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Managing with emotional intelligence

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Successful leaders establish trust and rapport, are good listeners, manage conflict and influence others in positive ways. FOTOSEARCH

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the area of cognitive ability involving traits and social skills that facilitate interpersonal behaviour.

Intelligence can be broadly defined as the capacity for goal-oriented adaptive behaviour; emotional intelligence focuses on the aspects of intelligence that govern self-knowledge and social adaptation.

Since the concept of EI was introduced, it has been developed, adapted and embraced by the business world and more recently by academics.

EI skills have been strongly associated with dynamic leadership, satisfying personal life experiences and success in the workplace, and thriving business management skills. The term EI was first coined by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990.

Daniel Goleman describes emotional intelligence as “managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively, enabling people to work together smoothly toward their common goals.” 

Salovey and Mayer defined EI and Emotional Quotient (EQ) as made up of five elements: self awareness; managing emotions; motivating oneself; empathy, and handling relationships.

Goleman, on the other hand, suggests that there are four major skills that make up emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

As a leader, you set the emotional tone that others follow and how your business should be run. People want to know how a leader or executive feels and will synchronise with authorities they trust.

The emotional tone that permeates your organisation starts with you as a leader and it depends entirely on your EI.

When employees feel upbeat they will go the extra mile to please customers and work more effectively. A predictable business result: for every one per cent improvement in the service climate, there’s a two per cent increase in revenue.

Dr Travis Bradbury contrasts the behaviour of high EI with low EI leaders and executives. Recognising the importance of leading your business and yourself with emotional competence will always show in the results.

Reasons to practice this in your workplace and business management are too important to be ignored.

Emotional competence is particularly relevant to leadership and management. A leader’s role is to motivate others to do their jobs effectively. Successful leaders establish trust and rapport, are good listeners, manage conflict and influence others in positive ways.

Emotional competence makes the crucial difference between mediocre and outstanding managers. Outstanding leaders show significantly greater strengths in a range of emotional competencies, including influence, team leadership, political awareness, self-confidence and achievement drive.

Close to 90 per cent of success in leadership is attributable to EI and EQ.

Both personal and social competencies are vital for a healthy and productive life. Self-awareness, optimism and empathy can enhance satisfaction and productivity at work and in other aspects of life.

Strongly affected

The work place is the ideal setting for the promotion of these competencies in adults because work plays a central role in our lives.

Not only do most of us spend the largest portion of our waking time at work, but our identity, self-esteem and well-being are strongly affected by our work experiences.

EI seems to be largely learned, and continues to develop as we go through life. Like your IQ, your EQ can be measured, and unlike your IQ, your EQ can be improved.

The good news is that most of us learn from our experience and our competence, and our EQ can keep growing.

If success is your key word as an executive, leader or business owner, then one invaluable tool that will help you measure and develop success in highly stressful work environments is Emotional Intelligence.