The following five abilities are key to becoming a successful emotionally intelligent leader:
Self-awareness
Self-awareness is all about being aware of your emotions. It means being more conscious about how they affect your decisions and not allowing them to hijack them. How you are feeling at any moment can change rapidly, depending on the type of situation you are in. By recognising these feelings and emotions, you will learn to pause and make a conscious choice about how to behave rather than just reacting. Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to assess the complexities of some situations and respond in a more considered way.
Awareness of others
An awareness of others is key to good leadership. In order to engage with your people, you need to be able to understand or detect their emotions. A tactful, measured response to situations allows you to read people better and to not be influenced purely by their external behaviours.
Being able to listen properly
Filling an uncomfortable silence, or not managing to see the point of the person talking is one of the big errors of leaders who are not emotionally intelligent. The ability to listen is not just about taking on board what the person is saying, it is also about getting beyond their words. It often surprises leaders to know that words are only 7{205a4e8a83ff01c1299b1fa5858d665f87e8234ab64223651103df541d21c1a0} of the communication and that tone of voice is 38{205a4e8a83ff01c1299b1fa5858d665f87e8234ab64223651103df541d21c1a0} and body language 55{205a4e8a83ff01c1299b1fa5858d665f87e8234ab64223651103df541d21c1a0}. Tuning in beyond the words enables you to get the emotions behind what people are saying.
Ability to anticipate feelings and react appropriately and effectively
Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to anticipate the various reactions of people to a development that affects them. Before difficult news breaks, these leaders make sure that they are not only ready to deliver it appropriately, showing that they are aware of and understand the emotions people are feeling , but also put everything in place to limit the damage. They also make sure that people feel able to approach them with queries so that they have access to as much information as possible. This level of accessibility and openness limits the damage that can be cause in challenging times by gossip and rumour.
Picking up on tension and moods
Being able to tune in to the mood of an office, a department or a group of people is key to emotionally intelligent leadership. Offices can be a melting pot of emotions at times, through difference of opinion, external issues or workplace insecurities. Leaders need to be able to pick up on and change an emotional atmosphere and address these issues appropriately. As already noted, communication is 90{205a4e8a83ff01c1299b1fa5858d665f87e8234ab64223651103df541d21c1a0} non-verbal – and it takes an emotionally intelligent leader to pick up on tensions without them being verbally communicated.
