With emotional intelligence being such a popular subject today, many people want to know: What is an EQ? Your emotional quotient is the level of your emotional intelligence, which can be represented by a score on a standardized test.

In its simplest form, emotional intelligence can be defined as the emotional skills you possess, as a factor to adjust to your social environment and to ensure not only  your continued survival – emotionally, spiritually, and physically – but leading from a place of true well-being. Heady stuff, right?

As it relates to leaders, the very concept of leadership is one of the most circulated in the disciplines of organizing economic activities today. Despite its popularity, it remains an open concept and is defined in multiple ways, often based on an agenda. Yet, there is one thing that most can agree on, that leadership involves power: the power, and the ability, to exert one’s influence on oneself, or on a group, and steer them in a particular direction.

In a rapidly evolving business environment, where human resources are the main factor of development, the influence of the leader on employees has a crucial significance. This means the manager must become a leader, able to influence and mobilize people to achieve objectives, promoting the proper functioning of the company and lives of all. The leader must have a vision to inspire people, making it vital to exercise a benign influence on employee’s behavior.

Why Emotional Intelligence is Important for You

In such an important, often stressful role, being conscious of one’s level of emotional intelligence is important for leaders who wish to bring out the best in others, without being manipulative or abusive. This requires the use of emotional information to guide your thinking and your actions.

Leaders who are low in emotional intelligence tend to act out in stressful situations because they’re not able to manage their own emotions and they do not know themselves well enough. They may be prone to behaviors such as yelling, blaming, and being passive/aggressive. These types of leaders, being deficient in emotional intelligence, tend to display extremely negative qualities, including: arrogance, over-appreciation of their own abilities, the inability to adapt to a changing economic environment, and contempt for collaborators and team work. (Goleman, D. (2004), Ibidem, p. 36.)

Or, they misinterpret an emotionally charged situation because they are not able to stay grounded and focused on their vision and long term goals, which is when stress kicks in. This, in turn, brings inconsistency and impulsiveness to their leadership style and creates a toxic environment where even their high performers under-perform.

Since your emotional competency as a leader will have an overwhelming influence on the climate of your company or organization, affecting the motivation and engagement levels of employees, and on customer relationships, knowing your EQ is critical to your success. And, since these skills can be improved through emotional intelligence coaching, it should be obvious that the development of emotional intelligence skills, and recognizing how they can be self-inducted and shaped through the use of emotional intelligence assessment, is an important issue for the whole area of leadership – your own included.

In short, the level of your emotional intelligence, your EQ, will go a very long way toward determining the level you are able to achieve as a leader; whether you possess this level inherently, or you learn to develop it through training and/or coaching.

If you would you like to find the help you need to improve your leadership skills, through the enhanced use of emotional intelligence in the workplace and development of your EQ, let’s chat. Click here to schedule your FREE Discovery Call.