Insure Your Business Acumen With Emotional Intelligence Leadership Development

By Scott Gibson


Newer findings have enabled an easier job in determining what makes the best of business skills. One of the newest, most touted concepts is emotional intelligence leadership development. It is a new concept, and has even more recently become applied to business. Two professors first coined the phrase as applied to business in 1990, in a research paper. The scientific explanation is that it is the ability to understand emotions, including yours and others. It includes understanding how it involves relationships, and being able to manage all emotions, both yours and others. It is an essential ingredient in business leadership.

This quality can surpass any training, ideas, and an incisive mind. It takes all the components of this trait to be a great leader. Mayer defined the components of the trait in a research paper. There are five major components: Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. These were first identified by Mayer and Salovey, two Psychology professors.

Self-awareness is the ability to see oneself plainly, with confidence. We enjoy creativeness, and can make sounder decisions. Communications and relationships are stronger. Lying, cheating, and stealing are less likely. We get more promotions, and our leadership is stronger, give more and better employees and better companies.

Self-regulation means keeping negative emotions and impulses in control, thinking before acting, is self-regulation, being able to control oneself. It involves knowing and controlling your emotions, as well as others. It also involves motivating oneself, and managing relationships. According to several authors, those who self-regulate see the good in other people and are able to recognize opportunities. They can calm down easily when angry or upset. They are flexible when working with their colleagues and are capable of taking charge when needed.

The next component is motivation. This can be used by the leader to encourage other to do what they desire in life. It encourages the person to strive at what they want. A good business leader can influence self and employees to pursue there dreams. There is no specific pattern for encouragement, as each person has different needs and the leader must be aware of the different needs of their subordinates.

Empathy, another component, involves recognizing others' emotions, understanding things from their perspective. The leader must think beyond themselves, and recognize that people are probably not being unreasonable, but are merely responding to things based on their own perspective. The leader must think of things in that light.

Social skills involves the ability to communicate well with everyone. One must be skilled in conflict resolution, both involving self and others. They are adept at giving praise, and at getting others to accept a new project.

There are several aspects to being an effective leader. One must validate others' perspectives, look at their own attitudes, listen well to others, and try to do what the other person would want in a situation, not just guessing about the proper outcome. Recognizing and praising another based on your own idea of what is important, without thinking about their ideas, is not showing empathy. One needs to find out what the other wants and recognize them for that.




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