What is the secret to becoming an effective and well-respected leader? Is it your ability to identify unchartered territories in the marketplace? Is it your financial savvy? Some of today’s experts believe strong leadership comes down to your emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence means being aware that emotions can drive your behavior and impact people (positively and negatively), and learning how to manage those emotions —both your own and those of others—especially when under pressure.
Your intelligence quotient, or IQ, typically doesn’t change drastically over time. Basically, your level of “smarts” stays the same all of your life, even though you continue to learn new things. However, your emotional intelligence, or EQ, is a learned trait that can be developed and strengthened over time.
Yesterday, Promotional Consultant Today shared three ways to show empathy and build your EQ skill as a leader, according to business author and Inc. columnist Scott Mautz. Today we’ll share four more EQ tips from Mautz.
1. Empathy for the past. Often new leaders come into a leadership role and quickly get to work trashing the past in an attempt to show the future will be brighter. In so doing, they forget that most of the people they’re addressing were part of that past, some still intricately tied to it. Show compassion by carefully framing how you talk about the past and craft your comments with respect.
2. Empathy for different communication styles. We don’t all get across our ideas in the same way. One person might be slow and deliberate while another person might express thoughts in a disjointed and rapid-fire style. Neither approach is better over the other, and both people could have good ideas, but to be an effective leader, you have to show patience for their styles of communication.
3. Communal empathy. Empathetic leaders care and are intentional about how a team comes together. Is the team bonding into a cohesive unit? What issues is it facing? Is there a destructive personality on the team causing chemistry problems? The first step is to care enough to pay attention to team dynamics. Then, there are plenty of ways to build camaraderie and strengthen teamwork.
4. Projected empathy. This means showing care and concern for how the organization as an entity shows up to employees and stakeholders. Companies that are voted as the best places to work often have a common thread—an intentional effort to engage employees in community outreach efforts and a crisp company purpose that’s about something bigger than the company. Take time to care how your company shows up to external stakeholders.
Be aware of the styles of expression for empathy and develop your emotional intelligence as a leader.
Source: Scott Mautz is the author of Find The Fire: Ignite Your Inspiration and Make Work Exciting Again. He’s also an award-winning keynote speaker and a seasoned Procter & Gamble veteran who successfully ran several of the company’s largest multibillion-dollar businesses. He’s the CEO of Profound Performance, an online entrepreneur and an adjunct professor at Indiana University. Mautz writes and speaks passionately on how to work, lead and live fulfilled.