Results suggested that individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence are most likely to use a transformational-leadership style and least likely to use a laissez faire leadership style. No gender-based differences emerged for leadership style or overall level of emotional intelligence.
The most effective leaders consider emotional intelligence a critical skill to recognize and solve their team members' problems. That's why emotional intelligence is an important part of many leadership styles.
Emotional intelligence in leadership is comprised of empathy, social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation. These are all teachable soft skills that are the focus of our online leadership and management courses.
According to Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, there are six emotional leadership styles – Authoritative, Coaching, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting, and Coercive. Each style has a different effect on the emotions of the people that you're leading.
They show empathy toward others
Emotionally intelligent people can read others too. They observe social and emotional cues and see past simply what is said to what someone might be experiencing underneath. They care about how their actions affect other people, and they're able to make predictions to avoid causing hurt.
A THOROUGH EMOTIONAL VOCABULARY
Remember, EQ is the ability to identify and understand emotions. Research done by Travis Bradberry, who is the author of “Emotional Intelligence 2.0,” suggests that only about 36% of people have this ability.
Highly sensitive people have many strengths — including empathy and being intuitive — that make them great leaders. When we hear about the traits of highly sensitive people (HSPs) — things such as heightened intuition, empathy, and depth of processing — we may not necessarily associate these qualities with leadership.
One of the hallmarks of high emotional intelligence is self-awareness. Self-awareness is a deep understanding of what makes us tick; what angers us, make us happy, bores and interests us. It also means that we can appraise ourselves, faults and all, with great honesty and clarity.
A highly emotional intelligent leader is likely to be quite self-aware. Leaders with high emotional intelligence respond in ways that their employees can relate better to, thereby improving team performance, mitigating clashes, and addressing issues when required the most.
Rosenberg. Emotional intelligence also referred to as emotional leadership or emotional quotient, is the ability of certain people to realize their emotions, as well as those of others, differentiate them, label them, and readily manage or adjust depending on the situation or environment.
A high EQ helps you to build relationships, reduce team stress, defuse conflict and improve job satisfaction. Ultimately, a high EI means having the potential to increase team productivity and staff retention.
Some people are born with a naturally high Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and some have a naturally high IQ. While you cannot improve a person's IQ, fortunately, you can learn the skills to improve your EQ.
Authentic leaders should treat crying as a natural expression of strong emotion – not a shameful secret. During a recent catch-up with one of our leaders, he was talking about the stressful situation that he was dealing with. As he spoke, he began feeling very emotional and broke down.
Living with High Sensitivity
HSPs may struggle to adapt to new circumstances, may demonstrate seemingly inappropriate emotional responses in social situations, and may easily become uncomfortable in response to light, sound, or certain physical sensations.
HSPs know they possess some critically important traits that can make them effective organizational or team leaders. They feel a responsibility to their co-workers, colleagues, or companions to accept this type of challenge when they're certain they can get the job done.
A recent study out of the University of California, Berkeley shows that our EQ generally rises steadily throughout our working lives, peaking at the mature age of 60.
Emotionally intelligent people know exactly what makes them happy, and they constantly work to bring this happiness into everything they do. They turn monotonous work into games, go the extra mile to make people they care about happy, and take breaks to enjoy the things they love no matter how busy they are.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. The good news is that highly sensitive people aren't more or less emotionally intelligent than others.
The four domains of Emotional Intelligence — self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management — each can help a leader face any crisis with lower levels of stress, less emotional reactivity and fewer unintended consequences.
In short, a person high in EI across these areas is likely to demonstrate a far more controlled, measured approach to resolving problems, by being more efficient and effective in their approach. Emotional intelligence also measures the ability to Reality Test.