Attributes of Emotionally Intelligent Leaders
Good leaders share several important attributes. Their emotional intelligence is reflected in their attitudes and behaviors. These attitudes and behaviors include:
Separating work and personal relationships
They develop good relationships with their staff members, but also keep an appropriate distance. They can’t let personal friendships affect business. When executives let personal feelings interfere at work, problems can arise — ranging from jealousy to serious errors.
Leaders can still have close personal relationships, but they must be very careful to keep these friendships separate from work. This can be difficult but is in everyone’s best interests.
Confidence and appreciation
High self-esteem is critical to emotional intelligence. Confidence helps leaders make decisions and take action, even when they face disagreement. Confident leaders must care enough about their employees to help people develop and contribute. They must appreciate the contributions others make.
Compromise
Emotionally intelligent leaders know that compromise is essential to good business relationships. Compromise can be difficult, but your aim is to reach a decision that is a win-win situation.
Taking responsibility
To make the best decision possible, it’s important to act carefully. This means you should
Be directly involved — Don’t rely on second-hand information from anyone. Make sure you know first-hand what all the issues are. Otherwise, you could run into misunderstandings because of bad information.
Get all the information — Find out everything you can. Make sure there no gaps in your knowledge. A well- informed decision is critical.
Make sure you’re present during implementation — Don’t hand off the decision to anyone else. You don’t want someone else to feel like he or she has to justify your decision.
Emotionally intelligent leaders project confidence and build the self-esteem of their employees. They compromise when appropriate and take responsibility for their actions. Remember that it’s important to separate business and personal relationships. An appropriate level of distance will help you make sound decisions. (Read more on medium.com)
