Emotional intelligence for better leadership and effective decision making
Today, most people have the technical skills to be a leader, but they commonly lack the emotional intelligence required for effective decision-making.
High Emotional Intelligence not only leads to better results but improves collaborations with people, reducing stress levels and finally creating a healthy workplace environment. In this place, people want to be.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
In simple words, EI means the capability to recognize one’s feelings and our own and then dealing with them effectively. It is not some concept which came here 3-4 years ago. Instead, it had been a famous concept since 1995, which came into existence with a book by a renowned psychologist named “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.”
But the question arises why it has gained so much importance now. Well, the answer is simple. For a long time now, we have just been so action-oriented that we had forgotten the relevance of our own emotions. And today, when we see so many people suffering from anxiety, panic attacks, depression, we have all started to emphasize emotional aspects of our life, including our workplace. And now the companies, the managers, and the employee’s everyone want to have a culture where emotions are used in the right way.
So, how do we do it? How do we become emotionally intelligent? So, there are various components involved in EI, and each of them helps us address some essential questions to enable us to increase our Emotional Quotient.
1. Self-Awareness: How well do I know myself? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What do I like, what upsets me, what makes me happy? And finally, what do I want from life?
2.Self-Regulation: How much can I regulate myself when bad things happen, especially if they are out of my control? Can I keep my emotions in check in extreme situations, be it good or bad?
3.Social Awareness: Do I respect diverse opinions? Do I understand the feeling and emotions of others?
4.Relationship Management: Can I manage my relationship with others well? Do I have the ability to resolve conflict?
These are some of the critical areas that can help one be emotionally intelligent and make better decisions. The primary reason high EI helps is that once you know yourself and are in touch with your emotions, it becomes much easier to understand others’ feelings. This further facilitates making decisions keeping in mind the people around and thus being an effective leader to people.
How famous personalities used EI to create a difference
Satya Nadella: CEO Microsoft When a Twitter bot, Tay, with advanced AI communication was launched by Microsoft, within 16 hours, it was proven that it was a horrible mistake. People started taking advantage of the bot. It started tweeting racist and profane comments. Microsoft had to shut down the entire project and apologize about it later. It would have been an obvious reaction of a CEO to shout or punish the engineers responsibly. Still, instead, Nadella sent them an email saying, “Keep pushing and know that I am with you” He urged his people to take the criticism in the right spirit and, during an interview, expressed how he believed that “If people worked out of fear, it was almost impossible to actually drive any innovation.” Now, his display of high emotional intelligence helped his employees face criticism and backlash bravely. Within a few months, they were able to deliver another chatbot with much better results.
1. Indira Nooyi: CEO Pepsi Co
During a visit to her mother’s place, Nooyi saw an endless stream of visitors coming and congratulating her mom on how she has raised her daughter so well and for all the success Nooyi had got. This made her realize the role of parents in their children’s success and the fact that they should be praised for the good their children were doing. When she went back, she wrote a letter to the parents of each employee of her executive team, writing the words “Thank you for the gift of your child to the company.”
All of this worked like a charm as some of the executives even told her how their parents were proud of them and that it had been one of the best things that happened to their parents. Later, in an interview, Nooyi explained how she believed in valuing employees and understanding that they do have a life beyond Pepsico, and she respects that. This unique show of gratitude and heartfelt emotions led to increased morale and loyalty amongst most of her employees, giving her an in-house approval rating of 75%.
1. MS Dhoni: Former Captain of Indian Cricket Team
Known worldwide as the captain cool, MS Dhoni has time and again displayed an amazing control of emotions, making him the only Indian captain to win all the 3 ICC trophies. Whenever a match gets crucial, be it a match as necessary as the world cup or any small tournament, this man never loses his cool. It is during the time of pressure that he can perform exceedingly well than others. And all of this is due to the high Emotional Quotient he has. And this is what the most successful captain in India’s history said himself “I am like everyone else but I control my emotions better than some of the other individuals.”
He also feels anger, frustration, and disappointment in his words, but he realizes that cribbing about something will finally do no good. And so, keeping his emotions in check helps him focus on the game and plan the basic strategy on how to win. No wonder winning big tournaments comes so naturally to him. Due to his emotional intelligence, he can deal with people so efficiently, making him one of the most famous and beloved captains who knows the importance of team-work and knows just the correct way to keep the team-spirit high to perform well.
Small Stories on depicting the significance of EI in smart decision making
1.World-renowned Chef Thomas Keller’s amazing response to criticism:
World-renowned Chef Thomas Keller’s restaurant was blasted by a critic in New York Times, which was a reason enough to upset him. But instead of getting upset or angry or rebuking the critic back, he apologized to him and vowed to learn from feedback. His display of high EQ gained him widespread appreciation, and by just dealing with his emotions right, he could very quickly come out of a seemingly embarrassing situation quite easily
2.Law Firm suing a 20-year-old waitress for writing a bad review:
A 20-year waitress had a bad experience with a law firm when she hired it to handle an accident case, and she ended up posting some bad reviews against it on an online forum. The firm, unable to take the criticism, filed a lawsuit against the girl. Irked by this, the girl hired another lawyer who won the case against the firm and led to the firm paying $27,000 as the attorney fees to the girl, leading to a great deal of loss just due to the inability to accept criticism and wrong display of emotions.
3.High EI Displayed by a Warrior Coach Steve Kerr:
The famous Golden States Warrior Coach Steve Kerr demonstrated how to deliver results by showing anger but controlled. Being in sports can be challenging, especially being surrounded by bullies and people with toxic behavior. But the best way to win in this situation is to remain in control and use the emotional advantage.
Conclusion:
These are some of the stories that help us understand the significance of holding emotions correctly and using them to our advantage. Around 90% of the top performers worldwide show high EI despite being more or less similar in terms of skill and knowledge than their colleagues. Displaying High EI will always be something that can help people stand apart and not just deliver better quality results but also be admired and appreciated by the people around.
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