The company Xerox was one of the first to carry out benchmarking on a regular basis, they define benchmarking as:
“A continuous, systematic process of evaluating companies regognized as indistry leaders, to determine business and work processes that represent ‘best practice’ and establish rational performance goals.”
Emotional intelligence in leadership, which is often shortened to just EI is the ability a leader has to be able to recognize, understand and manage both the emotions of others and their own emotions.
It’s about guiding your thoughts and actions based on the emotions of others to make effective decisions.
Leaders who are emotionally intelligent are often strong communicators that can build productive, effective working relationships. They can often handle stress and pressure and create positive work environments.
EI leaders are able to manage conflicts and tend to be effective negotiators. Emotional Intelligence in leadership is bout empathizing with the people that you lead. It is thought to be a crucial component of effective leadership as it enables team members to feel valued and assists them in reaching their full potential
There are a number of reasons why emotional intelligence in leadership is important…
Leadership is ultimately about getting things done by a team of people. To do this requires the leader to understand and motivate the people they are responsible for. Emotional intelligence helps leaders better understand and motivate people – it’s about reading the signs of an individual. What makes them tick? What do they like or dislike, etc? What communication styles work best with a particular individual?
Having emotional intelligence as a leader can prevent you from taking actions or making decisions that could damage team morale or create a conflict in the workplace.
There are said to be 5 essential tools for an emotionally intelligent leader, these are:
Allows a leader to put themselves in another person’s shoes so to speak. To see things from their perspective. This often results in the building of stronger working relationships, making better decisions, and creating a more positive work environment
This is about the leader being aware of their own emotions in the main but also having a strong awareness of the emotions of others. Being able to manage and understand such emotions is conducive to an effective, productive, and positive work environment.
Enable the leader to stay in control of their emotions. Regulating one’s emotions enables you to better make decisions with the best interests of your team or organization at heart. It’s also important for keeping conflict at bay.
Social skills are all about interacting with others effectively. Emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware and understand emotions, and to use this information to guide your thoughts and actions. Strong social skills are a complement to emotional intelligence.
Motivation allows the leader to influence and inspire others. Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to read key emotions from individuals to better enable them to best understand what motivates those individuals most effectively.
In short, yes it does! It allows leaders to better understand and relate to the people they are leading. It enables better response to difficult situations from the understanding of the emotional needs of the people you are surrounded by.
I think a good example of emotional intelligence that I experienced during my time as a leader was picking up on the skills, strengths, and motivations of others. I had one individual who was highly technical, providing him with the latest bit of technological kit or software would make him happy, productive, and motivated for months. I had another individual who loved to be involved in the more strategic aspects of the business, if I invited her to the core strategy meetings she was made up and very useful in the meeting.
I personally see emotional intelligence as the ability to spot those kinds of things… What does an individual like? What do they dislike? What makes them smile? What do they like to talk about? etc. Armed with this knowledge it’s much easier to get things done at the right time and by the right people – meaning people who would be happy doing the task at hand.
The understanding of feelings and emotions tends to lead to more productive, efficient, and effective teams. It builds relationships, helps resolve conflicts, and creates a positive workplace and culture. It contributes to overall job satisfaction and employee engagement which ultimately leads to improved staff retention and improved performance overall.
As was probably made clear in the previous parts of this post emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware of and manage one’s own emotions, and the emotions of others. It’s an important life skill and one that can actually be improved with practice.
People who have high emotional intelligence tend to have more success in life. High EI enables people to better manage relationships, set and achieve goals and cope with more stress and adversity.
There are four key components to emotional intelligence:
1. Self-awareness: To be aware of and understand one’s own emotions.
2. Self-management: To manage one’s emotions and reactions in a healthy way.
3. Social awareness: To be aware of and understand the emotions of others.
4. Relationship management: To manage relationships effectively and take into account the emotions of others.
People with high EI are usually good at managing their own emotions and the emotions of others
To effectively communicate with others a leader must build and maintain positive relationships. To do this they need to be able to understand the emotions of others and respond in a way that meets those needs. It’s about making people feel comfortable and respected.
Active listening is a key communication skill for leaders. Leaders need to be able to listen to their team and understand individual needs and concerns, which requires empathy and emotional intelligence. Active listening is a communication skill that is used to improve communication by concentrating on the speaker and what they are saying. It’s about making the speaker feel heard and valued, and responding thoughtfully.
Whereas effective communication is a process of exchanging information in a way that the message is accurately understood and acted upon. It involves understanding the needs of the person or people that you are communicating with and clearly conveying your message to them. It’s about ensuring that the message was received and properly understood.
Having the ability to effectively manage conflict and negotiate solutions is a key competence for emotionally intelligent leaders. It’s about spotting emotions early and creating win-win solutions that satisfy the needs of all parties involved while building an environment of trust and respect. Making employees feel heard and valued.
Empathy is key to emotional intelligence as it involves understanding how others are feeling and being able to see the situation from their perspective. It can enable you to better understand exactly where your team members are coming from, and what point they’re trying to put across or what they’re dealing with. Understanding team needs and wants can be a powerful strategy for motivating them to get stuff done.
Self-awareness is always the first step toward emotional intelligence. To be able to be aware of others’ emotions you must first be fully aware and able to regulate your own emotions. You need to be aware of things that trigger your emotions and be able to control your reactions even when in difficult or stressful situations. It’s about staying calm, keeping clear-headed, and focused, all of the aforementioned are essential for making good decisions.
To develop emotional intelligence in team members, leaders should:
Follow your dreams today. Think of your dreams as powerful forms of energy. Write them down. Shout them out loud. Share them with your close friends and family. Start acting on them now!
Writing your dreams down is a great first start towards achieving them. For example, say you\’ve always dreamed of writing a book. Pull out a journal or notebook and write it down. What is your book about? What topics will it cover? Write them down too. Next share your dream with others.
Sharing enhances energy as it helps with commitment and motivation. It also helps in terms of other people helping you. Back to the book example, perhaps someone in your family could help you proofread the manuscript? Maybe you have an arty friend who can help you with the book\’s artwork?
Dreams start in an incubator type stage. This is where you are still forming and mapping out the dream.
As you write down and share your dream with others it will start to become clearer as to what exactly you need to do to begin to make it a reality.
Leadership in life is all about doing and achieving what is important to you. The simple fact that you direct your own life from day to day makes you a leader. It\’s about getting results that are most meaningful to you.
This could be anything, such as pursuing a hobby or pastime to the best of your ability, managing a local sports team or giving your kids the best life learning opportunities and experiences.
Leadership in life is about meeting your own personal goals and objectives. It\’s about succeeding in the things that matter to you.
The process of getting the results that are important to you is a form of leadership. So if you\’ve never really thought of yourself as a successful leader start reflecting on all the things you have achieved in your life and what you did to get to that point. You may quickly discover that you\’re a much stronger leader than you thought.
A good plan of action is to record your goals down in a notebook or smart device. Also, note down any steps that you think you need to do to reach each goal. The simple act of writing things down tends to enable us to reach our personal goals and objectives much more quickly.
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