When you think of a good leader, what qualities come to mind? In the workplace, we often consider intellectual intelligence, competence, and technical expertise the most important skills for employees. In fact, most leadership positions are given to employees who are performing the tasks of their current job well. Research shows, however, that specific skills make the best leaders, and they might not be the skills you’d expect. While intelligence and technical acuity are helpful for leaders, it’s the less tangible, more relational competencies that set great leaders apart.
In this article, we’ll explore the connection between emotional intelligence and leadership, looking at why emotional intelligence is important for leaders and how leaders can improve their emotional intelligence skills to lead more effectively. Understanding the link between emotional intelligence and leadership is essential for today’s business environment. Leading with emotional intelligence not only enhances a leader’s effectiveness but also positively impacts team performance and organizational success.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
In simple terms, emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the ability to perceive and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It is made up of four core skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
EQ affects how we manage our behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions, both inside and outside the workplace. It is a key predictor of professional success, especially for individuals in leadership positions.
The Connection Between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
At its core, leadership is about relationships, and emotions play a significant role in relationships, especially for teams in the workplace. A leader with all the technical skills and knowledge in the world who lacks self-awareness, empathy, resilience, and other core relational skills will ultimately be ineffective.
Why is emotional intelligence important for leaders? Research consistently shows that leaders with high emotional intelligence create more positive work environments, foster stronger team cohesion, and achieve better business outcomes. Emotional intelligence for leaders is not just a ‘nice-to-have’ skill; it’s a critical factor in leadership success.
Decades of research have shown the importance of emotional intelligence for leaders. Benefits of leading with emotional intelligence include the following:
- Employees who report to high EQ leaders perform better on the job and report higher job satisfaction.
- Employees with high EQ leaders engage in more organizational citizenship behaviors such as altruism, courtesy, sportsmanship, conscientiousness, and civic virtue.
- Leaders with high emotional intelligence have higher employee retention, reducing costly turnover.
- Satisfied employees who perform better and stay at their job longer ultimately lead to better business outcomes for the organization as a whole.
Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to empathize with others, which allows them to communicate effectively and handle conflict well. They know the importance of recognizing employees’ successes and offering constructive feedback, which boosts employee morale and enhances performance. A leader who can recognize how their words and actions make others feel and adjust accordingly is able to build trust and gain the respect of others, which makes people more willing to follow them.
Leading with emotional intelligence can improve the way teams work as a whole. Leaders set the tone of the groups they lead, so emotionally intelligent leaders create more emotionally intelligent teams that collaborate, solve problems, and perform their best as individuals and as a group.
How to Improve Emotional Intelligence for Leaders
Fortunately, emotional intelligence for leaders is a skill that can be developed over time with the right awareness and practice. As leaders build emotionally intelligent habits, they will begin to see the benefits these shifts have on the individuals, teams, and organizations they lead.
9 Habits for Leading with Emotional Intelligence:
- Be relentlessly positive. Leaders have control over many things in the workplace, but there is plenty they are not in control of. Focusing attention and effort on what is within your control and expecting positive outcomes from that focus will improve not only your own attitude but also the attitude of the people you lead.
- Build your emotional vocabulary. One of the basics of emotional intelligence is noticing and naming emotions. The more specific you can be when naming emotions, the better you can address those emotions in yourself and others.
- Be assertive. Empathy is key to emotionally intelligent leadership, but understanding someone else’s emotions doesn’t mean letting their emotions run the show. Leading with emotional intelligence requires setting clear boundaries with respectful assertiveness in order to diffuse difficult situations and manage difficult people.
- Be curious. Rather than entering tough situations with heavy-handed solutions, being curious about the conflict and the people involved is more likely to result in positive outcomes. A good way to practice curiosity is to show interest in individuals in general, getting to know them as people and learning what they need to thrive in their roles.
- Forgive, but don’t forget. Forgiving the offenses of others reduces the stress that can come from holding a grudge. But coupling forgiveness with appropriate boundaries can help prevent future issues with the offending party.
- Celebrate successes. Practice being proud of your own accomplishments as well as the accomplishments of others, rather than falling into the comparison trap. This puts you in charge of your emotions and allows you to cheer people on when they do great things.
- Bring fun into the workplace. When people take things too seriously, emotions tend to run high. Even in the most serious of jobs, injecting a bit of levity into the workplace is a great way to reduce stress and increase job satisfaction for employees.
- Develop thick skin. As a leader, it’s important to respond appropriately to people’s opinions of you, not letting feedback, negative or positive, overly affect your view of yourself. A good mix of confidence in your decisions and humility about your flaws will allow you to be a more emotionally stable leader.
- Banish negative self-talk. There’s a difference between reflecting on mistakes or failures and wallowing in self-pity. When negative thoughts pop up, write them down and take time to evaluate whether they are based on facts or unfounded emotions or ruminations. Learning from failure is productive; being paralyzed by negative self-talk is not.
Tools for Improving Emotional Intelligence
Any leader seeking to improve their leadership skills should make emotional intelligence a top priority. Raising your EQ as a leader will have a measurable impact on not only your individual performance, but also the performance of your employees and ultimately the performance of your organization as a whole.
In today’s complex business landscape, emotional intelligence and leadership are inextricably linked. By understanding why emotional intelligence is important for leaders and actively working to develop these skills, you can dramatically improve your leadership effectiveness. Remember, emotional intelligence for leaders is not just about managing your own emotions, but also about creating an environment where your team can thrive emotionally and professionally.
If you’re looking for a place to start, TalentSmartEQ has the leading assessment for emotional intelligence measurement and development, as well as numerous resources and training tools for leaders, individuals, and teams. Once our assessment reveals strengths and opportunities for growth, our training will help you and your employees put into practice the habits that will lead to increased emotional intelligence for leaders and other individuals throughout your organization.