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There are many qualities required to be a successful leader and manager. Communication, organization skills, time management. Another skill gaining a lot of attention is emotional intelligence. What does it take to be an emotionally intelligent leader?
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How can you increase your emotional intelligence?
Analyze Your Actions
The best place to start when increasing your levels of emotional intelligence is to assess your own actions. You should watch your own behavior and then write about it.
Why write? Writing promotes reflection and learning, and it helps you to make unconscious behaviors conscious. You should look at the things you have done and said. Observe the way you felt and how you responded. By learning about your own behavior, you become better at picking up how other people are feeling, how they respond to the things you say, and why they have acted a certain way.
Build Rapport with Teammates
If you want to be an emotionally intelligent leader, you need to build rapport with the people you work with. Your social skills are key here.
Find out what you have in common with your team members. When your values, beliefs, and interests match, deeper rapport forms. Of course, you won't share the same interests and beliefs as everyone, but can find common ground somewhere.
You also need to make sure you listen fully and maintain eye contact when having these conversations.
Put Yourself in Their Shoes
To become an emotionally intelligent leader, one of the most important things you have to do is to see things from their perspective.
This is something that we see Karan Bajaj do a lot when providing career and life advice for individuals, and that is why he is extremely successful.
How are they feeling right now? Being able to empathize with others is key in terms of emotional intelligence. It is only when you understand how someone else is feeling that you can approach situations better and handle conflicts with more effectiveness, rather than upsetting or alienating team members.
Hopefully, you are better equipped to increase your emotional intelligence. This is a critical skill for all managers and leaders because you need to be in tune with how your team is feeling. This will enable you to deal with all forms of feedback and communication effectively so that you can get the best out of your team and ensure they are in a working environment that is productive yet approachable.
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