can be stressful and it’s difficult to switch off in the evenings as our emotions run away. Meditation has historically had a bit of a stigma attached to it, but it is becoming more and more mainstream. The benefits are overwhelming including reducing anxiety and better focus and self-esteem. Years ago running/jogging was not very mainstream, now look at it. I favor the Calm App as Tamara Levitt is a calming influence on me. Try something new today!

• Blog Post - 6 Habits of Highly Productive People. A post I wrote on Medium a couple of months ago. It highlights 6 habits which people adopt to help them stay highly productive and ultimately very successful.

Quote of the Week

“If you are tuned out of your own emotions, you will be poor at reading them in other people” - Daniel Goleman

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