In the modern corporate world, we need emotional intelligence in leaders more than ever before. During the Corona crisis, we are used to working from home and doing tasks in front of the computer screen rather than in front of people. A leader with high emotional intelligence is now needed to offer the right guidance and give the right motivation to the groups of workers.
We are afraid of many things, especially when we hear the news and listen to the unemployment rates. We are scared of losing our jobs and we need support at the workplace.
The importance of emotional intelligence in leadership comes first as a priority in finding a good balance between the workers’ attention to work and their relaxation time after work.
That is why leaders should show empathy and leadership that is flexible enough to make the workers more relaxed and more focused on the relevant tasks at the same time.
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, manage, and regulate emotions. It is a skill that can be learned and trained. Most leaders know that emotional intelligence is very important in the workplace and that is why they try to implement and improve this kind of intelligence all the time.
Emotionally intelligent leaders can create motivated teams with better productive results.
According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who emphasized this kind of intelligence, emotional intelligence consists of five factors. These are:
- Self-awareness – It involves being aware of different aspects of the self including traits, behaviors, and feelings.
- Self-regulation – It is the ability to manage your emotions and behavior in accordance with the demands of the situation.
- Motivation – It is the process of stimulating people to action to accomplish the goals.
- Empathy – It is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
- Social skills – These are the skills we use every day to interact and communicate with others.
All of these five key factors of emotional intelligence are crucially important for leadership. Emotional intelligence and leadership go hand in hand when it comes to a company’s success. If you want to be a good leader, you must develop the mentioned fine aspects of emotional intelligence.
Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important in Leadership?
Leaders who have higher EI (emotional intelligence) are the ones who can create better teams and better working environments. In most companies, you can find workers that come from different backgrounds and have different styles of communication. In these kinds of situations, a leader should know how to approach each individual with an empathetic approach that everyone can understand.
The importance of emotional intelligence in leadership comes to light in many different situations. Usually, when one member of the team struggles with the task or cannot communicate well, the entire team loses its momentum.
To avoid this situation, a good leader should approach the person with a good attitude and good will to solve the issue. It could be a lack of motivation in a worker or some personal problem that is bothering a person. A good leader should reveal the source of the problem and offer the needed support when it is needed.
Emotional intelligence is important in leadership because it can solve many problems in the workplace. Leaders with high EI can create more motivated teams that bring better results. At the same time, the leaders will be approachable and it will be easy to communicate with them if they approach each worker by using good manners and good social skills.
Emotional intelligence and leadership are tightly connected and they intersect each other in every organization. That is why leaders who want to have better teams must work on emotional intelligence first.