Do you aspire to lead your team and gradually climb the ranks to more senior positions? Do you have it in you to be a leader? How can you tell? As you’ve probably realized, effective leaders have different styles and peculiarities. But regardless of the type of organization they lead, successful leaders share a common subset of skills.
In an article in HBR at 100, a compendium of influential articles published in Harvard Business Review, bestselling author Daniel Goleman argues that effectual leaders always have high levels of emotional intelligence. While they also have reasonably good technical and analytical skills, their emotional quotient is “twice as important” for jobs across different rungs. Like many psychological constructs, emotional intelligence is impacted by both nature and nurture. Further, Goleman identifies five facets that together constitute emotional intelligence.
The first, self-awareness, is the bedrock of emotional intelligence and involves a “deep understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs and desires.” People with high levels of self-awareness are able to appraise themselves honestly and gauge how their feelings impact their performance. So, a person who knows that she gets frazzled if she pushes things to the last minute will try to ensure that important projects get done well in time. People who are self-aware also live according to their values. Thus, a person may turn down a job with a lucrative salary if the job doesn’t align with his principles.
The next dimension of emotional intelligence is self-regulation which refers to a person’s ability to manage and respond to their feelings in conducive ways. Rather than being impelled by our feelings, self-regulation helps us analyze and respond to them in a measured way. According to Goleman, this facet is especially important for leaders because bosses who are able to deal with their feelings in an optimal manner create an environment that values “trust and fairness” while mitigating distrust and office politics. Self-regulated managers are also able to deal with the vicissitudes of the workplace without getting flustered. Their composure, in turn, anchors their subordinates, who are able to perform better. Leaders who practice self-regulation also inspire integrity as they avoid knee-jerk reactions and make considered decisions.
Third, leaders also exhibit high degrees of intrinsic motivation, wherein they love what they do and are not driven solely by concerns of money and prestige. They tend to stick with their organisation because they cherish what they do and are not easily swayed by more lucrative offers. They enjoy learning and growing on the job and “seek out creative challenges.” Further, they exhibit a relentless zeal to raise the bar, their own and that of their colleagues.
Unlike the first three facets of emotional intelligence that relate to the self, the next two are concerned with other people. Empathy, or the ability to relate to the thoughts and feelings of another person, is another aspect of emotional intelligence that is indispensable to leaders. Being empathic is often mistaken for being soft or a people-pleaser, qualities that are incompatible with sound leadership. But Goleman argues that successful leaders need empathy for the following reasons. As a lot of work nowadays involves teams, being able to gauge and understand the perspective of different members is essential for a team leader. Additionally, with increasing globalization, it is important to also understand cultural nuances and subtleties. Further, retaining talented employees involves far more than paying them hefty salaries. An empathetic boss can foster loyalty amongst employees.
Finally, leaders need to have good social skills, wherein they get along amicably with most people. In the context of leadership, social skills involve a lot more than just being friendly with everyone. A leader also has to motivate, negotiate, persuade and be decisive without coming across as dictatorial. Effective leaders also cultivate a vast network of people whom they can contact when need arises.
As Goleman rightly says, the intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of leadership are not just “nice to have.” We know that strong leaders “need to have” these attributes in order to engage and energize employees. The good news is that most of these facets can be cultivated with motivation, effort, mentoring and practice—each of which merits its own article.
About the Author
Aruna Sankaranarayanan is a psychologist & writer. She is the author of Zero Limits: Things Every 20-Something Should Know. She blogs at www.arunasankaranarayanan.com.