The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

1If one would ask what makes a leader; the following traits will be mentioned: Charisma, Ability to inspire, Authenticity, Determination. These are just a few characteristics that define a leader. However, there is one particular quality that all great leaders have in common; a high degree of Emotional Intelligence.
Emotional Intelligence is defined as the ability to understand and manage our emotions and those around us. This quality gives individuals a variety of skills, such as the ability to manage relationships, navigate social networks, influence and inspire others.
For leaders, having emotional intelligence is essential for success. After all, who is more likely to succeed – a leader who shouts at his team when he’s under stress, or a leader who stays in control, and calmly assesses the situation?
Self-Awareness, Emotional Management, Effective Communication, Social Awareness and Conflict Resolution are the five main elements of emotional intelligence.
The more that you, as a leader, manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence.
Advertisement

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s