What is emotional intelligence in leadership?(2023)

Has it ever happened to you that you have too many situations to solve and you don't know how to act? Well, you seem to know what emotional intelligence in leadership is. 

Yes, you've probably read about it in a self-help book, but it's one of the skills that will help you the most if you want to build a stable company in the long term. It's not what you know, but how you communicate it and react to stimuli. 

Emotional intelligence is a skill that you must learn, especially if you are in a leadership position. It is well said that the organisation is a reflection of the leader, so it is time to pay attention to it so that everything goes the way you want it to.

Would you like to have more self-control, motivation and empathy with your team? Sit back and take a look at what we have for you below:

What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to control your emotions and relate to others, and is one of the most valued skills today. 

In the caveman era, the strongest, the grumpiest and the most physically powerful survived, but today, in the business world, the person who best regulates their thoughts and relates to their colleagues survives. 

It is no secret that emotions regulate every decision and behaviour you make on a daily basis. Therefore, how you handle them will make the difference between success or failure in your job. 

In this sense, emotional intelligence gives you the ability to identify and control your emotions so that they do not interfere negatively in your actions. In this way, you will have a better relationship with others and with yourself, which will be transformed into tangible results in the long term. 

Tips for a leader to have greater emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is intrinsically related to the world of leadership. When you are the boss you have to be careful that your emotions and reactions do not affect others: everything you do and don't do will influence your team. 

Emotional intelligence implies that you know perfectly each of your emotions, know what thoughts they come from and how you can manage them in the best way to achieve the objectives that were set in the company.

Remember, if you are not emotionally intelligent you will not be able to encourage your team to achieve their goals, so it is time to give it the same priority as academic skills. 

Let's take a look at some tips you need to develop to be an emotionally intelligent leader:

1. Self-knowledge

Knowing yourself is one of the first steps you should take to understand how you will react to moments of maximum tension and stress. 

The idea is to understand what your temperament is like, what your weaknesses are and what qualities you have in order to exploit them to the maximum. Remember that as a leader you are responsible for everything that happens in the organisation, so you should always put yourself in the best possible light. 

Know yourself and you will know others better, apply it and you will see. 

2. Self-control

Have you ever been in an unavoidable situation in the office and exploded without caring about the consequences? Don't worry, we've all been there, and sometimes life hits you so hard that you don't have time to choose the best possible reaction. 

Therefore, it is essential to have total self-control of yourself, to understand that emotions come from biological impulses in order to know how to control them in the best possible way. 

So, a leader is never governed by emotions, on the contrary, he governs his feelings to determine the best way to deal with each situation. 

3. Motivation

Yes, there are times when you just want to stay in bed and think about life's dilemmas, but you have responsibilities that don’t allow you to hesitate at any time. 

A leader has to learn to motivate himself, because the team will never do it for him. You have to learn to feel excited about every single achievement you can make and then transmit this image to the organisation. 

How can you encourage others if you yourself are demotivated? Always keep your good energy and then bring out the best in the team.

4. Empathy

Empathy is one of the most sought-after skills by corporate recruiters. We define it as the ability to put yourself in other people's shoes and see the world from their perspective. 

As a leader, you will not take ownership of other people's feelings, but will take into account the emotions of each person to make the right decisions in each case. 

5. Social skills

Many define soft skills as the ability to make friends and get along with everyone, and to a certain extent this is true. However, from a business point of view you have to look beyond that. 

As a leader you not only have to have good relations with everyone, but also lead others to a common goal. However, to achieve this you have to create a good vibe in the groups, so in most cases they are nice people who arouse good emotions. 

Make sure you get along well with everyone and you will see how the company starts to move forward.

Benefits of emotional intelligence 

Emotional intelligence is a skill that you will need to develop in one way or another if you want to be a competent leader today. 

Let's take a look at some of the benefits of developing this skill for your company. Get out pen and paper and take note: 

1. It allows you to know your own emotions

When faced with different situations, there is nothing like knowing yourself in order to resolve them in the best possible way. 

Knowing your emotions increases your confidence and gives you the self-esteem you need to be able to face the challenges the business world throws at you. From the very beginning you will know your strengths and weaknesses, so you will use them for the betterment of the organisation. 

2. Ability to manage your feelings

The idea isn't to oppress your feelings, which doesn't make much sense. The idea is to manage them and express them in an appropriate way so as not to hurt anyone. 

