Studies confirm the value of emotional intelligence as an invaluable leadership trait. According to research conducted by Spano-Szekely, Griffin, and Clavelle, leaders with high emotional quotient are more likely to display transformational leadership behaviors known as positive managerial behaviors or transformational leadership.
Emotional intelligence was coined by John Mayer and Peter Salovey and popularized by Daniel Goleman; its five components include self-awareness, empathy and effective emotional regulation. A focussed effort on developing emotional intelligence will improve team and organizational performance.
1. Empathy
Empathy is an integral component of emotional intelligence and can play an instrumental role in shaping leadership. Being empathic means prioritizing others’ needs over your own, which may prove difficult at times for leaders; yet understanding empathy’s power will allow you to become an even more effective leader and foster a more positive work environment for all your team members.
Empathy can be found across numerous disciplines, such as psychology, philosophy and sociology. Although described differently by each scholar, empathy generally refers to our ability to comprehend and vicariously experience the emotions and physical sensations of another person. Empathy draws its power from imitative capacities that allow us to associate another’s bodily movements or facial expressions with our proprioceptive sensation of doing them ourselves (Stueber 2006).
Empathetic leaders can connect emotionally with employees and understand their needs, helping them make ethical decisions that are fair to all parties involved. A manager who shows empathy towards his or her employees would likely avoid cutting benefits in order to increase profits; rather they would focus on finding solutions which benefit all.
An empathetic leader can also be flexible and adapt to unexpected issues with ease, handling stressful situations better and encouraging collaboration within their teams. They make ethically and morally sound decisions which foster a positive work environment.
Studies have demonstrated the connection between empathy and leadership effectiveness and motivation. Empathetic leaders provide personalized consideration to their followers while inspiring them towards reaching their goals.
2. Empowerment
Empowerment refers to enabling individuals or groups to access their own power, authority and influence for change within themselves or society. It stands in stark contrast with disempowerment – that demoralizing feeling one gets when being controlled by authoritarian regimes that diminish autonomy and undermine self-worth.
Tina worked tirelessly and earned a full ride academic scholarship to attend her dream university, leaving her feeling empowered by her achievements and motivated to continue pushing herself hard. Alejandro never ran a 5K race before but consistently attended training runs and gradually increased distance each week has given him confidence to complete it within three months.
Leaders who provide autonomy and responsibility to their team members experience greater levels of job satisfaction and motivation among employees. By creating this environment, leaders enable employees to feel more responsible for the company’s success while connecting more strongly to its mission.
Empowering leaders are adept communicators who clearly and concisely articulate their vision. Additionally, they welcome input from others and facilitate collaboration while being aware of biases within themselves or the organization and working to overcome them to build trust in the workplace.
Empowerment is a transformative leadership skill that can transform how we perceive and comprehend our world. It forms one of the foundations of a healthy, positive, and ultimately successful organization by giving individuals autonomy and responsibility in reaching their full potential – thus progressing our shared goal of creating a better planet.
3. Empathy for Others
Empathy is the ability to understand and share another person’s emotions, making it an essential component of emotional intelligence and helping leaders form successful connections with their followers and create productive dialogues. Empathy also plays a vital role in understanding and managing workplace conflicts effectively.
Empathetic leaders possess a strong sense of morality and tend to make more ethical decisions, encourage diverse perspectives, promote employee satisfaction and retain staff more easily – which helps increase retention rates and organizational loyalty. Furthermore, these types of leaders can adapt more readily to change in the workplace.
People typically possess the capacity to show empathy toward others, yet may find themselves unable to do so due to cognitive biases and mental shortcuts such as attribution errors, dehumanization and victim-blaming that prevent us from seeing other perspectives. Other factors which limit empathy include stress, fatigue and emotion exhaustion.
Though researchers have studied the relationship between empathy and altruism extensively, their researchers remain divided as to the exact role that egoism plays. Some suggest that this drives our desire for empathic distress because it allows us to recognize when someone needs our assistance or may be suffering (Batson 2010).
Studies suggest that simply sharing in another’s negative emotions does not automatically lead to empathy; in order to understand them and their suffering more deeply. Thus, perspective taking and affective sharing should be distinguished and the latter used more effectively; more likely will arouse sympathy than simply reacting negatively (Decety and Cowell 2015). Emotion-sharing does not necessitate congruent reactions on part of observers (Decety and Cowell 2015).
4. Relationships
Emotional intelligence plays an essential role in leadership, particularly in managing relationships. It allows leaders to recognize both their own emotions as well as those of others and use this insight to make better decisions and motivate employees – essential skills in any workplace where emotional intelligence helps boost productivity and morale.
Studies have also demonstrated the correlation between emotional intelligence and team development and building a sense of community among team members. Gardner and Stough (2002) conducted a research project using 110 senior level managers to examine transformational leadership’s relationship to emotional intelligence; those more emotionally intelligent were better able to create positive work environments and inspire collective interests, solving dilemmas more quickly, as well as making critical decisions when necessary.
This style of leadership is defined by trust, commitment and respect among employees. Furthermore, this form of leadership encourages open and honest communications with employees as well as listening carefully to their concerns. Furthermore, this form of leadership provides opportunities to provide constructive feedback that may improve performance and motivation levels.
An essential characteristic of effective leadership in high-stress work environments is developing healthy working relationships. A good leader should also encourage employees to pursue their goals and recognize when achievements have been reached.
Establishing emotional intelligence among leaders can be a complex endeavor that takes consistent practice to cultivate. But the benefits are certainly worth the effort: improved decisions, better relationships, and a more rewarding work environment are just a few examples of its many rewards. To learn more about emotional intelligence’s effect on leadership development join us at HR Vision London where our speakers will discuss this and other emerging workplace trends.
5. Vision
A leader creates an appealing vision of the future to inspire their followers and motivate them towards meeting it (Griffith et al., 2018). A vision may include anything from an overall emotional picture of ideal outcomes or it could focus on specific employee performance aspects (Griffith et al.).
Recently, there has been renewed attention given to vision as an element of leadership. Many new books emphasize this characteristic and draw from sources as diverse as secular leadership literature and New Age practices that suggest picturing something can bring it about. Christians should be wary of this trend and avoid drawing too heavily from such sources – particularly the belief that picturing it alone will cause it to occur.
Leaders with high emotional intelligence possess an uncanny ability to assess all sides of any decision before making it, including considering its effects on team members and making more effective choices overall. They possess this trait which makes them better decision-makers and more effective leaders overall.
If you would like to gain more understanding of Emotional Intelligence as it relates to leadership, check out this course and other resources available on our website. Alternatively, attend our new Master Your Emotional Intelligence training course which covers all five components of EI and can help advance your career – both virtually and in-person! Register today – you won’t regret it.
