One of the most effective assets emerging in terms of leadership in the modern workplace is emotional intelligence (EQ).
When a leader can connect emotionally with their team they have better employee engagement and can motivate them as individuals which helps with coaching and decision-making.
Those who possess higher empathy levels lead better, outperforming their counterparts by over 40% in crucial leadership aspects.
Let’s explore the importance of leading with empathy and discuss strategies you can employ to build emotional intelligence and unlock your full potential.
Emotional Intelligence in Leadership – An Overview
One’s level of emotional intelligence boils down to how one is able to understand, manage, and use emotions positively.
A leader has to not only identify and manage their own effectively but also understand the emotions of those around them.
With a greater emotional understanding, their leadership can make a greater impact.
By leading with high EQ, leaders can manage tensions and workplace conflicts, help build better interpersonal relations, and inspire their teams.
The Four Pillars of Emotional Intelligence for Leadership
There are four key components that are fundamental to building emotional intelligence in leadership. They are: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. To lead empathetically, it is important to utilize all four combinationally as each affects the next.
- Self-Awareness: Leaders must recognize their own emotions and the ways their feelings could potentially impact behavior. With self-awareness comes a better ability to identify personal strengths and weaknesses making them better able to adapt.
- Self-Management: Having recognized the emotions, next the leader must be able to control them regardless of workplace demands, pressure or stress. BEing able to stay calm, models the resilience expected of team members, sets a positive tone, boosts morale, and creates workplace security which improves focus and overall productivity.
- Social Awareness: As well as your own emotions you have to recognize the emotions of others and how they impact one another. This requires empathy and social awareness. With great social awareness skills comes the ability to read a room , understand workplace dynamics and make individuals feel valued all key assets for a great leader.
- Relationship Management: The final piece of the puzzle is being able to manage relationships with others and between others effectively to foster a respectful environment with healthy relationships and high morale. With solid relationship management a team can function cohesively without conflicts.
The Benefits of Empathetic Leadership
There are benefits for the leader, the employee and the company as a whole when empathy becomes the center of operations.
Employees feel more valued and their job satisfaction levels rise, teams are cohesive working more effectively and the occurrences of misunderstandings lower.
Let’s take a look at the effect of empathetic leadership on the following.
Employee Engagement
Employees feel seen when leaders show them empathy. By listening to their teams and genuinely acknowledging any concerns, employees see their commitment, which makes them more engaged and likely to go the extra mile.
Resilience & Adaptability
Leaders often have to adapt to a variety of situations on the fly, learning to address emotions both individually and collectively helps keep them open minded to diverse perspectives. When you are able to see things from other angles you are more adaptable and your empathetic leading helps others form resilience and navigate their own challenges.
Trust & Collaboration
Empathetic leaders encourage an environment of open dialogue, by demonstrating their empathy they show they care and employees feel comfortable enough to speak freely. This builds teams full of trust with great communication and better collaborative skills.
Ways to Develop Emotional Intelligence as a Leader
If you are looking to lead at your full potential, then developing your EQ should be a priority.
It doesn’t come naturally to everyone, if your empathy or patience is somewhat lacking then you will have to turn to intentional practices and plenty of self-reflection.
Leaders must also encourage open communication to build a supportive, thriving workplace. Below are some ways to develop emotional intelligence as a leader.
Activate Self-Awareness Through Reflection
Being self-aware requires contemplation so take some time to reflect on the day’s events and on past projects as a whole. Remember that we can view ourselves with a bias so feedback from peers and mentors can be a great tool to help you focus on what is true.
Listen Actively
Pay attention and stay present when you are listening, don’t interrupt that way team members will feel respected and heard. They will also open up more to you as a leader. Listening actively will help you understand from another perspective and build empathy skills.
Keep Communication Open
Create a workplace environment that is conducive to relaxed and open communication, give your employees a safe space for sharing emotions and ideas to see better collaboration and further innovation.
Ways to Integrate Emotional Intelligence into Organizational Culture
Before we wrap up, we will leave you with some easy to help integrate emotional intelligence into organizational culture. Commitment is required on many levels, but through training and modeling with well-established supportive policies in place, leaders can build a workplace that is much more emotionally aware.
Training Programs
Seek EQ training programs focused on building strong communicative skills or conflict resolution. Training empathetic subject material can help leaders and employees develop better emotional intelligence.
Modeling Behavior
Leaders need to demonstrate empathetic behavior to set an example for employees. We unconsciously adopt the behavior of those around us, it has a rippling-effects. An empathetic leader has empathic employees.
Putting Supportive Policies Into Place
The modern workforce is diverse so we have to be flexible and adaptable by putting supportive workplace policies in place such as flexible work arrangements.
We should also provide mental health resources to make sure an employees’ overall wellness is taken care of. Supportive policies improve job satisfaction and staff retention.
Flexibility might extend to work-from-home agreements. For example, a VPN Surfshark is an important tool for securing connections and maintaining privacy between remote workers and organizational resources.
Final Thoughts
According to the data, 75% of careers derail due to some form of emotional incompetency. Simply put, to lead, you have to care.
This means thinking of employees and team members as individuals and treating them with empathy.
Emotional intelligence is needed in today’s diverse dynamic workplace and empathy in leadership is transforming work models and the results are huge.
We see higher employee engagement, better trust, and resilience, creating a happy and productive environment that thrives.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
