In this week’s edition of our management essentials series, we focus on harnessing emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence comprises both your personal and social competence and has a dramatic effect on how you relate to your employees. Because this characteristic isn’t correlated with traditional measures of intelligence, it’s impossible to know the extent of someone’s emotional intelligence based on a test score. Since it doesn’t involve performance metrics and is difficult to track, some leaders may neglect to practice the important skill of emotional intelligence resulting in professional stagnation or weaker team performance.
Managers with high levels of emotional intelligence, on the other hand, excel in two main areas: they know how to manage themselves and they know how to manage their relationships. Business interactions trigger a wide range of emotions, and effective leaders utilize their understanding of them to optimize their interactions with others. Likewise, your personal emotions can greatly affect your performance, even in the absence of another party. Practicing emotional intelligence allows managers to recognize their emotions and harness them in order to enhance creativity and productivity.
Getting Started with Emotional Intelligence
The good news is that emotional intelligence is a skill that can be practiced and improved upon. Try starting with these simple steps:
When delegating work, put yourself in others’ shoes.
Are you valuing their strengths? Have they been given opportunities to work on and learn about things that they care about?
Give positive feedback.
It’s important to recognize the accomplishments of team members. This not only makes them feel good, thus strengthening the bond within your team, but also, positive feedback can subconsciously motivate employees to produce more good work.
Self-evaluate
How do you feel at work? Do you let the stress of managing a team overwhelm you, or are you motivated by the fast-paced environment to work in? Do outside distractions impede your thought process in the office? Take the time to reflect on how you feel in your work environment. Then, make the necessary changes to ensure you stay focused.
By repeating emotional intelligence exercises in regular sessions over a period of time, your brain will learn to recognize these behaviors as habits. You’ll begin to employ these techniques in everyday interactions and in your solo work, which will lead you to enhanced critical thinking skills and a better relationship with your team members.