How to build a culture of emotional intelligence

It’s no secret that emotional intelligence is a valuable skill for business leaders. However, many CEOs struggle to cultivate it within their team. Read along as we discuss the benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace and how you can develop it to improve your leadership skills and business strategy.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is “the ability to perceive, interpret, demonstrate, manage, evaluate and use emotions to communicate and relate to others effectively and constructively. Some experts suggest that emotional intelligence is more important than IQ for success in life” (Very well).

Using emotional intelligence can help facilitate open communication and strengthen relationships between executives, managers, and employees, creating an improved work culture overall. It is important for leaders to know not only how to foster emotional intelligence within themselves, but also how to encourage it from within their team.

Related: 5 Ways Emotional Intelligence Will Make You a Better Leader

5 Pillars of Emotional Intelligence

In his bestselling book Emotional intelligence, psychologist and author Daniel Goleman establishes a framework in which leaders can leverage five key traits to successfully implement emotional intelligence in the workplace. These traits are influenced by both experience and intuition. The five pillars are:

1. Self Awareness:

Our emotions not only affect us, they also affect those around us. The ability to recognize your own emotional state and its impact on others is a skill that can be developed over time. For example, employees may be reluctant to ask for help if they see their boss already stressed with other tasks. While you shouldn’t hide your emotions, it’s important to know how they appear to others.

2) Self-regulation:

While we can’t always control our emotions, we can control the way we respond to them. Self-regulation (impulse control) is critical to maintaining good relationships in the workplace. Leaders who can check themselves before reacting are better able to handle difficult situations and are more respectable.

Self-regulation also promotes accountability, as it helps create clear expectations about how to act in the workplace.

3) Motivation:

Goleman writes, “Leadership is not domination, but the art of persuading people to work towards a common goal.”

Motivating your employees is perhaps the most important action to achieve alignment within your team. When all team members are motivated and focused on the same goal, you are more likely to achieve your goals. Motivate your employees by setting clear goals, celebrating wins and wins, and recognizing individual contributions.

4. Empathy:

Empathetic leaders are able to put themselves in other people’s shoes and act fairly. They are generally loved by employees as they are more understanding and able to interact on a personal level. Having empathy doesn’t just mean caring about others – it means being able to recognize others’ emotions even when they aren’t present, and being able to have conversations appropriately with the other person’s emotional state in mind .

A study by the Center for Creative Leadership found it that “managers who practiced empathic leadership toward direct reports were viewed as better performers by their bosses.” Empathetic leadership isn’t limited to C-suite executives – managers and other employees can benefit from practicing empathy at work.

5. Social Skills:

Social skills such as active listening and verbal/non-verbal communication will lead to more trust within a team. Leaders with social skills are better communicators and know how to work with different types of people. Effective communication is one of the most important skills a leader should have and proves useful when tackling problems or difficult topics. Having good interpersonal skills also makes leaders seem more approachable to their team members, enabling positive working relationships and an effective feedback loop.

Related: Use These 7 Emotional Intelligence Tips to Be a Better Leader

Benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace

Showing emotional intelligence in your company can lead to countless improvements, from better performance to a better culture. We have listed some of the most important benefits below:

• Team Alignment: Call your teammates around a common goal. This ensures coherence across the board and helps ensure that no box in your strategic execution is left untouched.

• Increased productivity: With the right motivation, employees will work harder and faster. They are encouraged to ask questions for clarity and explore new ideas as they work towards specified business goals.

• More transparency and accountability: Emotional awareness is a desirable quality of leaders when it comes to how employees perceive them. This pushes them to be more open and truthful with their team, opening up opportunities for more transparency in the company. By being upfront about certain initiatives, metrics, and company information, leaders gain trust and understanding from their team. Establishing this kind of transparency and accountability helps fill gaps and ensures the right people are working on the right goals.

• Better communication: Communication is king when it comes to getting things done as a team, and it’s easier to communicate when you know how you feel. Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to effectively express what is needed in a way that can be understood by others. They are also good listeners and know how to get a point across while also taking into account the other’s points of view and opinions. This ties into the pillar of self-regulation, as being able to control impulsive responses is another important part of effective communication.

Related: How to Cultivate Higher Emotional Intelligence in Your Employees

Steps to improve emotional intelligence in your organization

It is no coincidence that the five pillars of emotional intelligence are also important qualities of a good leader. It is important for leaders to not only exhibit emotional intelligence traits, but to recognize and celebrate them within their team. So, how can leaders cultivate emotional intelligence?

1. Show Appreciation:

It’s easy for executives to overlook the importance of employee appreciation, even though the smallest gestures can make a huge difference. When employees are happy, the whole company benefits. Research has shown that having happy employees increases productivity, sales, retention and employer net promoter scores (eNPS); the list continues.

Don’t forget to commend a job well done and make sure your employees know that their hard work does not go unnoticed. This could be as simple as a shoutout at your all-hands team meeting or a handwritten thank you note. When employees receive praise, they feel valued. And when they feel valued, they are more motivated to work hard and deliver exceptional results.

2. Practice What You Preach:

Respectable people lead by example. This includes making an effort to demonstrate the positive qualities you expect from your team and acting in solidarity with them. To be effective, a team must be united from the top down. Actions like saying thank you, admitting mistakes, and having an open door policy will help create a healthier environment.

3. Get to Know Yourself:

Understanding yourself is the basis of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness and reflection relate to understanding one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives. It is an important factor in emotional regulation because it provides insight into one’s emotional reactions and makes it easier to control them. Do your best to be aware of how you react in different situations, and familiarize yourself with the idea of ​​self-reflection. This kind of reflection is not only good for improving your leadership skills, but also for the soul.

4. Get to know your people:

You know it’s important to build good working relationships with your colleagues, but building good personal relationships goes a long way too. Knowing your employees on a personal level can help you better understand them and their emotional states and determine how best to work with them.

Don’t underestimate the importance of one-on-one time between CEOs/managers and team members. Regular and consistent one-on-one meetings help drive performance, but also provide opportunities for open communication and relationship building. Team members are more likely to give truthful and constructive feedback when they feel they are being heard.

5. Give Training:

As mentioned earlier, emotional intelligence is a skill that can be developed and improved with practice. It is important to invest in emotional intelligence training and development programs if you want your team to be successful. This includes both emotional awareness and emotional regulation, as well as communication skills, decision-making skills, and more.

Developing emotional intelligence takes practice, but it can have a huge impact on an organization’s success. By recognizing emotional intelligence within your team and investing in emotional intelligence training, you can create a better work environment that leads to better performance and higher morale.

Emotional intelligence is not something that can be forced on people or learned overnight. It takes time and commitment from leaders, but it can have a positive and lasting impact on the team as a whole if practiced and supported on a regular basis. It is a valuable tool that can help business leaders be more effective, improve communication and build trust.

Investing in emotional intelligence can help your business reap the benefits of a more connected workforce that feels valued, respected and motivated to succeed.