Emotional intelligence is essential for high performance.
According to Harvard researchers, emotional intelligence accounts for 90% of leadership effectiveness. Sure, you have to have your technical skills to perform, but generally, hard skills are simply what you need to get in the door.
What makes leaders great is their ability to handle other people, even difficult people. The soft skills, also known as emotional intelligence, are all about understanding people. Develop emotional intelligence skills in order to become more strategic in how you manage and motivate people.
So, what is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is not about being emotional. Emotional intelligence is a set of skills that helps you use emotional information to make more strategic and effective decisions. They are the key skills that help you build stronger relationships, be seen as a trusted leader and colleague, and make more effective decisions.
Emotions are a highly evolved system for detecting threats and responding. They operate mostly below the radar of conscious thinking, and so, even when we’re not aware of it, our emotions are constantly scanning our surroundings for threats and seeking safety. Often, our emotions prompt us to react without thinking to situations. This can sometimes lead to actions we later regret.
Emotional intelligence is about being aware of emotions and responding strategically instead of reacting. Emotional intelligence begins with being aware of your own and other people’s emotions. Once you feel and understand emotional information, you will be able to manage your own and other people’s emotions to make better decisions and achieve better outcomes.
At its core, emotional intelligence consists of a set of skills that we can measure and that anyone can learn to improve. These skills help you build better relationships, make effective decisions, resolve conflict, and reduce stress. When you really understand how you feel and how others feel–and why–you will be able to earn the respect and trust necessary for high performance.
When you develop emotional intelligence, you’ll be able to:
- Delegate effectively
- Motivate and inspire your team members to put in their best efforts
- Manage up and earn your boss’s respect
- Influence stakeholders in cross-functional teams
- Increase your team’s performance in any industry including sales, lab or technical operations, IT and data management, and more.
I offer one-on-one coaching and corporate training for managers and sales teams to help build emotional intelligence for whole teams and for individuals. On average, my coaching clients gain significant and measurable emotional intelligence skills in six months.
Have you ever responded to an emotional situation in a way that you later regret?
When everyone else panics, do you panic with them?
Do you ever feel you are missing something that other people seem to know?
Emotional intelligence coaching is about learning how to interpret and use emotional information to increase your effectiveness as a leader.
How does your emotional intelligence compare with others? Take my free Emotional Intelligence assessment to find out!