Although most leadership programs, whether they are in education or through seminars and workshops, value emotional intelligence, it can be a daunting piece to add to the process of leadership.

Why Emotional Intelligence is Important

The workplace no longer accepts the idea that leaders have to rule by an iron hand. This has been found to be archaic in a sense and it was based on the military model. Today, organizations find that they have to empower their leaders to discover innovative ways to move product, change the course of what seems to be stagnated situations and grow the business.

Leaders are also finding that since their employees have many options for employment, they have to help them understand why it is important to stay where they are; sometimes this means helping them have some autonomy in their workplace.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

We are often taught that letting our emotions influence us in business / work is a bad thing. That a cool head is required, and we shouldn’t get carried away. Yet when we connect with something we do so emotionally as well as with any other faculty, so we can love it – and get excited, or we could hate a proposal – and get angry, irritated or sullen. All of which is information, both to ourselves and others.

In a nutshell emotional intelligence is both having enough self awareness of your own feelings, emotions and how you manage those reactions, and as a leader being able to pick up on others emotional responses and work with them productively.

Read the rest of this entry »

The age-old debate continues. Are leaders born or made? It is an interesting, if tired, debate that continues because it can never be definitively satisfied. Given the perspective of history, we attempt to answer the question for those leaders who have come and gone by evaluating the back-story of their lives and positing our best guess. I wonder if it is even worth the energy to fire the synapses in our brain thinking about it.

We are fundamentally who we are. Anyone who has done personality assessments can spout out that they are a “high D” or “ESTJ” depending on whether they prefer DISC or Myers-Briggs. We are “hardwired”  a certain way and that hard wiring dictates, to a large extent, how we behave (and lead) in most circumstances.

But because we are learning organisms, we are also capable of adapting our behavior, from our base type, to accommodate those situations that require such. The secret to these adaptations is in the size and duration. We can make small adaptations to our type for a long period of time, and large adaptations for a short period of time. it is extremely difficult, however, to make large adaptations for long periods of time. At least without something going kaput.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leadership style of an individual may be unique but rather it should never be so stiff and restricted that with change in a circumstance, it remains the same. Ideal leaders always have a flexible style of working and they adapt themselves with the situation in question. It is worth noticing that change in style is not as easy as it sounds. Coming out of your usual style of working- outside the protected cocoon often lead you into trouble and the situation may get off hand if not managed properly. Leadership development is essential to avert such situations. A leader’s development is must from every body’s point of view as he is the one who he leads several others. He sets an example for the people following him.

Leadership development becomes all the more important when it comes to the conduct of a leader in front of his subordinates. Subordinates learn from their leader’s attitude towards work and related things. Each movement and gesture is observed and absorbed by these subordinates. Therefore, a leader should watch his image that he is building in his subordinates’ mind. His follower will undoubtedly repeat any foul act by the leader. He must try to build a young brigade of subordinates full of enthusiasm and dedication towards work.

Read the rest of this entry »