Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Is the Key to Successful Leadership

In the economic world, leaders play a significant role. While great leaders can benefit an organization in a variety of ways, ineffective leaders can cause harm. Emotional intelligence has been suggested as a factor in determining the effectiveness of a leader. We'll look at the link between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness in this article.

This blog post delves into the definition of emotional intelligence in leaders and what it means for a leader. As you'll see, emotional intelligence has a significant impact on your ability to lead. Continue reading if you want to learn more about emotional intelligence and why it is so important to leaders.
 

What Is Emotional Intelligence?  

The ability to understand what you are feeling, what other people are feeling, how those feelings affect them, and how those feelings impact relationships are referred to as emotional intelligence or EQ. Organizations are emphasizing leadership skills that allow leaders to build rapport with their employees, and EQ has become increasingly important. If you want to appear as an effective leader who can motivate those around you to success — and if you want those who work under your supervision to feel good about themselves at work — you'll need emotional intelligence.
 

How do our minds work?

Intuitively, our mind feels like a cohesive whole. We perceive ourselves as intentional and rational thinkers. Yet cognitive science research shows that the intentional part of our mind is like a little rider on top of a huge elephant of emotions and intuitions.

Roughly speaking, we have two thinking systems. Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize for his research on behavioral economics, calls them Systems 1 and 2, but I think autopilot systems and intentional systems describe these systems more clearly. The term intentional system, in particular, is useful as a way of thinking about living intentionally and thereby gaining greater agency.

The autopilot system corresponds to our emotions and intuitions. Its cognitive processes take place mainly in the amygdala and other parts of the brain that developed early in our evolution. This system guides our daily habits, helps us make snap decisions, and reacts instantly to dangerous life-and-death situations, like saber-toothed tigers, through the freeze, fight, or flight stress response. While helping our survival in the past, the fight-or-flight response is not a great fit for modern life.

We have many small stresses that are not life-threatening, but the autopilot system treats them as tigers, producing an unnecessarily stressful everyday life experience that undermines our mental and physical well-being. Moreover, while the snap judgments resulting from intuitions and emotions usually feel true because they are fast and powerful, they sometimes lead us wrong, in systemic and predictable ways.

The intentional system reflects our rational thinking and centers around the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that evolved more recently. According to recent research, it developed as humans started to live within larger social groups. This thinking system helps us handle more complex mental activities, such as managing individual and group relationships, logical reasoning, probabilistic thinking, and learning new information and patterns of thinking and behavior.

While the automatic system requires no conscious effort to function, the intentional system takes deliberate effort to turn on and is mentally tiring. Fortunately, with enough motivation and appropriate training, the intentional system can turn on in situations where the autopilot system is prone to make errors, especially costly ones.

Here’s a quick visual comparison of the two systems:
 

The autopilot system is like an elephant

It’s by far the more powerful and predominant of the two systems. Our emotions can often overwhelm our rational thinking. Moreover, our intuitions and habits determine the large majority of our life, which we spend in autopilot mode. And that’s not a bad thing at all—it would be mentally exhausting to think intentionally about our every action and decision.

The intentional system is like the elephant rider.

It can guide the elephant deliberately to go in a direction that matches our actual goals. It can help you address the systematic and predictable errors that we make due to how our brain is wired, which scholars term cognitive biases.

Over 100 cognitive biases exist, and more are found all the time by scholars in behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience. These errors lead to dangerous mistakes for entrepreneurs, in everything from mergers and acquisitions to assessing company performance.

Recent research in these fields shows how you can use pragmatic strategies to notice and address these dangerous judgment errors. You can do so using structured techniques to assess cognitive biases in your workplace, and then use effective decision-making strategies for making quick everyday decisions, for more complex and significant ones, and for critically important and highly complex choices. You also need to avoid failures and maximize success in implementing decisions.

The elephant part of the brain—which is most prone to cognitive biases—is huge and unwieldy, slow to turn and change, and stampedes at threats. But we can train the elephant.

Your rider can be an elephant whisperer. Over time, you can use the intentional system to change your automatic thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns, and become a better agent in taking charge of your life and career, and reaching your goals as an entrepreneur!

Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important in Leadership?  

Emotional intelligence allows leaders to empathize with others, which is one of the reasons it has become so important in leadership. Empathy allows you to understand what your employees are going through and what they need — and don't need — from you. Empathy can help you connect with them better, which will help them be more productive at work.

Another reason for the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership? It improves team collaboration by fostering trust, allowing people from different teams or departments to feel at ease working together to achieve common goals. Everyone is more motivated to go above and beyond what you ask of them when they feel like they belong and have a voice, as well as the assurance that those with more authority than them will be fair when making decisions about how to get work done.
 

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership 

The advantages of emotional intelligence make it easier for people to get along; they feel like a shared vision boosts morale. Furthermore, when employees have faith in their ability to perform at work, they will become better workers in general! It also translates to happier customers because your team enjoys what they do on a daily basis. As a result, your business or company will achieve greater financial success as a result of increased productivity and lower turnover rates.
 

What Is the Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership? 

Leaders with high emotional intelligence are better equipped to handle difficult situations and navigate challenging relationships. They are more effective at building strong teams, communicating effectively, and managing change. There are many reasons why emotional intelligence is important in leadership. Here are just a few:

1. First, leaders need to understand their own emotions and how they impact their decision-making. If you can’t understand your own emotions, it will be difficult for you to understand the emotions of others. 

2. Second, leaders need to be able to read the emotions of others. Of course, this is especially important in a team environment, where it’s essential to understand how team members feel and what they need to be productive. 

3. Third, leaders need to be good communicators. They need to express their feelings clearly and effectively and listen when others talk. 

4. Fourth, leaders need to manage stress and maintain emotional balance. When things get tough, leaders need to stay calm and focused. 

5. Finally, leaders must model the behavior they want their employees to emulate. If you want your employees to be emotionally intelligent, you need to show them how it’s done. 

There are no debatable questions regarding whether emotional intelligence is important in any relationship, especially in a leadership role. Leaders with high emotional intelligence can build better relationships with their employees, clients, and stakeholders. They are better equipped to handle difficult conversations and manage conflict. They are also more likely to be successful at change management initiatives.