Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Having a Positive Impact on Others

There are many competencies that define leaders and their leadership skills. At the foundation of leadership is the ability to impact and influence staff and other stakeholders. In order to be able to lead significant business initiatives, leaders are required to build effective relationships and positively impact and influence people.

This relates to the way they communicate and most of all it relies on their emotional intelligence or EQ. This involves their ability to be aware of how they are feeling and to manage that where appropriate, and to be aware of the impact they and their behaviour is having on others and to manage that.

Being a good operational or technical leader is not sufficient if their impact on other people leaves them feeling demotivated or disengaged. The acid test is not when the leader is having a great day, its when they are under pressure, stressed, challenged or frustrated. How they respond at these times comes down to how much they have developed their emotional intelligence or EQ.

EQ can be developed by leaders raising their self awareness and their awareness of their impact on others. As this occurs they are able to moderate or tailor their communication and behaviour to have a more positive impact on staff and other stakeholders.

The result of this can be dramatic in terms of staff engagement and performance, the ability to influence stakeholders and on overall business performance. As well as this, these leaders feel better within themselves and feel less stressed.

Take the time to consider the impact you are having on people, the quality of your relationships and whether there is an opportunity to further develop your emotional intelligence in order to have a more positive impact on people and performance.

Contact us to improve your impact on people or return to the Stepshift Leadership Blog for more business advice from our Executive Coaches.

Related Articles:
The Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Leadership
EQ – Fuelling Leadership