Enhancing Emotional Intelligence for Effective Leadership: A Case Study on how to improve emotional intelligence in leadership.
Jammu Nivani
August 1, 2023. 4 minute Read
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In this article, we set out to discover the secrets of emotional intelligence in leadership.
Consider this: a leader who not only understands their technical talents but also has an almost magical capacity to comprehend and navigate emotions – both their own and those of their team members.
Accept your emotions, connect with your inner sellf, and set out on a journey to become the leaders you were born to be.
Let's dive right in..
- Table of Content
- How To Improve Emotional Intelligence In Leadership?
- What is emotional intelligence in leadership?
- What is emotional intelligence in leadership?
- What is emotional intelligence in leadership?
- How does Emotional Intelligence Benefit Leadership?
- How to develop Emotional Intelligence?
- Tips for leading with Emotional Intelligence
- Final Thoughts
How To Improve Emotional Intelligence In Leadership?
Ever wondered why some people get that queasy feeling when they hop on a bus or a boat?
Well, that’s what we’re diving into today: motion sickness.
What exactly is it? Why does it happen? And more importantly, how can we kick it to the curb?
Don’t worry; we’ll break it down for you in simple terms.
Understanding Leadership Emotional Intelligence !
What is emotional intelligence in leadership?
Chandrayaan 2, India’s attempt at making a soft-landing on the moon failed in its very final stages.
For India, this was more than a national grief, given all the hype and expectations that built up around India’s claims and aspirations to become a space superpower.
After all, an incredible amount of resources like time, effort, energy, and money had gone into the mission and riding on its success were a billion aspirations.
Mr. K Sivan, the former chief of ISRO had every reason to be downcast, because the mission failed under his leadership and now he had to face the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi.
But what happened when K Sivan came face to face with Mr. Narendra Modi was beyond anybody’s comprehension.
After giving a pep talk to the scientists, Mr. Narendra Modi gave a tight hug to a tearful K Sivan, who was just unable to come to terms with the unsuccessful bid at India’s attempt to make a soft landing on the moon.
Further, Mr. Narendra Modi, in his address to the scientists, asked them not to get disheartened by the hurdles of Chandrayaan 2 and to work towards a new dawn of India’s space programs.
Here was a situation that could have cast doubts on India’s space capabilities and could have sent India back by a few years in the race to be a space superpower.
But what Mr. Narendra Modi accomplished by his actions was turning a national setback into a resounding success by leaving behind the failure and encouraging the team of scientists to move forward in its mission.
This action of Mr. Narendra Modi is nothing but a display of “EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN LEADERSHIP”, a skill that is a must have given the leadership challenges of the 21st century.
By no means is this an isolated incident, but a reflection of the face of the everyday challenges to come in the world of business.
Going forward, business leaders will have to deal with challenges that will feature high change, high speed, and high stress and it is expected that organizations & leadership will have to adjust continually to sudden disruptive changes,
Competitive threats, new technologies, rapidly changing markets, business environment and customer needs.
In an environment where radical change and uncertainty are the norms and not the exception, leaders will have to
- Improve the understanding of how to gain and sustain the commitment of others,
- Unleash motivation and innovation,
- Establish the trust and confidence of the team and
- Ensure delivery of customer value at all times.
Given the challenging times like the recent pandemic or the looming recession, whether at home or at work,
- Our emotions have a deep impact on our every interaction,
- Have influence on how we deal with challenges and opportunities, and
- Help determine whether or not we collaborate to resolve conflict.
Along with the realities of today’s chaotic and volatile environment, leaders have to deal with the flow of emotions at the workplace as people experience frequent changes, conflicts, burnouts, failures, work-life imbalance, etc., and
Whether a leader may like it or not, a major part of his role entails managing the many moods that manifest in different forms during the course of his day-to-day workplace interactions.
It is how a leader makes his people feel engaged to their organization in such an environment that makes people more productive and efficient, and it is in doing so that a leader has to exhibit skills such as
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Self-control
- Social skills
Simply Put,
Emotional Intelligence is the ability of an individual to recognize, understand and manage his own emotions as well as emotions of others thereby helping improve workplace relationships and fostering a positive work culture.
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in leadership
Leadership is more about dealing with people and situations and I, for one, believe that like people, a situation too is a living thing that is organic and fluid.
In any situation, thoughts express themselves in different forms like ideas, proposals, data, facts, assumptions, decisions, etc.
At any point in a situation, the convergence of thoughts and emotions manifests itself in the form of graphs, flip charts, bar diagrams, etc.; and comes alive in the form of PowerPoint presentations, images, project plans, prototypes, etc.
In a situation the expression of emotions is a continuum, in a physical or a bodily form like when people get agitated, or express joy, or when they shoot off a rather nasty e-mail or when they celebrate their victory in an ecstatic way.
In a way, any situation has two lives; first as thoughts or ideas and then as a tangible reality. When it comes to dealings with situations, as they are transforming from thoughts to reality, it is the quality and flow of thoughts, emotions, and interactions that determine the quality and value of the outcome in a situation and it is here where the leadership’s ability to fosters good thinking,
Positive energy, fluid communication, and robust collaboration under conditions of high stress becomes critical and therefore self-mastery and leadership by commitment become crucial to success.
Leaders with a reasonably good level of emotional intelligence are well adapted at recognizing their own feelings and that of others, what they mean, how such feelings impact people and the outcome of situations and are able to channel their emotions and those of others appropriately to bring about positive outcomes.
