Why You Have to have a high Emotional intelligence as a Leader

It takes more than just being smart and educated. You need to allow your emotions to surface from time to time in order to understand yourself and others in your team or closest social environment.

It’s called Emotional Intelligence or EQ.

What is Emotional Intelligence ?

It is the awareness of personal and other people’s emotional states. Person who has a high EQ is more likely to effectively lead the team than a person with just a high IQ.

It is a perfect mix when you have both. But it does take time for the people with high IQ’s to master the control over their emotions. For example, a man with a high IQ but with a low emotional intelligence (EQ) could run a successful business by working long hours every day, but he will most likely release his tension through home violence, alcohol and drugs.

On the other hand, a man with a high emotional intelligence / EQ and IQ respectively will understand that the acute anxiety he’s experiencing is work related and he will manage to separate it, isolate it, analyze it and deal with it without causing additional damage to self or to other people.

What is the Connection between emotional intelligence and Team Leadership

If you are a team leader, you already know how difficult it is to manage and control the mix of different characters. We all have our own problems and it is difficult to separate private from professional sometimes.

This is the critical role of the team leader and the one with a high emotional intelligence will successfully recognize the signs due to his ability to empathize with another person and to understand the cause of that person’s anxiety. Thus, by knowing what is happening, you are able to deal with it more effectively.

In turns, this will improve the communication between you and the team and between team members since only 7 percent of communication comes from verbal cues while the rest is reserved for facial expressions and body language.

You don’t remove emotions from the decision making entirely. People with higher emotional intelligence EQ will be able to recognize the fact that acute and incidental state of anxiety is not caused by current event or situation.

Thus, by knowing and understanding emotions and by incorporating them in your decision making process it is far less likely that you will make a bad decision.

Ultimately you need to master four skills, all connected with emotional intelligence and team leadership to be truly recognized as the leader.

Emotional intelligence Skill #1 – Self-analysis

One has to know himself in order to know his limitations and ultimately to know others. Concentrate and think who you are? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? How do you handle the crisis?

Emotional intelligence Skill #2 – Discipline

You have to be able to control yourself. Just as you will spread the panic, you will be able to calm the situation and make sure that operations are running smoothly.

Emotional intelligence Skill #3 – Relationship Management

This is not only limited to your professional environment. Nurturing the relationship you have with people is connected with our innate instincts and doing things any other way will backfire sooner than later.

As a member of human species, you cannot do it alone nor in a hostile or unknown environment.

Emotional intelligence Skill #4 – Communications Management

This is in the core of emotional intelligence. Once you are able to analyze yourself and others, you will improve your communication skills because it is irrational to even consider the option that you can use the same type of communication for each individual or group.

Once you know whom you are talking to and the states of minds of you two, you can adjust the communication type and channels accordingly.

Great communication largely depends of empathy you have toward others. If you just don’t care, your message will start hitting the wall and you won’t be able to effectively lead the team.

When all is analyzed, it is clear that even though you are a man with a high IQ, if you lack the compassion and empathy, you are less effective as a team leader. Maybe it’s time to make the effort and improve that part of your character.

Spend time investigating your emotions. See what triggers them. Observe the others through the prism of advanced situational awareness. See how they interact with their environment and what might cause stress or panic.

Really make an effort to understand others because you will evolve through it.