Learn the Right Way to Empower Emotional Intelligence in Your Leadership

Who is a leader? 

You can easily find them at your workplace. You may find them in your schools and classrooms, you may find them in political parties, in volunteering organizations, in army camps, at industrial infrastructures, business organizations, even within your families. Leaders are just about everywhere. 

A leader is a person who takes up the responsibility of leading a group of people towards a defined set of objectives. He is the person who devises a clear vision, sets the mission statement & defines goals. 

A great leader is one who knows how to properly strategize, plan and then accomplish set goals. And when they work with a team, these skills are often displayed and are appreciated by other teammates. 

However, in today’s modern age of digitalization, businesses have become diverse. People have become more familiar with smartphone technology and it has allowed them to interconnect through social media. Leaders are now expected to do more and show considerable proficiency in leadership. 

They are valued more because of their soft skills rather than their strong leadership skills. 

Today, I am going to discuss how modern-day leaders can become more emotionally intelligent. 

So without further Ado, let’s begin. 

5 Crucial Traits of Emotional Intelligence in Highly Effective Leaders

“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was a man filled with compassion. He was a true born leader who led the Rough Riders during the Spanish – American War and returned back as a hero. After then, he was elected the Governor of New York in 1898. Right after the death of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt was elected as the President of the United States back in 1901. 

Roosevelt set himself as a remarkable example of leadership. He took some exemplary actions in the field of business & finance, the non-profit sector, government agency, and military. He authored his own character and strove to live up to his values. However, one of the greatest things that people loved about his leadership was that he was the person who cared. 

We often wonder what makes a leader, a true born leader. Here are 5 crucial traits of emotional intelligence which adds to the complete quotient of becoming an effective leader. 

Self-Awareness

As a leader, self-awareness is extremely important for your leadership. It is important that you should be completely aware of your own emotions. You should know what aspects trigger which emotions and how you are reacting to them. Knowing how to react to a situation will define the integrity of your leadership. It will help you manage these emotions in a perfect manner and you respond effectively. 

When leaders are aware of their emotions, they are much aware of how to react to emotion triggering situations. It empowers them to take charge of their thinking capabilities and as a result, they start making better decisions. And those who react impulsively often end up losing their leadership. To be a successful leader, it is highly important that you are self-aware of your emotions, skills, and talent.

Strong Listening Skills

Being emotionally intelligent about oneself is one thing, but being emotionally intelligent to understand others is what sets a leader apart from the rest of the crowd. However, to understand others, their needs and requirements, you must possess strong listening skills. 

Most leaders fall into the trap of responding back instead of actively listening to the problem of their teammates. A great leader always avoids getting into such pitfalls because he develops a sense of empathy in time. He puts himself in other people situation and then thinks like them to solve it. 

He picks up the emotions behind every word spoken and then gauge it accordingly. When you listen to your staff, you adopt the ability to connect with them on an emotional level. As a result, your staff feels more overwhelmed and would love to come forward with great ideas to achieve great success. 

Awareness in Others

The more self-aware you are as a leader, the better it is for you to understand your skills. However, it also depends on how good you are in creating the same awareness among other employees. Many employees find themselves trapped in their own nerve-wracking thought process which often pushes them into the void of false beliefs. They start observing things from their own biased perspectives. 

Sometimes, this biased perspective leads them to develop negative emotions & self-pity attitude. 

Keeping a tap on awareness of emotions, leaders can understand what their employees are feeling. If an employee has a weak emotional quotient, he can sit them down and help them resolve problems. 

By suggesting them to develop an attitude which enables them to be self-aware, leaders can educate their subordinates so they become strong in their judgments and harness the overwhelming feelings. 

Relationship Management

As a leader, you can’t make deep connections unless your mind is noise-free. For that, you need to keep your attention and focus strong. If you’re someone who can get easily distracted, the role of leadership just might not be for you. Many of us have families and with them comes a few problems. 

If you are an emotionally intelligent leader, you can easily combat these problems on personal and professional levels alike. Effective relationship management not only allows you to think straight but also keeps your mind productive and allows you to gain a higher level of emotional intelligence. 

Leaders who are excellent in relationship management can move teams in the desired direction.

Self-Regulation

The ability to understand what changes are being implemented across the organization and yet, keep the team self-motivated and progressive positively towards the organization’s goal is self-regulation. 

As a leader, it is very important that you know all the ins and outs of self-regulation. If you know how to keep your teams playing in one direction, you can achieve much better without raising the flags. 

Some business leaders classify self-regulation as maintaining a discipline. It involves controlling, redirecting, and adapting to changing circumstances in order to keep the team moving forward. 

It is important that leaders shouldn’t lose their cool under any circumstances. When they stay calm in troubled situations, they are more focused and they can think positively and with more clarity. 

End Note

Leadership is a trait, it is not a skill or a talent. You can’t develop leadership; you need to have these traits in your personality rather than get trained by a professional. Without having an emotional quotient within your leadership skill, you can hardly penetrate the modern day employee mindsets. To do so, you need to learn how to listen to them, understand them and help them meet their goals. 

The sign of a good leader is one that understands you. Are you a good leader? Yes or No.