Academic intelligence is not enough to excel as a leader, having a high level of emotional intelligence and being able to understand people is paramount.
The world’s best CEOs constantly reinforce the importance of empathy and self-awareness as being essential skills for future leaders.
The vast majority of communication is done through technology in this day and age, but that does not override the importance of human beings. People are at the heart of everything. Being able to understand emotions and build human connections is a top priority for leaders of the future. As the world of technology grows, the value of good emotional intelligence will only rise.
Empathy and self-awareness are just part of the emotional intelligence puzzle.
Daniel Goleman is one of the world’s leading experts on emotional intelligence. He says emotional intelligence has five components:
The ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts or emotions align with your internal standards. Being highly self-aware means that you can objectively manage your own emotions and understand how others perceive you. People with high self-awareness can objectively interpret their own thoughts and feelings. Having high self-awareness gives us power to influence outcomes and become more confident, better decision makers.
Being able to monitor and manage your energy states, emotions, thoughts and behaviors in ways that are acceptable and produce positive results such as well-being, loving relationships and learning. Self-regulation is how we deal with stressors and as such, lays the foundation for all other activity. Developing this ability would require self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Self-regulation allows people to learn, behave well build relationships with others and become more independent.
This is your motivation to accomplish your goals, the drive which comes from within you and it is often determined by your own values and goals. Intrinsic motivation is important for task persistence , seeing a project through and exploring solutions. This is accompanied by positive effect, loving the task.
Empathy is the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. It is important as it helps us to understand how others are feeling, allowing us to respond appropriately to the situation.
The ability to manage relationships and build networks. Having excellent social skills makes getting along with others and becoming more independent much easier.
The best leaders are continually developing all five areas. Intelligence is critical, but emotional intelligence is what sets great leaders apart.
