In the realm of leadership, emotional intelligence (EQ), the ability to understand and manage emotions, both our own and others’, is a critical competency that sets exceptional leaders apart from the rest. EQ paves the way for effective decision-making, enhanced communication, and stronger relationships in the workplace.
Emotional intelligence encompasses four key components:
- Self-awareness is the conscious understanding of our values, perspectives, and way of interacting in the world. It is both how we see ourselves and how others perceive and experience us. Self-aware individuals are not afraid to acknowledge their strengths and their growth areas. They welcome feedback and observations that others have of them.
- Self-management includes our ability to manage our emotions and our behaviors. We engage self-management when we set and strive towards goals and when we center ourselves before stepping into a potentially confrontational situation.
- Social awareness directs our attention to others. It’s our ability to “read the room” or to sense and appropriately respond to another’s emotions and personality. Leaders with strong social awareness are practitioners of empathy. They understand and respect the different motivations that drive behaviors and worldviews.
- Relationship management refers to our ability to coach, mentor, and influence others. Strong relationship management skills also include the ability to engage, manage, and resolve conflict in healthy ways.
In our day-to-day work, we rarely take time to observe these aspects of our EQ in practice. We also neglect to reflect on where or how to strengthen these competencies. Our attention is on the work at hand, the to-do list, and the meetings scheduled on our calendars.
Yet to grow as leaders, we must take time to reflect on the various aspects of our EQ. It’s necessary that we be intentional to strengthen or more purposefully engage those competencies.
Insight into Action offers an opportunity to do just that.
During and between the seven Insight into Action sessions group members—
- Practice various methods of reflection that can be used during a busy day.
- Set and share specific leadership goals and support each other in working towards those goals.
- Learn a model for understanding motivations and world-views that helps us better understand ourselves and honor others.
- Explore the skills necessary for effective mentoring, coaching, supervising, decision-making, and conflict management.
Insight into Action is not an Emotional Intelligence workshop. It is a rich opportunity to strengthen EQ through instruction, conversation, honest sharing, and practice.