Efficiency and timelines are the two core components based on which leaders evaluate their employees’ performance. However, relying on these factors may not be beneficial in long-run growth and productivity. Such a narrow perspective can lead to employees turning over and looking towards opportunities that promote growth and independence.
Many leaders turn to core emotional intelligence components while evaluating their employee’s performance. These components assist in understanding the emotions and motivation beyond productivity, target efficiency and timeliness.
Many experts believe that emotional intelligence offers a fresh perspective for leaders to measure and monitor the performance of their employees. It is a framework that fosters growth, innovation, creativity and leadership. In this blog, we will understand
- What is emotional intelligence ?
- What is the importance of emotional intelligence that leads to powerful leadership?
- What are the components of emotional intelligence in leadership ?
What is emotional intelligence?
The most effective leaders and experts recognize Emotional intelligence as a critical skill that helps in understanding and addressing the problems of their team, hence it has become an integral part of leadership style. Emotional intelligence in leadership is the ability to understand one’s emotions and to be able to comprehend and control the emotions and perspectives of others positively.
The term “Emotional Intelligence” was believed to be coined in 1990 by researchers John Mayer and Peter Salovey. However, its significance has recently been realised in recent years with the evolution of leadership roles.
Interestingly, emotional intelligence is a great parameter for assessing the effectiveness of leadership style. Many believe that communication skills, technical skills and intelligence are of no use when the leader lacks emotional intelligence. This has forced many leaders to imbibe and implement emotional intelligence to their leadership style to incite motivation, job satisfaction and positive work ambience.
Components of Emotional Intelligence
While many leaders possess great technical and communication skills, many leaders often fail to possess emotional intelligence. The leader is the face of the company and is often the organization’s voice. It is pertinent that a leader must possess the right skill set for the betterment of the company and its employees. If the leaders lack emotional intelligence the company can’t cope with the complex business problems. This is why emotional intelligence is important
- Emotional intelligence brings in a positive work environment which improves the efficiency and productivity of the company.
- It stimulates innovation, growth, efficiency and productivity in the organization.
- It inspires leaders and team members to perform at their best
- Emotional intelligence helps leaders and team members to make right decisions in difficult situations
- It nurtures a strong bond between leaders and employees
Components of emotional intelligence in leadership
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the ability to understand oneself at a deeper level. Being self-aware means knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses. It helps in controlling one’s emotions, which further helps in dealing with difficult situations that can impact the team members.
Furthermore, leaders should be well-versed in their abilities so that they can guide and control their teams. This ability helps them make sound and beneficial decisions that bring personal growth to the team members and drive prosperity within the company.
There is no particular standard to measure whether the leader is self-aware or not, but getting proper feedback is a great way to estimate the degree of self-awareness of the leader.
Additionally, introspecting one’s behaviour is the best way to check one’s self-awareness quotient.
Self-Management
Self-management is another important component of emotional intelligence that has a vital role to play in difficult business scenarios. It reflects the leader’s ability to manage their calm and control their emotions in tough situations. Hence it becomes an imperative part of leadership skills. It empowers the leader with the skills to handle difficult situations. Furthermore, it educates the leaders on how to react to certain situations while maintaining calm and equilibrium.
Social awareness
A business doesn’t exist in isolation; therefore, a leader must know what’s going on around the business environment. Knowing is better for creating effective business strategies and implementing plans that allow employees to adapt to dynamic market conditions.
But social awareness is just an external factor. The leader can also understand the emotions of individuals within an organisation. Leaders who have a strong hold on social awareness are also endowed with empathy which allows them to zero in on the perspective of others thereby offering effective communication and collaboration.
Surprisingly empathy is considered a critical skill that is welcomed and is adopted by leaders across industries and businesses. Experts believe that leaders who practice empathy are not only effective but are influential too because they understand human behaviour better.
Relationship Management
Relationship management is an inbuilt skill of a leader that helps them in resolving issues, mentoring, influencing and coaching their team. It also refers to the ability of the leader to avoid any conflicts within the organization. Employees always look for a job environment which promises job satisfaction and promotes growth. Therefore, fostering harmony and maintaining peace among all the individuals in the organisation is the primary responsibility of the leaders.
Final Thoughts
Emotional intelligence in leadership is transformative which fosters empathy in leaders that helps in promoting growth in organisation and effective communication that solves complex issues. If you want to improve emotional intelligence you must learn these components of emotional intelligence and try to implement them into your work environment.
