Alem Bedhija
March 20, 2023

The role of emotional intelligence in leadership and how to develop it

In our article on emotional intelligence, we explained what it is and showed you why EI is a great skill to have a great career. But in your workplace, the person who leads by example is the boss, so in this article, we’ll show you why IE is the skill you need to be a good leader.The role of emotional intelligence in leadership and how to develop it

It doesn’t matter if you are a boss or aspire to be one. It’s never too late to develop IE.

Reminder, what is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence gets defined as the ability to understand and control our emotions. In working relationships, emotional intelligence is crucial, as it allows you to create a career and work experience built on understanding and professionalism.

Technical skills and intelligence alone are no longer enough to be good at work and even more so to be a good leader.

The four components of emotional intelligence in a leader:

Awareness: For IE, awareness is its foundation. By this, we must understand that emotional intelligence rises above understanding and reading our feelings. Only a minor percentage of people and leaders are truly aware. A leader who lacks self-awareness causes increased stress levels and lack of motivation, leading to unproductive work and an unproductive team.

To bring out the best in others, you must bring out the best in yourself.

Self-control: Controlling your emotions makes you a better leader. Leaders who lack this ability fall prey to feelings and impulses. In other words, they are not good leaders.

Awareness helps you as a leader not to convey a reaction but a response. By evaluating the employee and the issue, you manage to translate the reaction caused by the feeling of the moment into an answer not influenced by instinct.

Social awareness: Understanding your feelings is only half of being a good leader, as you must be able to read the feelings of others. By practicing empathy, the skill you need in this case, you can better communicate and collaborate. Empathy is the number one skill that makes a leader; providing support to the people who work with you.
Managing relationships: Managing relationships means influencing people at work. After you understand your impact on them, you can guide, direct and resolve conflict.

Fishbone Diagram
Pareto analysis
Affinity diagrams

These techniques help you to structure the information and direct your focus to the roots of the problem.

Importance of IE for leaders:

Emotional intelligence helps you understand your impact on the people you work with. As we said at the beginning of this article, a good leader leads by example, meaning that a great leader invests in emotional intelligence, not only in himself but in the work environment. Emotional intelligence helps you make better decisions under pressure, recognize the feelings of others, and understand their emotional states.

How can you make it your own and develop it?

One way to develop emotional intelligence is to do the 360-degree assessment, where after collecting the impressions of colleagues, you can point out your strengths and weaknesses.

Emotional intelligence gets achieved by first cultivating it in yourself through assessments. You can then use this practice of reflection to understand the interpersonal skills of the people you are looking to hire.

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The role of emotional intelligence in leadership and how to develop it

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