The Emotionally Intelligent Leader Are you an emotionally intelligent leader? What does it mean to be emotionally intelligent? Does emotional intelligence really matter to me as in individual? Well, before exploring in details the vitality of emotional intelligence and the impact of our daily emotions-positive or negative, I would want you to take a few minutes to ponder over these questions: Do I really understand my emotional make-up? Am I able to read others' emotions and react positively to them? Do I find it difficult to get along with some people? Am I really open to change? Really, emotional intelligence is about understanding your emotions and that of others, so you can relate well with self and others. In my leadership forum on facebook (Elvis Leadership Forum), I posted an article titled: What every follower wants in a leader. In response to that article, one of the members, Tunji, asked me a question that goes: "Elvis this is a very good article.Personally my concern really lies around leadership.
A leader's mood has the ability to permeate through the organisation from the top and it can positively or negatively affect the organisation. I have seen it happen in the latter case and the outcome was really not pretty. How do followers remain motivated when some leaders lack the emotional intelligence to lead followers effectively?" In fact, the emotion that the leaders portray in an organization can be very contagious. Naturally, a leaders' emotion, positive or negative, has a strong influence on employees' productivity at workplace. When the leader exhibit positive mood or attitude that energizes employees, there will be high morale and energy.
Daniel Goleman, in his ground breaking exposition on "emotional intelligence" pointed that emotional intelligence encompasses two main domains: The personal competence and social competence. According to him, personal competence is the leaders' ability to manage himself and his emotions. This actually has two parts-self-awareness (ability to read his own emotions) and self-management (ability to control his own emotions). Social competence on the other hand is the leaders' ability to manage relationship and other peoples' emotion. According to Goleman, this also has two partssocial awareness (ability of the leader to sense, understand, and react positively to others emotions) and secondly, relationship management (the ability of the leader to inspire, influence, handle interpersonal interactions, and develop others).
From the above scenario, if a leader lacks personal and social competence, he cannot emotionally connect with his followers. You see, leadership is a process-it's not automatic. The leaders have to understand the art of influencing the followers, which requires the leader to apply different leadership styles in any given situation. Personally, my own leadership framework is to make things clear to my followers. I adopt different approach and at different times. These could be democratic style, in order to seek other peoples' opinion. Autocratic style, when the followers must be compelled to carry out an instruction. Laissez-faire style, when followers can be allowed to take decisions and report to me. So, a good leader must possess these styles but when a leader is emotionally unintelligent, he makes life unbearable for his followers.
To answer Tunji's question as to, "How do followers (employees) remain motivated when some leaders lack the emotional intelligence to lead followers effectively"? I replied him by saying that: Your relationship with your boss is one of the key elements to actualizing a fulfilled day at work. When you do not get along with your boss, you can never be fulfilled at work. Much as there are some bosses who are micro-managers and difficult to work with, we also have many others who aren't difficult to deal with. Naturally, employees cannot change their boss's behavior but they can find a meeting point or common ground on how to deal with them. This is where the employee applies emotional intelligence to deal with the situation. When an employee is emotionally intelligent, he or she can recognize the feelings of their boss or their colleagues, and thus, help promote a healthy collaboration and relationship of the team rather than react negatively to their actions. And likewise, an executive who is emotionally intelligent has the ability to motivate and harness the strength of the employees towards achieving the organizational goal. Emotional Intelligence is an essential key to effective leadership. According to research, "67% of the essential competencies required for effective leadership today are emotional competencies". This further indicates that leaders who are emotionally intelligent are more attuned to understand the human dynamics which is a requisite to achieving greater results mostly in the organizational context where outburst of emotions abound due to pressures on the stakeholders to perform.
The question now is: How would today's leaders begin to apply emotional intelligence in their dealings with their people? As John C. Maxwell, a seasoned leadership expert said, "People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision". Meaning, the leaders' actions and attitudes toward those he is leading are closely watched. His success as a leader is judged by his "influence" and to what extent the followers are willing to follow his lead. And it is very interesting to know that a leader cannot influence those he is not willing to relate with on the emotional level. There is an adage that says, know them well to work better with them-this is emotional intelligence in action. As Henry Ford puts it,
"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success". The Leaders' success in working together with his followers begins by first seeking to understand and know the personalities of each team member he is leading. Once this is achieved, the leader can then spot what motivates each individual team member. In so doing, he can be able to position them according to their area of strength so they achieve maximum performance. Finally, we should know that emotional intelligence isn't talent we are born with; rather it is a skill that is learned. Therefore, building one's emotional intelligence as a leader has a lifelong impact not only for our own well-being but to our relationships with others.
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