As a Leader, just how much control do you have over your emotions? Perhaps you’re a corporate Director and your team’s project was due yesterday, or maybe you’re a newly appointed partner in a law firm, dealing with a tricky merger for high net-worth clients? In these circumstances, have you ever found yourself saying something under stress, and then regretting it? Do you foresee the emotional reactions of your colleagues and clients?

Emotional Intelligence (“EI”) is the ability to accurately perceive your own and others’ emotions. Social psychologists have broken EI down into grouped factors, such as: possessing individual self-awareness in combination with self-management, and an ability for social awareness and relationship management. These areas have a wide focus but put simplistically, they include the ability to recognise and control strong impulses and emotions in yourself and in others and relatively, to know when to be empathetic to others.

The object in business is always to be ahead of the game, and EI is an enabling tool for you to recognise and understand signals that emotions send and thus become perceptive enough to capitalise on beneficial openings, as well as pre-empting relationship problems and issues. For example, a Leader’s poor stress management can cause his derailment, and looking to preventative measures opens up issues such as managing impulsive behaviour and hostility; coping with difficult colleagues and keeping composure, and managing conflicts and setbacks in projects or changes in businesses after a merger.

The questions then continue to arise as to exactly how well understood are you in the workplace? How well do you understand your employees, their ambitions and desires – what exactly drives them?

There is a body of evidence relating to the benefits of EI. Scientific studies continue across sectors of the leading university and research institutions on the important issues within the emotional intelligence of leadership. What this means to business, in basic terms, is that your ROI for training will show an improvement to the bottom line and also retain valuable employees - in which many organizations invest heavily in time, money and training. The Hay Group regularly researches and reports on the benefits of EI, and its ROI, by tracking executive leaders worldwide.

Let us take a business leader who enters a company in crisis – and is given little insider knowledge. He has to quickly gain a deep rapport and trust within this group, and this involves using firstly, an affiliate style of leadership, with the aim of providing himself with a platform for transparency and feedback. It may then be necessary to incorporate simultaneously other styles of leadership, depending on whatever the business drive or situations demands. For both the leader and particularly those in learning roles of leadership, there may be little time to learn EI – star performers are often promoted on their role performance, and research shows they frequently have a deficit in knowing how to cope with the emotional problems that come with getting the critical employee buy-in to organisational change.

Turning to the practicalities of leadership and its returns, Goleman is one of a group of psychologists who have analysed the various six leadership styles (visionary, coaching, affiliate, democratic, pacesetting, commanding) and the individual effect each can have on its followers. For example, Goleman’s data shows that Leaders who have mastered four or more, ‘especially of the resonance building styles, foster the very best climate and business performance.’ Situational flexibility is the key factor and Goleman confirms the results of our own current research at People in Leadership into entrepreneurial behaviour – entrepreneurs are different, they change styles by gut instinct; whereas, other seasoned leaders he confirms, are able to identify and confirm precisely how and when they led by recognising when to change leadership style.

Leaders can stay ahead of the game, by managing the mood of the company, and by being both self-aware and open to the needs of those around them. This involves being personally knowledgeable about the dynamics of the emotions and having an appraisal system in place that encourages and notes how people express those emotions.

As Leaders, establish and continue to maintain your own personal learning agenda. This means a continuing exploration of your limitations and insecurities. Goleman makes it clear that self awareness means facing fears and insecurities on an emotional level. Leaders then need to practice EI in the workplace and get constant feedback on their new skills.

With the right foundations and procedures in place, the next step is for Leaders to benefit through this inspirational culture of confidence, enthusiasm and trust. This enables employees to feel appreciated for their contribution, as they are more likely to give their retained support and loyalty during even difficult times, if they feel an identity with their organisation. It also comes down to transparency, as opposed to a ‘them and us’ culture.

Another example of leaders using their information gathering beneficially, may come in the form of pre-empting lateral moves, such as disgruntled partners or corporate directors poached to rival opportunities which may have otherwise not been prevented.

Turning now, to practical learning terms, what methods can leaders put in place to raise their EI? In short, the more emotions that you as a Leader are aware of in your daily life – the more options become available, as you start very easily to recognise certain traits in others. But the flip side of the coin is this: don’t be ruled by the emotions of others. Retain the course that you set out to do, and manage conflicts in a reasoned way. Rapport is essential, but in the end you are the leader and you make the decisions.

The ultimate goal is to for you as Leader to get employees in your firms and organisations to work towards a shared vision. To repeat, a leader who is high on EI is more likely to win the support of his team by making them feel a part of his goals and objectives and seeing them as their own. Values and beliefs are very emotive things. Knowledge and regulation of meta-moods takes both time to acquire and to regulate in-house but, knowledge brings options.

So, should you go for a crash course in EI? Well, here’s ‘the science bit’ - Goleman’s research has shown that as with most new things we study, it can take time to re-educate the brain to behave differently, where perhaps habits are ingrained. But this has to be blended with the fact that some people, for example, already have much more sensory acuity than others; some have a genetic disposition or a natural understanding of emotions. So, EI is like everything that is worthwhile in life, it needs first, a sound understanding of the basics and then a regular application to develop it fully and effectively. And depending on the level and experience of a leader, EI needs balancing with other communication soft skills. Awareness is the key.

Why not have a discussion with Sara Howard for further information?
(Tel: 01296 634921). Sara always brings a balanced level of emotional intelligence techniques into all her executive coaching programmes. The aim is to increase personal development and achieve high level relationship management.

Acknowledgements

Goleman, D, et al. The New Leaders. Publisher - Little Brown. 2002
Goleman, D. Destructive Emotions. Publisher – Bloomsbury 2003
Harvard Business Review – various articles
Hay Group Research – www.haygroup.com
Center Creative Leadership – www.ccl.org
Emotional Intelligence website – www.eqi.org/business