Great leadership is not knowing everything about everything. In fact, most successful leaders attribute their success to building a team of people that are smarter and know more of the ins and outs than they do. Leadership is about influencing. Yes, a leader must know enough and have a general understanding to manage but more than just knowledge, they should also know how to get the best from the team around them. Possessing proficient  Emotional Intelligence skills are important in leadership. 

Walt Disney is a good example of this point. Disney was well known for his efforts to mobilize the best artistic minds he could find to his team. Disney was not intimidated by the skills of the creative minds he employed but rather knew how to lead them to accomplish his vision. 

“Whatever we’ve accomplished belongs to our entire group, a tribute to our combined effort.” Walt Disney

Understanding people, why they react the way they do, and how to appropriately interact with them is an ideal skill for effectively influencing others. The skill of emotional intelligence can help leaders be more effective at influencing, leading, and leveraging the talents of their teams.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Many reading this article most likely have been in situations at work where emotions ran high and caused damaging consequences. Perhaps there was an argument over who would get to work with a prize client or maybe it was a coworker that was close to missing a deadline and became angry and frustrated (even intolerable to work with) while in that state.

It Happens to Us All

One time there was a deadline I delivered to the district managers on our team. Multiple reminders leading up to the deadline were sent to them. One of the managers missed the deadline. When I reached out to him, immediately I could hear the sternness in his voice and the nervous stutter of his words as he explained his situation. As I tried to ask questions to get clarity, he quickly cut me off. That triggered me to speak louder and try to talk over him. It was about 60 seconds into the conversation that we both just broke into a laugh.

Fortunately, as experienced leaders we both quickly realized the path we were progressing towards was the wrong direction we needed to take. We had the awareness enough to realize that our current emotional state and resulting behaviors were not benefiting us in the least.  Leaders who understand emotions and emotional intelligence have better and more consistent chances of leading successful teams over leaders who do not. 

Better Understanding

If you are new to leadership, it helps to first get an understanding of emotions and emotional intelligence, then work to build and develop EI proficiency.  

The definition of emotion is complex. Researchers and scientists, today, are still contemplating its true meaning. The American Psychological Association defines emotion as being a “complex reaction pattern” that involves experience(s), behavior(s), and our physiology. In simpler terms, an emotion is a state of being resulting from experiences such as environment, thoughts, and feelings. That state of being is perpetrated by physical and behavioral responses such as heart beating faster when someone is facing a dangerous situation or a nervous smile when someone is anticipating a coming event. But I remind you, there is still no consensus on the meaning of emotion.  

“A leader hoping to gain emotional intelligence to aid them in their work should start with truthfully recognizing their emotions. If you can learn to understand your emotions, you can learn to manage them.” Penn State 

That brings us to Emotional Intelligence (EI) also referred to as Emotional Quotient (EQ). Psychology Today defines emotional intelligence as the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. The components of emotional intelligence vary depending on the source but there are 4 that seem to be consistent among most experts. These 4 components are divided into 2 competencies:

Personal Competencies

  1. Self-Awareness – the understanding and acknowledgement of one’s own emotions and how they impact them and others around them
  2. Self-Regulation (Self-Management) – The ability to manage your emotions and behaviors in any given environment 

Social Competencies

  1. Empathy – the ability to understand as well as value the perspective and situations of another’s experience
  2. Social Skills (Relationship Management)  – This is the ability to identify and understand the emotional states of others and using that awareness to effectively manage relationships, influence, and manage conflict

Why is Emotional Intelligence Important for Leaders?

Leaders lead people and people come with emotional baggage is the simplest answer to why emotional intelligence is important in leadership. Our emotions are one of the qualities that make us unique and great as human beings. Likewise, our emotions are also what make it hard sometimes for us to collaborate and work together. Emotions arise in all areas of professional life, increasing the need for leaders with excellent emotional intelligence skills. Good news is emotional intelligence helps augment many other valuable leadership skills such as:

Conflict Resolution

It is not new information that when emotions are strong the chances for disagreement and argument increase. Katie Shonk with Harvard Law School is quoted saying “A number of common cognitive and emotional traps, many of them unconscious, can exacerbate conflict and contribute to the need for conflict resolution.” Conflict management skills are essential in leadership. Leaders with a high emotional quotient have greater success making conflict beneficial rather than detrimental to the organization. 

