The Importance Of Emotional Intelligence In Leadership

Being a leader requires you to have a certain set of skills and abilities which will help you stand out from the crowd. A big part of owing these skills is also being able to develop them correctly and of course learn new ones.

Knowing how to handle your emotions, your team’s emotions and their responses is exactly what will help you stand out and allow you to not only produce great results but also improve the way you lead. There are many other benefits to being emotionally intelligent in leadership and this article will help you get a better understanding of exactly why this is so important.

What is emotional intelligence?

In any case that you come in contact with people, your emotions and your actions fully affect the way they behave towards you and the group of people they interact with. By taking their emotions and perceptions into consideration, you will be able to bring people together and use this knowledge to create a positive impact on them and the way they work.

The five aspects of emotional intelligence in leadership

In order to make this skill work in your favor, you will need to know as much as possible about it. The very first thing you need to know in order to understand it better is its components. Emotional intelligence consists of the following:

1. Self-awareness

This aspect of emotional intelligence relates to your ability to understand your own emotions, weaknesses and strengths as well as the impact of your actions on others. Being self-aware in regards to your emotions is exactly what will help you open up to accepting and understanding the emotions of the people you work with.

This will also give you a drive you need in order to continue improving any skills of yours that need improvement without considering change something negative. Accepting who you are and working on improving yourself can only come through self-awareness.

2. Self-management

Being disciplined and knowing your boundaries is another thing which will help you better manage your emotions and help you be a good example for those you work with. Managing your emotions and your actions will help you adapt better to a new environment, new people and also in situations where change is inevitable.

Staying cool and collected even under stressful situations which might be out of your control is a big part of developing your emotional intelligence. The only way to achieve that is through managing yourself and your emotions in order to show those you work with that you have everything under control.

3. Empathy

Being empathetic towards the people you work with, is a skill which will help you connect with the people you work with and allow you to put yourself in their positions. When working with others, it is only normal for you to come across problems that need solving and in some cases you need to be able to put yourself in the situation in order to provide good advice for the people you are leading.

The more you understand and can relate to the people you work with, the easier it will be for you to think ahead of them and save everyone from potential mistakes and difficult situations. And when problems do arise, empathy will help you show real interest and work hard towards providing a solution.

4. Relationship Management

No matter the field of work you find yourself in, leading a team of people will require you to establish good professional relationships with them. A big part of any business relationship revolves around trust and a feeling of unity between the members of a team and emotional intelligence will help you work towards securing them.

A high level of emotional intelligence will allow you to build relationships with those you work which will help everyone communicate their needs better, ask for help when they need it and work in unison in order to achieve the results you wish.

5. Effective communication

The last skill that brings emotional intelligence together is being able to communicate effectively what is on your mind, and also being able to create a working environment where your team can do the same. Establishing good and effective communication between your team members will help work flow more smoothly and without issues.

Lack of communication can cause tension and misunderstandings between people. As the leader, you will have to be the example and not only show everyone that they should feel free to express their opinions, worries, problems and ideas in order to improve the team as a whole.

Establishing good communication between the people you work with will help everyone see how their individual work affects the common goal of the team and help them work better together in order to achieve it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristin Savage is a contributing writer for GrabMyEssay and BestEssayEducation. Being a person who loves to express herself through writing, she tries to find ways to make sure she makes time to do everything she loves. This is exactly why she often partners up with platforms such as SupremeDissertations and IsAccurate in order to contribute to their blog sections and help educate readers on a variety of useful topics. In her spare time, she loves to practice yoga and experiment with baking in her kitchen.