Harnessing Emotional Intelligence for Leadership Success

Today’s business environment has become even more complex. Leaders need to face increasing time pressures, escalating demands for innovation and authority-adverse employees. More than ever, the leaders’ ability to effectively communicate and lead employees depends largely on how well they have personally mastered their emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence influences many different aspects of a person’s life. It influences the way people behave and interact with others. It  affects the ability understand, manage and positively use emotions to communicate effectively, relieve stress, overcome challenges, empathize with other and defuse conflict.

As we all know, being smart is not an assurance for success. In fact, you must have known some academically brilliant people who are unsuccessful at work or in their personal relationships. There are also people who are not as brilliant but have made very significant mark in their career. This confirms the belief that emotional intelligence enables you to recognize your own emotional state as well as the emotional states of others. This helps you connect more with people in a way that they are automatically attracted to you. Using this understanding of emotions makes you relate better with people and form healthier relationships. Ultimately, it will help you achieve greater work success and more fulfilling life.

Attributes of Emotional Intelligence

§  Self-Awareness - This is your ability to recognize you emotions. It helps you see how emotions affect your thoughts and behavior. It also helps develop self-confidence, recognize your strengths and weaknesses.
§  Self-Regulation – Your ability to control impulsive feelings and behavior is dependent on how you manage yourself. It helps you healthily manage your emotions and take initiatives to keep commitments and adjust to changing circumstances.
§  Social Skills – Strong social skills enable you to understand emotions as well as the need and concerns of other people. These skills help you recognize emotional cues and become socially comfortable. Your social skills enable you to recognize the power dynamics in a group or within the organization as a whole.
§   Motivation - Having a strong motivation gives you a strong drive to achieve your goals. This helps you develop a propensity to pursue your goals, even when faced with challenges.
§  Empathy – This is your ability to understand the emotions of others. With it, you become more skilled in building and recognizing talents beyond cultural sensitivities. It enables you to communicate clearly, inspire others, and manage conflicts better.

Personal Experience on Emotional Intelligence

As a leader of a small company, I was responsible for a team of twenty people. I understand the need to lead my team using my personal power rather than though the power of my position. I also recognize that my thoughts and feelings can influence upon myself, which will consequently influence the entire squad in every situation.

As an emotionally intelligent leader, I regularly run a checklist of my thoughts and feelings when presented with management performance issues, for example. I always keep in mind to consider the issues objectively as a tool to improve performance, remembering further that the behavior and the person two separate things.
Being the role model of my team, I can be counted upon for being consistent with my daily role as a leader. My team were able to build up loyalty, honesty and trust because of being transparent to them. I believe that such qualities are important ingredients to becoming an emotionally intelligent leader. Keeping in mind the attributes of emotional intelligence, it was such a rewarding feeling to have been able to create and lead a team of motivated and committed people. Knowing that I was able to transform my team into people who have a genuine desire to be part of team and continually deliver astonishing results.


I believe that emotional intelligence can be learned. As a leader, being able to master my own emotions enable me to develop my skills and at the same time harness these skills that have drawn so much opportunity for my team and company as a whole.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Countries with the Best Basic Education Access

A country with a well-educated and well-trained citizens show remarkable social and economic progress. The role of education in providing knowledge, skills and competencies is of prime significance in the landscape the present societies and economies. A good education, almost invariably, is a requisite for employment. Access to basic education is an indication that the government of each country prepares its citizens to meet the minimum standards set by the job market. 1. Canada, 65.0 The basic education system in Canada covers elementary, secondary and post-secondary. Provincial and territorial government generally govern the education system, so there are slight variation within each province and territory. In all Canadian provinces, education is provided for free for the entire 12-year duration of the basic education from elementary to post-secondary. Depending on the province, education is compulsory for students up to 18 years old. Most Canadian high school students
Read more

Relevant Kidney Disease Facts and Stats

Kidney disease is one of the ten leading causes of death worldwide. Here are some kidney disease facts and stats that you might want to know. In the United States alone, recent data show that more than 30 million Americans have chronic kidney disease. Sadly, nine out of ten people who developed stage three chronic kidney disease or those having moderately decreased kidney functions are not aware of their condition. The leading cause of kidney failure is diabetes, which is attributed to about 39 percent of all kidney failure cases. Similarly, high blood pressure is linked to about 25 percent of the kidney failure cases diagnosed. Kidney disease is more prevalent among women, however; about 50 percent of men with chronic kidney disease are likely to develop kidney failure, also known as the end-stage renal disease.  E very year, about half a million Americans are treated for kidney stone problems. With the increasing number, it is estimated that during their lifetime, about
Read more

Seven Cool Lessons from Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Coolest Man Who Ever Lived

Throughout his life, Ralph Waldo Emerson established himself as one of the most influential man of letters in America. He was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and lecturer. His most significant contribution to American letters stemmed from his tremendous influence to other thinkers and writers. Best remembered for leading the philosophical, literary, and social movement called Transcendentalism, Emerson influenced other writers by saturating his writing with the ideals of spiritual harmony in contrast to the dominance of material gain. He called for a national literature and has so influenced the likes of David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller and even influenced the brains of non-adherents such as Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville. Seven Crazy-Cool Lessons from Emerson What made Emerson the coolest person that has ever lived is his insistence that humans must live in the present, and have to trust their own impulses. This has helped other American writers to forge their identities d
Read more