With emotional intelligence you will know where each feeling comes from, what is its root and then understand what is the necessary behaviour in each situation. 

This will give you an incredible confidence that will be transformed into solid actions in every moment.

3. Motivate yourself

As we said in the previous section, if you don't motivate yourself, who will? And mind you, it doesn't mean that you always have to be in a good mood and smiling, but somehow or other you have to get it done. 

There are days when you definitely don't want to get out of bed. The challenges are great and there are times when everything seems to be against you, but that's when you have to step up and show life what you're made of. 

So learn to encourage yourself in private and then motivate your team in public. This way you will keep the company afloat in the moments of greatest uncertainty.

4. Empathy for others

Empathy for others is indispensable in an increasingly competitive world. 

Who would want to have a troublemaker who does nothing but fight and create anxiety in the team? Definitely no one, so to improve your skills as a leader you must learn to be empathetic with everyone. 

The good news is that emotional intelligence helps you do this. You just have to know yourself and then understand the feelings of the people around you. In a short time you will see how everything starts to work. 

5. Healthy relationships

Closely linked to the previous point. Emotional intelligence helps you to improve all areas of your life, including interpersonal relationships. 

In many occasions conflicts are generated by a bad reaction, behaviour or unfortunate comment. This in the medium term deteriorates the relationships you have with the people close to you, so it is essential to be tactful so as not to affect others. 

Learn emotional intelligence and you will be surprised by the results it will generate in yourself and in others.

6. Avoid stress

Stress, to a certain extent, is unavoidable and shows that you are under pressure. The important thing is not to avoid it but to deal with it in a responsible way to get the best out of yourself. 

Then, in moments of maximum stress you will detect your feelings and use them to your advantage. The primary brain will move to the background and you will think about every single reaction so as not to affect anyone. 

In short, you will anticipate events and be prepared for challenging times. 

7. Optimise your work performance

Applying emotional intelligence at work is one of the best ideas you can have. Everything we've already told you gives you the chance to improve interpersonal relationships, improve occupational health and significantly increase productivity. 

One of the most important intangible indicators of any organisation is harmony. Well, with this skill you will improve every area of the company, so it is time to give it the priority it deserves.

8. Encourage personal growth

"The greater someone's leadership ability, the greater their effectiveness in achieving a goal".

This is called the law of the lid and demonstrates that to achieve great goals you must first be great on the inside. 

The ability to lead is the ceiling that determines the results you achieve, so it is essential that you focus on growing internally to improve what is happening around you. 

In this way, it is difficult to get results that are above your level of personal growth. Remember, "everything falls or rises because of leadership". 

How can I develop emotional intelligence?

Do you want to be a better leader in your company? Make up your mind now to develop your emotional intelligence so that you can see how all the pieces start to fit on the board. 

Let's take a look at some of the steps you need to take to gain this ability:

1. Detect the emotion behind your actions.

The first thing you need to do is to pay attention to the emotions behind all your behaviours. 

These emotions come from thoughts, so the most important thing is to detect the origin of those thoughts to determine if it is the best way to react to each stimulus. 

This step is key because one of the problems of lacking emotional intelligence is that you don't measure your words and the impact of your actions. Do this and forget about this problem. 

2. Improve your emotional vocabulary

The way you speak comes from what's in your head, and, as you know, words don't just blow away and can cause great pain or emotion in the people around you. 

Part of the process of developing emotional intelligence lies in learning a new vocabulary based on positivity, optimism and edification. Negativity is something you definitely have to ignore if you want to be a leader with high emotional intelligence. 

3. Forget about emotional experiences

Yes, it's time to let go of all those traumatic experiences that scarred your past. Put them out of your mind and open your brain to live new moments. 

Most reactions are programmed according to the experience you have, so it's time to forget everything so that you don't have prejudices in front of others. 

4. Don't judge your feelings

One of the mistakes that is often made is that you judge your feelings and give them as little importance as possible. 

The reality is that every emotion has an origin that comes from your thoughts, so the idea is to pay attention to it to determine how you can improve your reactions. 

Emotional intelligence will continue to be a skill in high demand today. Yes, what your CV says speaks well of you, but soft skills will say what's inside you, so it's time to open your mind to new ideas. 

What other tips do you know to improve emotional intelligence?