In Hard Financial Times the Soft Skills of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Matter Even More By Shaun Killian
  In these times, whether you are trying to save your company or your career, the soft skills of emotional intelligence pay hard dividends. There is ample evidence linking emotional intelligence to effective leadership. Emotional intelligence is arguably the hottest topic in leadership development. There is also research conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership that shows how a lack of emotional intelligence underpins the most common reasons for career derailment. Clearly emotional intelligence matters. Yet, despite this well established fact, there is little practical guidance on how to actually become a more emotionally intelligent leadership. This article, written by the Australian Leadership Development Centre
team, will give you the guidance you need. To become a more emotionally intelligent leader you need to: 1. Accept the role of emotions in the workplace 2. Understand how emotions work 3. Become more aware of how you feel 4. Develop your ability to master your own feelings 5. Become better at reading how other people feel 6. Start using the universal language of emotions to talk those you lead Accept the Role of Emotions in the Workplace   People are emotionally driven creatures. As a leader, emotions affect your own personal actions and the actions of those you lead.
Emotions underpin many of our choices and they affect the quality of thinking. Any attempts to relegate the place of emotions in the workplace behind the more acceptable roles of logic and reason are grounded in a delusional view of reality. The first step in becoming a more emotionally intelligent leader is to accept, and even welcome, the fact that emotions are a central aspect of organizational life that can work to help or hinder performance. Understand How Emotions Work   Trying to become a more emotionally intelligent manager without first understanding how emotions work is like trying to diagnose a patient without ever having attended medical school.
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