Technical skills can propel you into management roles more rapidly, but it’s your soft skills that will enable you to lead teams effectively and cultivate a great work environment. Specifically, emotional intelligence is a critical leadership competency that will support you in problem-solving, teamwork, and coaching team members. Here’s a closer look at emotional intelligence and the reasons why having it is crucial for leaders.
The term “emotional intelligence” describes your capacity to identify, comprehend, and control your own feelings. It also describes your capacity to pick up on people’s feelings when you’re around them. You can impact your coworkers and team members in a good way and strengthen your connections at work by increasing your emotional intelligence.
Being able to identify your feelings, understand what they mean, and how they affect other people is a sign of having high emotional intelligence. Emotionally intelligent leaders know how to use their feelings to impact outcomes in a constructive way.
Effective communicators are those who excel in the social skills component of emotional intelligence. They are adept at inspiring their team to support them and get excited about a new mission or project. They are also equally receptive to receiving terrible news as well as good news.
Such an ability is an essential leadership skill. It facilitates their efficient team management without escalating tensions or disputes. Leaders with emotional intelligence know how to bring out the best in their team members and can modify their approach to suit a variety of personalities. Socially adept leaders are also adept at handling change and diplomatically resolving disputes. They rarely accept things as they are, but they also don’t just wait for others to do the heavy lifting; instead, they lead by example.
