The concept of Emotional Intelligence exploded onto the scene in 1995 with the release of Daniel Goleman’s work “Emotional Intelligence – Why it can matter more than IQ.” The discovery of EI served to be the straw that broke the back of the idea that IQ was the sole source of a person’s success, and provided the missing link that solved the question of why those with average IQs would more often than not outperform those with high level IQs.
Emotional Intelligence: The Other Kind of Smart
Emotional intelligence is much more difficult to quantify than IQ, being made up of intangible abilities within us all. However, it can be broken up into four core skills that fall under two competencies:
Personal Competence: Focus upon yourself and your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage behaviour through two skills;
Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and maintain awareness of them, and Self-Management is your ability to use this awareness to positively direct your behaviour.
Social Competence: This involves the awareness of others and your ability to understand other people’s emotional states, behaviours and gain insight into their motives in order to positively improve your relationships by the usage of two core skills;
Social-Awareness is your ability to accurately detect another person’s emotions and Relationship Management is your ability to use the awareness of your emotions and other people’s in order to manage interactions.
| WHAT I SEE: | WHAT I DO: | |
| PERSONAL COMPETENCE: | SELF AWARENESS | SELF MANAGEMENT |
| SOCIAL COMPETENCE: | SOCIAL AWARENESS | RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT |
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
In recent times there has been a push to grow more Emotionally Intelligent leaders. When we analyse the components and skills that make up a high EI and how they can be applied to leadership, it is not hard to see why a high EI correlates with a high degree of leadership successes:
Self-Awareness: The Aware Leader
- Knowledge of one’s own strengths and weaknesses can improve and maintain leadership success.
- A successful leader can reflect upon their own thoughts and behaviours and how they impact the performance of others, adapting as necessary.
Awareness of others: The Empathetic Leader
- Developing empathy is fundamental in facilitating performance; the way others feel is directly linked to how they perform.
- Recognise and respond to other people’s feelings; the best leaders tailor their style to the people they lead.
Authenticity: The Genuine Leader
- Leaders who are guarded, who avoid conflict or who are blunt about the way they feel can create an environment of distrust and misunderstanding.
- Authenticity of emotion helps to foster understanding, openness and trust.
Emotional Reasoning: The Expansive Leader
- Feelings and emotions contain important information that can provide great insights into people that are an integral part of making good leadership decisions.
- Failing to realise how people feel about your decisions leads to a less receptive and supportive group.
Emotional intelligence is also key to other important skills of leadership, including the development and identification of your values, your ability to read body language, conflict resolution and the ability to recognise and award positive feedback.
And let’s not forget the financial benefits! Research has shown those with a high EI simply make more money, to the tune of $29000 per year, or $1,300 per year for every point increase in emotional intelligence!
For companies, investing in emotional intelligence pays huge dividends, with up to 1000% increase in additional revenue, improved customer service and improved decision-making.
So how can I raise my Emotional Intelligence?
This is the good news: unlike IQ, Emotional Intelligence is highly adaptable. It can be learned and developed regardless of age, regardless of where you currently fall on the EI scale, you can always improve your Emotional Intelligence and thus improve your performance as a leader and your success rate in your place of work.
And this is where we come in. Leading with Emotional Intelligence is a two-day short course available at the Australian Institute of Management. This course provides practical models, tools and techniques for applying Emotional Intelligence at work. Our skilled facilitators will guide you through the science of Emotional Intelligence, how emotions influence decision-making, behaviour and performance. With this in mind you will explore models, tools and techniques to develop your own Emotional Intelligence by harnessing your own emotions and recognising others’, thereby improving decisions, behaviour and performance, and applying these lessons to the workplace and real-world leadership situations.
If you would like more information about Leading with Emotional Intelligence or for help enrolling in the course please contact one of our training advisors on 1300 658 337.
