Executive Leadership Coach with The Leader Channel in Houston, Texas.
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As organizations decide when to reopen amid a continued surge in Covid-19 cases, senior leaders need emotional intelligence now more than ever.
A recent Gallup study identified four general needs that employees most desire of leaders, particularly during a crisis: trust, compassion, stability and hope.
EI engenders these responses from employees and is the most important part of any leader’s behavioral repertoire. In these last few months, employees have experienced compounding challenges — some of them traumatic — including one or more of the following:
• Fear of loss of employment.
• Dealing with a spouse’s loss of employment.
• Juggling priorities with work and coeducating their children at home.
• Fear of contracting Covid-19 or spreading it to others.
• Isolation from friends and family, or being alone and not having friends or family.
• Missing out on anticipated events like graduations and weddings.
• Dealing with compounding effects from the social unrest.
• Uncertainty about the future.
These, in addition to current political events across our country, are challenging for employees to cope with while managing expectations to perform their work. As a leader in your organization, you will often be the first point of contact for employees. Therefore, what you say and how you lead in the days ahead will matter. How you help employees cope, engage and return to work matters to the sustainability of our businesses and our national economy.
To be effective in the days ahead, more than ever before, you will need to develop the capacity to relate to employees in genuine ways, demonstrate empathy to better understand their challenges and lead in ways that bring to bear a balance of courage and compassion. To do this, you can develop your level of EI as a leader.
Emotional Intelligence Defined
EI measures the level of self-awareness, social awareness and self-regulation of your behavior. It also addresses your ability to remain positive and manage your emotions and the needs of others in constructive ways. It means that you are adaptive, resilient to change and can build genuine relationships with others and solve problems. The Bar-On Model of emotional-social intelligence provides an evidence-based framework for better understanding how to lead with higher levels of EI. ESI is measured by one’s emotional quotient. The following further describes the core constructs of EQ and how you can apply it to your leadership.
Intrapersonal (Self-Awareness)
The first part of your EI to consider is your level of self-awareness. Self-awareness is the view that you have of yourself. This affects how others see you and therefore is a factor in your leader effectiveness. It is a sense of confidence, a sense of knowing and having the grit to make tough decisions and influence others.
Tip: Define who you are through your leadership values. Doing this will help you align and influence your behavior as a leader.
Interpersonal (Other Awareness)
Leadership is not what most people think it is. It is not self-serving. It is sacrificial. Leadership seeks the interest of others and ensures that others are cared for and whole. This is a critical time when, as a leader, you should engage employees by showing concern for them and their families. As a leader, you are uniquely positioned to affect policy on issues such as paid time off, flexible schedules, remote work, shared work, employee assistance programs or any number of ways to help provide some form of relief to employees during these challenging times.
Tip: Look for ways to identify and meet the needs of your employees. Take the initiative to reach out to them individually, especially your direct reports. Empathize with and engage employees at regular intervals. When employees know that you genuinely care, they will have greater capacity to focus on their well-being and subsequently their work.
Stress Management
Are you dealing with stress related to current events in your own life? How you cope with that stress while having the awareness to self-regulate your leadership behavior on display to your team members is important. Finding the right balance to self-manage will help so that your own emotions of feeling overwhelmed do not spill over into your leadership behavior.
Tip: When dealing with unexpected changes in the work environment, ensure that you are emotionally fit to handle the challenges and impact of serving and meeting your employees’ needs. For example, take at least one day out of the week to completely rest your body, mind and soul. This will help strengthen and invigorate you as a leader. In turn, you will have the necessary capacity to face any emergent challenges ahead.
Adaptability
Adaptability reflects how well you integrate the areas of self-awareness, social awareness and self-management in your EI. It means that you are effective at building collegial relationships. It is also a demonstration of your ability to solve problems in high-stress environments. This leadership quality is needed today more than ever. Relating to people, particularly people who are different from you, will help you better cope with change and be more resilient as a leader.
Tip: Form an ad-hoc peer leadership group to meet virtually once a week to share strategies and best practices during the pandemic. Be sure to contribute to as well as receive from the group.
General Mood
This is defined as your level of optimism. It's a demonstration of your resiliency when faced with obstacles.
Tip: When encountering opposition, rather than focusing on the challenge, look for alternative opportunities to lead through the situation successfully.
Developing Your Emotional Intelligence
A quick way to develop your EI is to focus on one of the four constructs mentioned above. I recommend starting with an assessment to measure your natural levels of EI and help identify the greatest area of development need. Then, through training or leadership coaching, begin developing in that specific area. An experienced coach will be able to guide you through this process. By developing your EI, you will likely see gains in your leadership effectiveness, particularly at the executive level.
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