1. Introduction
According to Goleman and Nevarez (2018, p.2), Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) becomes increasingly important in the day-to-day business in leadership roles. Therefore, this report will define Emotional Intelligence and will outline the necessary behavioural attributes to be a successful leader.
The Economic Times (2018) defines, that “Emotional intelligence refers to the capability of a person to manage and control his or her emotions and possess the ability to control the emotions of others as well”. For instance, Valcour and McNulty (2018) have reported about the experience of industry professional Chris to illustrate EI using a real-life situation. At the beginning of Chris’s career, his emotions were controlled to be following the alpha male culture of his employer. In the following decade, the emotional subordination has formed a gap between “what he stands for” and “how he acts” (Valcour & McNulty, 2018, p. 2), which caused “a health and career crisis” (Valcour & McNulty, 2018, p. 3) for Chris. Overall, it shows that Chris poorly managed his emotions, which caused a low Emotional Intelligence. The example also demonstrated that Chris’s leader’s Emotional Quotient had caused a negative impact towards his employees, which made him an unsuccessful leader.
2. Assessing EI
A leader ensures an enjoyable work environment for his employees by self-analysing and improving his or her emotional intelligence by asking three significant question (Goleman & Nevaraz, 2018).
The first questions should identify the inner- and external self, which can be conducted through self-analysis and getting feedback from others. Thereby, the leader should take into consideration four study fields: self-awareness (assess the strengths and weaknesses), self-management, social awareness and relationship management. This will help the leader to understand himself better and also to see his personality from a different perspective (Goleman & Nevaraz, 2018).
The second assessment is to identify what matters the most to the leader. These can be analysed through coaching or conducting feedback from his environment. The outcome of this analysis should be working on the intersectionsfeedback. Thereby, the leader’s motivation to change his habits should come by heart and not from the pressure of its external environment (Goleman & Nevaraz, 2018).
In the last assessment, the leader should evaluate the outcome of his previous analysis and should filter down the actions, which he wants to carry out. The actions should be performed private and at work as the brain does not differentiate between home and work environment. In the beginning, the practician needs to take the effort to make changes but will experience indecency of his actions in long-term (Goleman & Nevaraz, 2018).
3. Implementation of attribute changes
The implementation of these actions can be complicated for the leader as it bruises the leader’s ego as well as requires emotional perseverance (Krass & Krass, 2018). Jim Twining (2018), a consultant and career coach, describes his improvement of EI as a laborious process. He goes even further by claiming that humans are born with a “pretty steadfast” (Jim Twining, 2018) personality, which makes it very difficult to change habits. However, he also reported about successful changes of clients. Overall, EI development relies on the willingness of the manager. The hard work will be worth it as it will cause greater happiness (Twining, 2018) and a better career-success (Bradberry, 2018).
4. Identification of high EI
Dr Travis Bradberry (2018) has identified nine emotional components, what a leader should have to obtain high emotional intelligence. Firstly, the leader should embody an all-day positive attitude, in other words, he is an optimist. Secondly, he should have an extensive emotional vocabulary for a thoughtful articulation of his feelings. Thirdly, a successful leader must have assertiveness but in balance with empathy. These are very important to solve disputes without an adverse outcome. Fourthly, leaders should be inquisitive about their employees as curiosity is the basis of empathy. Fifthly, forgiveness is an essential emotional skill to lead a team as a negative emotion will cause end in stress for the leader. Sixthly, leaders with high EI do not compare themselves with anyone. Therefore no one limits their joy. Seventhly, managers should try to bring fun in each of their work tasks in particular in monotonous work. Eighthly, open-mindedness and self-confidence will help leaders to stay calm in offensive situations and also to resolve unpleasant situations rightfully. Lastly, high EI professional suppress negative self-talk. These can be reached by evaluating his thoughts and outweighing the facts (Bradberry, 2018).
5. Conclusion
Emotional Intelligence is a necessary attribute in today’s leadership as it essential tool to ensures a positive work environment. Furthermore, leaders with Emotional Intelligence have high personal and social competence, which ensures the leader’s satisfaction as well as a positive relationship with his employees.