Why Emotional Intelligence is important in Leadership
I was busy with my work in an office, at a client’s location. Suddenly I was called to attend an urgent meeting by my client counterpart. There was an issue in the production environment of an ERP system. The daily shipment data was out of sync between the two critical applications. That shipment report was required by the Finance group as it helped them to reconcile the shipped vs billed report every month. The issue in this report could delay the Month-end closing activities in the Finance department. I was managing the team of Fifty consultants and I requested concerned team members to address this issue immediately. A couple of days passed but we could not resolve the issue. We were working round the clock but no fate. The client was getting impatient, and we all were stressed out. Finally, I decided to escalate the matter internally, to Sr. leadership within my consulting practice. I and my team were hoping to get some direction and involvement from an expert to work with us. To our utmost surprise and dismay, the meeting with Sr. Manager was quite a failure. Rather than providing help or direction, we were criticized. We were challenged and made feel low for not able to solve the client’s problem. Rather than understanding the situation, the Sr. manager yelled at us and exhibited anger in his tone. Instead of providing guidance or help, he made the matter worse for us. He seemed tensed and lost his temper.
Do you think the response of the Manager was appropriate to handle that situation? In my opinion, the response by that manager was certainly not appropriate as it did not help to solve the problem. Losing patience, calm, and showing frustration at your team can never solve any problem. As a leader, you should be proficient in managing stressful situations without criticizing your team & losing your temperament. Unfortunately, he lacked empathy towards his team members. He lacked “Emotional Intelligence”.
So, what is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence has recently become one of the keys talking points when it comes to Leadership. Emotional intelligence or EI is the ability to recognize, understand and handle your own emotions, and those of the people around you, to have the most optimum reaction as situations dictate or demand. For leaders, having emotional intelligence is vital for their success. It can have sweeping influence over their relationships, how they manage their teams and all in all how they interact with individuals in the workplace.
There are 4 key elements of emotional Intelligence 1) Self-awareness Self-awareness means you are always fully aware of how you feel, and you understand the effect your feelings and your actions can have on the people around you.; 2) Self-regulation; Self-regulation prevents you from abusing your privilege of leadership. It calls for you to keep control of your emotions and how they affect others as well as stay committed to personal accountability. 3) Empathy & Social skills- Empathy is what allows you to put yourself in other people’s shoes and consider their unique perspectives. Leaders with good social skills are great at communication, which comes in very handy when it comes to getting their team pumped about a new project or objective and required motivation.4) Relationship management refers to your ability to influence, coach, and mentor others, and resolve conflict effectively.
The more a leader manages each of these areas, the higher their emotional intelligence is. An emotionally intelligent leader understands the concerns of their team members and addresses their issues. They focus on collaboration, build trust, and focus on the development of their team. Leaders who are low in emotional intelligence tend to unravel in stressful situations because they fail to handle their own emotions, and this might manifest as verbal attacks on others. This can create an even more stressful environment.
In my story, you must be wondering what happened eventually. Well, we did not get adequate support from the Sr. Management for long and that issue took more than a month to resolve. The morale of the team reduced considerably, the relationship severed and even the client lost faith in the present team on the grounds. I am sure, this story would have ended on positive note if the Manager had shown the compassion towards the team and listened to our problem with open mind.
Sometimes, listening to team itself helps to come up with a strategy to address the issue. Listening others, understanding, self-control is part of Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is a key leadership skill and for a leader to be truly effective they must be masterful in recognizing and managing their emotions.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”- By Maya Angelou
