Emotional Intelligence: Key Leadership Skills
Emotional Intelligence: Key Leadership Skills
Self-Awareness
The hallmarks are:
- A passion for the work itself and for new challenges.
- Unflagging energy to improve.
- An optimism in the face of failure.
Example: A portfolio manager at an investment company sees his fund tumble for three consecutive quarters. Major clients defect. Instead of blaming external circumstances, he decides to learn from experience and engineers a turnaround.
Empathy
Empathy is about considering others’ feelings, especially when making decisions. The hallmarks are:
- Expertise in attracting and retaining talent.
- The ability to develop others.
- Sensitivity to cross-cultural differences.
Empathy is particularly important today as a component of leadership for these reasons: the increasing use of teams, the rapid pace of globalization, and the growing need to retain talent.
Example: An American consultant and her team pitch a project to a potential client in Japan. Her team interprets the client’s silence as disapproval and prepares to leave. The consultant reads the client’s body language and senses interest. She continues the meeting, and her team gets the job.
Social Skill
As a component of emotional intelligence, social skill is not as simple as it sounds. It involves managing relationships to move people in desired directions. The hallmarks are:
- Effectiveness in leading change.
- Persuasiveness.
- Extensive networking.
- Expertise in building and leading teams.
Social skills are the culmination of the other dimensions of emotional intelligence. People tend to be very effective at managing relationships when they can understand and control their emotions.
Example: A manager wants his company to adopt a better internet strategy. He finds kindred spirits and assembles a de facto team to create a prototype website. He persuades allies in other divisions to fund the company’s participation in a relevant convention. His company forms an Internet division and puts him in charge of it.
Conclusion
It is fortunate that emotional intelligence can be learned. This process is not easy, and it takes time and, most of all, commitment. But the benefits that come from having well-developed emotional intelligence, both for the individual and for the organization, make it worth the effort.
Can emotional intelligence be learned? Are leaders born with certain levels of empathy, or do they acquire empathy as a result of life’s experiences? The answer is both. Scientific inquiry strongly suggests that there is a genetic component, and it also indicates that nurture plays a role as well. One thing is certain: emotional intelligence increases with age. Emotional intelligence is born largely in the neurotransmitters of the brain’s limbic system, which governs feelings, impulses, and drives. Organizations must refocus their training to include the limbic system.
Effective executives differ widely in their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, values, and beliefs. All they have in common is that they get the right things done. Some are born effective, but the demand is much too great to be satisfied by extraordinary talent. Effectiveness is a discipline, so it can be learned and must be earned.