You’ll find tons of excerpts like these if you search for leadership quotes anywhere on the internet. Most of them will mirror one thing very clearly – a leader must possess high emotional intelligence.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
Here, we will try and list some of the crucial qualities of a leader which display high emotional intelligence and decipher the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective leadership.
Self-Awareness
For one to be an effective leader, there must be a clear sense of awareness of ones’ purpose and to have a clear sense of purpose, one must have high self-awareness. One can only set long-term and short-term goals for themselves when they have a clear understanding of their purpose.
An effective leader is self-aware and that is one of the foundational components that make up for high emotional intelligence. It helps the person to regulate their own thoughts and ideas and also communicate them effectively with others.
Effective Communication
Being able to communicate effectively is another significant quality of a good leader. Smooth communication ensures active exchange of ideas in the organization. A great leader knows how to communicate his vision to the people working for him and also how to skillfully listen to the needs of his/her employees to ensure optimum productivity.
Unless the employees know what exactly is expected of them, they won’t be able to deliver the tasks. Having great communication abilities account for better conversation in the company and that results in amazing outputs from the employees.
Ability to delegate responsibilities
Referring to the point made above, a great leader knows well enough how to observe and register the qualities of each individual in the organization and then delegate them responsibilities according to their capabilities.
Being able to delegate is one of the core responsibilities of a leader and to do the same effectively one has to have a good understanding of his/her employees. When a leader is able to delegate effectively, he/she also facilitates teamwork and leads to greater growth of the organization and its employees.
Having empathy and Emotional intelligence
Empathy is one of the important qualities that anyone can possess to effectively function in a society. Being empathetic translates into one having a healthy relationship with self and with others.
That establishes the importance of empathy in a leadership role. Empathy can make one contemplate others’ emotions perfectly and provide them with the environment necessary for them to complete their tasks. Empathy in a leader will make him/her more compassionate towards his employees and deal with them in an appropriate manner which will yield great results for the organization.
Ability to influence others
The word influence tends to have negative connotations to it, but it is a very crucial quality to have in one to be an effective leader. To be able to influence others, one must build trust among them and that comes from showcasing all the above-mentioned qualities in a leader.
Listening to people, having empathy for them, being able to communicate effectively with them, etc., will build trust amongst the employees and this will enable the leader to influence them positively to work towards achieving the company’s objective.
Extending respect
Creating an environment where everyone feels respected is one of the very important things that a leader can do. Treating people with respect will influence their self-esteem positively and will do wonders to the overall performance that the employees exhibit.
Respect can be shown in more than one way to the employees. It starts with listening intently to the ideas and perspectives of the employees and can extend to having genuine empathy towards them.
Expressing gratitude
Having gratitude not only grounds a person but also fosters higher self-esteem and this stems from the possession of high emotional intelligence. Practicing gratitude will make employees of the organization feel valued and also develop a sense of belonging to the company. This will increase productivity at the workplace and maintain a healthy environment at the office. Expressing gratitude can make the employees work harder towards the goal of the organization.
From the points made above, it becomes clear that to become an effective leader one has to have high level of emotional intelligence. Being an effective leader aligns directly with having high emotional intelligence.
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