Leadership Success Using Emotional Intelligence as a Practical Skillset
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What Kind of Training is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence (sometimes referred to as EI or EQ) is the ability to read, interpret, and influence one’s own emotions and the emotions of others. Those individuals who have a high degree of emotional intelligence are in tune with what they're feeling, know what their emotions mean, and understand how their emotions may affect others.
Emotional intelligence is vital to becoming more successful as a leader.
4 Components of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
According to EI expert, Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence can be applied to meet goals, as well as create a positive organizational culture. These four areas help managers show interest while maintaining objectivity. Through their own self-awareness, they can promote a productive and motivated work environment.
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Self-awareness: Those who possess a high degree of emotional self-awareness understand the origin of their emotions and can recognize their own strengths and weaknesses.
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Self-regulation: Thoughtful, positive, and adaptable people are often able to self-manage or control negative emotions like anger, jealousy, impulsivity, and carelessness.
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Social awareness or empathy: Awareness and understanding of the wants, needs, and opinions of others is crucial for managing relationships, listening, and relating to others on an emotional level.
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Relationship management: Someone skilled in relationship management, besides being easy to talk to and likable, means they’re an excellent leader and are often skilled in teamwork and conflict management.
The Emotional Intelligence workshops and courses listed above will help keep you calm, collected, and caring as you advance in your career.
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence
The Institute for Health and Human Potential cites a manufacturing plant that reduced lost-time accidents by 50%, a multinational financial services corporation whose financial advisors boosted business, and a famous telecommunications agency that increased productivity in 93% of their employees—all thanks to emotional intelligence training!
While IQ is the primary determiner of professional abilities, soft skills like emotional intelligence can indicate who will become the most productive employee or effective leader. Research has repeatedly shown a positive correlation between executives’ emotional intelligence and their company’s profitability.
Since companies experience a high rate of success when they focus on emotional intelligence training, many have adopted it as a key component in the hiring process. For example, one large cosmetics company increased sales by $91,000 and significantly reduced staff turnover when they began to choose candidates based on their emotional intelligence.
These real-world examples illustrate the positive impact emotional intelligence training can have on the success of your organization and its employees.
How to Improve Emotional Intelligence
Some people have a natural ability to just "read the room." But, it's not as easy as that. Emotional intelligence training can help anyone-- experienced or novice-- in recognizing the needs of others and controlling their own emotional response to remain open to others.
Here are five ways you can develop your emotional intelligence skills:
- Manage your emotions (especially the negative ones). When you stay in control, it's easier to remain objective and not get overwhelmed by your emotion.
- Know your triggers. When you're aware of the things or situations that create stress for you, it's easier to stay in control and get ahead of them.
- Be specific in your communication. When you are mindful of the words you use, you become a more effective communicator.
- Focus on being empathetic. When you focus on the "human" side of the human being across from you, it becomes easier to understand their issues or point of view.
- Learn resilience. When you're positive, it is easier to bounce back, find solutions and keep moving forward.
Emotional Intelligence Training for Leaders
Corporate surveys of chief executive officers and top-level managers have shown that emotional intelligence is crucial for fostering productivity and driving success, performance, and inspiration. There are many reasons why emotional intelligence is one of the deciding factors for leadership success:
- Leaders with high emotional intelligence can make more rational, impartial decisions. High emotional intelligence leaders will recognize when emotions like pride are negatively interfering with their decision-making process.
- Emotional intelligence can help regulate employees’ emotions when sharing particularly good or bad news. Thinking ahead to be able to anticipate any negative feelings or even excessively positive ones can help a leader react in kind. Leaders are then better equipped to keep employees grounded.
- Managers with high emotional intelligence are better at assessing the emotional and psychological state of their employees. This allows them to identify those who suffer from mental health issues like depression and anxiety and assist them in seeking help.
Emotional Intelligence Workshops and Training Courses
Emotional intelligence training is delivered in many different formats, but most often as on-site training programs where an expert comes to your organization and trains the whole team. These courses are also widely available for individual learners as two- or three-day emotional intelligence workshops and seminars near you. For those more limited on time, earning an emotional intelligence certification online is a great option.
Important concepts and topics covered during emotional intelligence training include body language, effective communication, the classification of human emotions, and the science of cognitive abilities and emotions.
Emotional intelligence training through courses or workshops is extremely valuable for professionals looking to further their careers within the managerial and leadership sector of any company. While the professional benefits of emotional intelligence training are profound, these skills play an essential role during social interactions on a personal level as well.
Anyone—leader, manager, or even entry-level employee—can benefit from one of the above workshop or training programs to improve emotional intelligence.