Emotional Intelligence for Leaders

Emotional Intelligence can be acquired, developed and expanded. With practice, we can make our emotions work to our advantage.

What is Emotional Intelligence, anyway?

Emotional Intelligence is a term that was coined and popularised by American psychologist Daniel Goleman. It is a concept related to the idea of "Social Intelligence", an element that is very present in the field of psychology.

A person is considered emotionally intelligent when they are able to identify their emotions and deal with them in an appropriate way, i.e. when they are focused on building solutions and resolving impasses, without being overwhelmed by negativity or lack of focus.

People with high emotional intelligence are able to motivate themselves and keep going, even in the face of frustration, disappointment or totally unfavourable situations.

Nowadays, and increasingly so, one of the main factors recognised as key to personal and professional success is the individual's ability to control their emotions and feelings in order to remain focused on the goal they have set themselves.

A person who can concentrate on their work and their tasks and obligations, even if they are suffering from some emotional problem, such as sadness, anguish or anxiety, can be classed as someone with a high level of Emotional Intelligence.

An individual's Emotional Intelligence can be acquired, developed and expanded. With practice, we can make our emotions work to our advantage, helping to guide our behaviour and reasoning so that we are able to achieve ever better results.

Daniel Goleman states in his book "Emotional Intelligence" that Emotional Intelligence is largely responsible for people's success or failure.

The foundations of good leadership

Leadership is a topic that is always in the spotlight because of the fundamental role that good leaders play in the cohesion, harmony and results of a group and an organisation. At the same time, this topic is a constant concern because bad leadership can cause significant damage.

In short, leaders are responsible for the success or failure of their team and organisation.

The act of leading can be understood as the effective and efficient management of the people in a team in order to achieve the organisation's objectives.

Whoever leads, leads a group of people, giving them the consistency of a cohesive team that is focussed on the same goals. A leader has the ability to motivate and influence people in an ethical and positive way, so that they contribute enthusiastically to achieving the objectives of the team and the organisation.

Leadership is not a simple task! Why is that? For the simple reason that we are dealing with human beings. Every day, leaders have to manage a group of individuals made up of different ways of thinking, acting and reacting.

In other words, leadership is complex and requires patience, discipline, humility, respect and commitment, without losing sight of the organisation's objectives.

If you want to be an excellent leader, you can't let emotions and feelings such as insecurity, pettiness or anger stop you from helping the people in your team to do and achieve their best.

The real leader, the effective leader, knows how to relate, how to listen and make himself heard, how to inspire, challenge and extract talent from the members of his team. He is supportive, a partner, dedicated to the people he relates to, collaborative and always at the forefront of his team, as a role model and example of action.

The interactions and relationships within the team have a direct impact on the conception of projects, their implementation and the success of endeavours.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

The crucial element that unites Emotional Intelligence with leadership is precisely the human being. And when we talk about human beings, we're talking about individuals who are driven, motivated or even limited by their emotions.

Anyone who leads a team is exposed to emotions, whether their own or those of their team members. This is where the importance of Emotional Intelligence in leadership comes into play.

In 2002, Goleman presented research results that indicated that Emotional Intelligence is responsible for around 80 per cent of the competences that distinguish excellent leaders from the rest. All because the proper handling of the emotions of your team members, as well as your own, makes relationships fluctuate and team achievements become more viable. As Goleman said, "Emotions in balance open doors".

Daniel Goleman even mapped and divided Emotional Intelligence into five skill areas:

• Emotional Self-Awareness: Recognising a feeling as it occurs;
• Emotional Control: The ability to deal with your own feelings, adapting them to the situation;
• Self-motivation: Directing emotions in the service of a goal is essential for staying active and motivated; 
• Recognising other people's emotions;
• Interpersonal relationship skills: Understanding other people, what motivates them, how they work, how they co-operate with each other, etc.

As you can see, taking these five skills into everyday business life, most work situations involve the need to take care of relationships between people. This leads us to realise that leaders who build quality relationships with their team are more likely to succeed.

Emotional Intelligence, then, presents itself as the solution, or at least a great ally, for excellent leadership, as it involves a set of skills and competences that is associated with the ability to manage the group, taking into account the fact that each of your colleagues is a unique human being, has different emotions and feelings, and reacts differently to each stimulus received.

The truly effective leader uses Emotional Intelligence to deal appropriately with this diversity, taking very good care of relationships with each and every member of the team.