Visit our article “What is Conflict Management? Advice for New Leaders” for more insight on conflict management.

Managing Poor Performance

It’s pretty much inevitable that leaders who are in their status long enough will at some point encounter poor performing employees or team members. Effectively addressing and solving subpar performance is itself a skill that takes time to develop. What many leaders often do not account for in managing performance is the impact of emotions and self interest. Emotional intelligence skills can often be the difference between correcting performance which saves their folks from negative consequences such as termination as well as avoids the company the cost of hiring and training new employees. 

Need some tips and information on managing your team’s performance? Check out these Novice Leader articles  “Coaching Employees for New Leaders“ and “Tips on Managing Poor Performance for New Leaders“ 

Team Motivation

“People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals. That is, goals that do not inspire them.” Tony Robbins

Motivation is a person’s willingness or desire to complete a task or goal. Many factors influence a person’s desire to do something and emotions are definitely one of them. I constantly share that “leadership is influence.” What we are trying to influence is a person’s willingness to do something and do it wholeheartedly- to get past any and everything and exert energy to fulfill the mission. Emotional intelligence can help leaders bridge the gap between desire and completion. 

If you are looking about motivating your team, here are some posts that can help: “Inspiring Your Team Beyond Money“ and “Team Motivation Suggestions for New Leaders“

Effective Communication

Communication is more than a leadership skill, it’s a human skill. The ability to give a message, in whatever form, and the receiver interprets and understands it as was intended is very powerful. New Leaders should be aware that there are many barriers to effective communication and getting the correct meaning across to the receiver. As in many areas of leadership, lack of emotional intelligence is one of the barriers that need to be considered with each communication.   

Check out “How Great Leaders Communicate Effectively“ on Novice Leader for more great insights on effective communication. 

 

Making an investment to develop emotional intelligence has no downside. Leaders that have the skills to manage their own emotions while interpreting and responding properly to those of their team are more likely to build strong and healthy work cultures. Strong cultures deliver better results.

Who doesn’t want better results? 

What Actions Can a New Leader Take to Improve Emotional Intelligence?

Hopefully at this point you’re thinking about how you can develop or improve your emotional intelligence skills. Unfortunately, just reading a few great blog posts like this one (wink, wink) won’t help you master your EI skills–but it is a good start. Like most skills worth developing, it will take time and focused effort on the right tasks and behaviors. With consistent effort, you can not only have high emotional intelligence but also make it an unconscious habit. That journey starts with you:

Focus on the personal competencies

Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation. 

  • Do an honest and non-judgmental self assessment to identify your most common emotional states, what puts you in each state, and how you tend to respond.
  • Keeping an emotional journal is a good practice to help you complete the self assessment. Spend 2 to 4 weeks writing down your emotions throughout your day and be sure to take clear notes on triggers and responses. 
  • Broaden your perspective by seeking others you trust to give you direct and unbiased feedback. Many organizations have programs available to get anonymous feedback for subordinates, peers, and supervisors. This sometimes can be hard to receive but getting that kind of reporting is very useful for getting a clear understanding of your impact on others. 
  • Practice self-discipline. Once you start getting a better understanding of your emotional states and your impulses, self-discipline can help you react intentionally rather than off the cuff without any forethought. 

Build your social competencies

Empathy and Social Skills 

  • Leverage the feedback you received for others to not only understand your emotional awareness but also the impact you have on others and their emotional states.
  • Learn to be empathetic. That means really learning how to connect and relate to another’s perspective and state of being. That is different for being sympathetic which is more of observing another’s state of being but not much more. 

 

Gather resources

There are many resources (tons of free ones at that) to help you build strong and effective emotional intelligence skills. Thousands of online articles and books, videos, and courses you can leverage. Now that you are aware of EI and how it can benefit your leadership, it is just a matter of making the effort and taking the steps to get to the skill level you need and want. Thank you for visiting Novice Leader…

And Don’t Forget – You ARE the Leader you Choose to Be!

References

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