Key Takeaway
Leadership involves dealing with dynamic situations where emotions and thoughts converge to shape outcomes. Emotional intelligence empowers leaders to recognize and manage emotions effectively, fostering positive collaboration and successful results, even in high-stress conditions.
Emotional Intelligence and leadership effectiveness
Leadership effectiveness is all about having the abilities to influence and mobilize the followers and the organization’s stakeholders in the right direction and foster a positive perspective for
achieving the vision and mission of the organization at all times and under all circumstances.
When organizations go through challenging times like the recent pandemic, it is expected of leaders to help navigate the organization through the turbulence and ready the organization for the future on a firm footing.
When operating in a rapidly changing and an uncertain environment, people experience a range of emotions, both positive and negative and it therefore follows that leaders have to have the abilities to determine how to influence employees to go beyond standard performance expectations keeping in mind that under trying circumstances people are strongly impacted by the emotions they experience at the workplace.
It is the effectiveness of leadership that sets the tone of the organization and therefore it is imperative for the organizational leadership to be highly competent in emotional intelligence for the leadership to be effective.
Emotionally intelligent leaders are highly effective as
- They are able to manage teams without causing rifts or conflicts,
- Are able to get their employees to deliver the best,
- Easily adapt their leadership style as per the needs of the situation and
- Are able to effortlessly accommodate employees with different personalities.
Understanding emotions contributes towards developing an emotionally intelligent organization where;
- Everyone communicates with care
- People set group goals and help others work towards them
- There is organization wide enthusiasm and confidence
How does Emotional Intelligence Benefit Leadership?
Organizational development experts commonly believe that in today’s world of business, emotional intelligence is a new paradigm to measure and monitor the performance of the human capital of an organization simply because emotional intelligence helps
- Encourage growth,
- Innovation, and
- Creativity
in leadership and acts as a glue that binds together organizational relationships in the long run.
Here are a few benefits of leadership Emotional Intelligence
- Emotional Intelligence foster a positive work culture that contributes towards increased efficiency and productivity.
- Emotional Intelligence encourages creativity and innovation, the key drivers of growth in an organization.
- Emotional Intelligence creates an environment that acts as a constant motivation for leaders and team members to deliver their very best at all times.
- Emotional Intelligence guides leaders and employees in making the right decisions in turbulent and tough times.
- Emotional Intelligence helps in developing a strong team spirit by nurturing strong bonds between a leader and their team.
How to develop Emotional Intelligence?
In practice, emotional intelligence is:
- A different way of being smart
- Knowing your feelings and using them in making good decisions
- Managing distressing signals well and controlling impulses
- Staying motivated and being hopeful in face of setbacks
- Knowing how others around you are feeling
- Getting along well with others
Broadly speaking developing emotional intelligence revolves around developing the following 5 skills
1. Self-awareness
- Emotional awareness
- Accurate self-assessment
- Self-confidence
2. Self-regulation
- Self-control
- Trustworthiness
- Adaptability
- Innovation
3. Motivation
- Achievement drive
- Commitment
- Initiative
- Optimism
4. Empathy
- Understanding others
- Developing others
- Service orientation
- Leveraging diversity
Exercises for developing Self Awareness
- MONITOR YOUR ACTIONS: identify why you do what you do.
- VISIT YOUR CORE VALUES: list your values and your deep beliefs and compare them
- SELF REFLECTION: know how you feel, understand, reflect
- LIST YOUR DAILY EMOTIONS: journalize your emotions, analyze, compare, learn, apply.
Exercises for developing Self Reflection
- RELAX: take a step back, breathe, relax, control
- RESTRAIN: practice restrain under stress, check your actions, cool down, evaluate, reorganize.
- REFRAME: reframe the content, reframe the context
- MAKE TIME FOR PROBLEM SOLVING: dedicate time for creative problem solving
- REGULATE DIGITAL EXPOSURE: restrict the use of electronic devices at home, develop a healthy bed hygiene.
Exercises for developing Social Skills
- REMEMBER THE LITTLE THINGS: Attitude of gratitude, remember names, don’t shy away from saying sorry.
- SHOW IT WHEN YOU CARE: Appreciate, encourage, demonstrate your caring.
- BE FORTHRIGHT: Be sincere in your communications, explain your decisions.
- TACKLE TOUGH CONVERSATIONS: Indulge in inclusive communication, avoid confrontations, maintain forward momentum in conversations.
Tips for leading with Emotional Intelligence
1.Listen Actively Without Being Judgemental
Start with developing active listening skills and the ability to hold back judgments while listening.
Try to see the world from others point of view, consider their perspective and keep an open attitude to create a safe space for shared communications.
2. Understand Yourself and Seek to Understand others more.
Develop an ability to understand where your followers are coming from, how their past experiences shape their present-day perspectives and how to harness the power of the employees’ diverse experiences.
3. Unleash Motivation
A leader’s ability to understand the underlying motivations of his employees goes a long way in boosting employee engagement, increasing job satisfaction and nurturing a dedicated workforce.
4. Establish a Personal Connect
One of the aspects of leading with emotional intelligence is the ability to demonstrate the willingness to help employees, recognize and reward their sincere efforts and such display of genuine caring helps develop a strong one to one connection that establishes trust between the leader and his followers.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion,
As much as technical skills may help one to rapidly ascend the corporate ladder, it is the soft skills that help successfully lead teams and foster positive workplace relationships.
Emotional intelligence helps leaders create an environment at the workplace that puts employees at ease while taking risks, sharing their ideas, making tough decisions, effectively resolving conflicts and comfortably adapting to changing business environments and circumstances.
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