In this article, I want to briefly address how the social aspects of emotional intelligence can help define a stronger leader.
My current motivation is to become an emotional intelligent leader. I just recently completed a 9 month InnerMBA certification course from Sounds True and NYU so I want to be a leader in the tech industry that is focused on promoting empathy and compassion in the workplace. I want to help others learn and grow in their career while maintaining a good work life balance.
I want to create a team where the members of the team really embrace a sense of camaraderie, teamwork, collaboration and mentorship. I want to build a team centered around transparency, growth, innovation, radical candor and trust. Every member of the team should be happy and excited to do what they do.
To be a successful leader, research by EQ provider TalentSmart shows that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance detailed in an HBS blog article.
The 5 components of emotional intelligence developed by Daniel Goleman are
- self-awareness- mindful of your own emotions
- self-regulation- managing your emotions
- internal motivation- motivating yourself
- empathy- recognize and aware of other people’s emotions
- social skills- managing the relationships with others
The five realms above are then broken down into 4 quadrants:
- Self-awareness
- Self-management
- Social awareness
- Relationship management
A leader that exhibits a strong sense of these traits can really impact the individuals that work under you and has been a proven measure of success.
The intrapersonal (self quadrants in the diagram above) can be important to working on yourself but to be emotionally intelligent you have to also exhibit the interpersonal (social quadrants in the diagram above). I want to first focus on the social half and follow up in another article on the self components. Since I have worked in the bay area tech industry for 20+ years, my emphasis is on the tech industry.
Social Awareness
Becoming a good leader that shows empathy and compassion. Showing Servant Leadership really enforces growth internally and fosters respect and trust. Being able to not just lead and deliver but also able to grow people who inspire to make a difference. I want to provide individuals a path to their own aspirations. Show empathy by being someone that will listen, trust, acknowledge, appreciate, and grow along with them. Show compassion by staying positive and treating everyone positively and equally.
Organizational Awareness is having the ability to read your team’s emotions and relationships. Establishing a relationship with trust and openness enables a team that is not afraid to speak their mind. This will foster a positive experience and ability to address any areas for concerns or improvements.
Service orientation is the ability to anticipate and preemptively recognize any concerns or needs by the team. Showing the concern and respect for each individual builds the recognition and addresses the priorities of a people first leadership mentality.
Relationship Management
Inspirational leadership is finding ways to enforce the strengths of individuals and working on improving the weaknesses. An individual will be most productive when they are working on something that they are interested and passionate about.
Give credit and show appreciation tailored to teams and individuals. Increasing the sense of meaning will help promote effectiveness and avoid burnout. In addition to promoting individual achievement, building a sense of team will also increase collaboration more effectively to achieve success inclusively.
Developing others by providing guidance, coaching, and mentorship by helping them work on areas of improvement will not just help out the individuals but bring a sense of accomplishment and joy to oneself which can be very impactful as well.
Tailor coaching to learning styles. Lead each individual according to their style and personality. Empower individuals to continue to growth and learn by providing them guidance as opposed to providing them with solutions.
Influence. Leaders make a difference by gaining respect. Your actions can make a strong impact on others. Words also need to be backed up by corresponding actions.
Building Bonds by establishing a relationship with each individual. Transform talent into performance. A good manager is someone who takes an interest in every team member and takes the time and effort to communicate with them effectively to help them discover their strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, strengths can be utilized effectively to mentor the rest of the team while weaknesses are great areas for improvement. Highlight the fact that we are trying to achieve a common goal together as a team and no single individual should be left behind.
Listen and build trust. It is important to show transparency in the roadmap and future initiatives such as involving the team in planning and design and constantly getting feedback and suggestions. The team benefits from feeling appreciated and involved when they know what their goals are so that they have a sense of accomplishment to strive towards.
Teamwork and Collaboration. Working as a team and collaborating well with other teams can be very important to the success of the collaborative projects. The team should feel comfortable with each other to help out without any hesitation, speak up freely, as well as provide radical candor to each other.
Ultimately, you have to determine what style of leadership you want to follow and what your goal is. It is not always about the money and stock options or finding the next Unicorn/IPO. For me, it is about working for a company and management team that promotes people first and a passion for innovation.