If you’re a leader or a manager, whether you’re in a workplace setting or you’re an entrepreneur that leads your own business, leading with emotional intelligence (EQ) is crucial. I remember reading Daniel Goleman’s book years ago and the impact it had on me in my personal and professional development as a young business leader communicating with my team and clients.
If you are unfamiliar with emotional intelligence, your EQ is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express your emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships wisely and empathetically.
Emotional Intelligence is made up of four areas, Self-awareness, Self-management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management. You’re scored in each of these areas. Much like CliftonStrengths, we all have our talents and our opportunities.
There has been much research into emotional intelligence as being a key to both personal and professional success, and it has become an essential part of the conversation of leadership.
After all, people don’t leave an organization, they leave a manager.
For leaders, the first task in management has nothing to do with leading others; step one poses the challenge of knowing and managing oneself.
– Daniel Goleman
We all have our own lifelong journey of self-awareness. It’s not about comparison. It’s about truly understanding who we are and how we can better use our EQ to truly cultivate our relationships.
But here’s the important thing for manager and leaders to know:
You can learn emotional intelligence. You’re not just born with it. Just like you’re not born with leadership. You use your natural talents and strengths. Work with those and begin to shape them from raw to refined.
You may ask, “Well, how do I do that?”
Take an emotional intelligent assessment. Once you take that assessment, I encourage you to have conversations not only with some of your personal trusted advisers (e.g. a spouse, a sibling, a parent, or a best friend) but also with your coworkers. (Here’s a list of free assessments, or you can reach out to @sk Brent Anything.)
Hire a professional coach. The assessment is good, but a professional coach will ask you powerful questions around these areas and then help you to apply it in everyday life. Reading books may allow you to talk theoretically about emotional intelligence, but it gets more real when you start talking about the significant work relationships and significant relationships that you have in your life. A coach can help with that.
Take the Clifton Strengths Assessment, if you haven’t already. A deep understanding of yourself and your talents is Self-Awareness. Your Strengths will not only give you a way to live and communicate who you are, but they will give you guidance and a vocabulary to enhance your EQ.
If you are ready to grow stronger, work smarter, and live richer, these two tools, emotional intelligence and CliftonStrengths, are a great combination. If you’d like to hear a more in-depth conversation about Leading with Emotional Intelligence, watch here.
