One of the key strategic characteristics of a great leader is Emotional Intelligence. Often when I meet with my professionals and executive clients who are well established and successful, they ask me why I am unable to connect truly with my team? Am I not a good leader?
My answer is “you are a Good Leader but are you a Great Leader?
Unfortunately, most of us are lacking one big attribute that every great leader should have. And that is “Emotional Intelligence”.
So, what is “Emotional Intelligence”?
Emotional Intelligence is a term which describe a bundle of psychological attributes that many strong and effective leaders exhibits. And simply those psychological attributes are the difference between a good leader and a great leader. There are total 5 attributes of emotional intelligence and those are:
Self- Awareness – the ability to understand one’s own moods, emotions and drives, as well as their effect on others.
Self-regulation – the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses or moods, that is, to think before acting.
Motivation – a passion for work that goes beyond money or status and a propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence.
Empathy – the ability to understand the feelings and viewpoints of subordinates and to take those into account when making decisions.
Social skill – friendliness with a purpose.
Leaders who posses these attributes who exhibit a high degree of emotional intelligence – tend to be more effective than those who lack these attributes. Their self-awareness and self-regulation help elicit the trust and confidence of subordinates.
Remember, people respect leaders who, because they are self-aware, recognize their own limitations and, because they are self-regulating, consider decisions carefully. Because these attributes make a leader more self-confident and therefore better able to cope with ambiguity and more open to change. Finally, strong empathy, motivation and social skills can help great leaders earn the loyalty of subordinates. Empathetic and socially adept individuals tend to be skilled at managing disputes between employees, better able to find common ground and purpose among diverse constituencies, and better able to move people in a desired direction then leaders who lack these skills.
So, in short, The Psychological makeup of a leader “Matters”.