Leadership and Change Management

Understand why emotional intelligence should be part of a leader

A "true" leader is required to have more than technical skills. The biggest challenge for a leader is to create the right conditions for his or her team, so social skills are becoming increasingly important. Based on Applied Knowledge's article "Four skills of a leader", today we will discuss the importance of the topic.

9
October 2017
1
 min of reading

As you progress up the career ladder and take on higher-level responsibilities, a leader's job is increasingly challenged by soft skills and social competencies - such as emotional intelligence which is nothing less than the way a leader manages their emotions and those of other team members. This type of competence should involve a dynamo of optimism and energiser and the ability to act as a positivity factor within a team.

According to the work that Nova SBE Executive Education has carried out with various Portuguese managers, the greatest sources of people's dissatisfaction with their bosses do not belong to the technical domain but to that of "pure and hard" leadership, which includes the social dimensions. 

But, after all, how are these types of competences expressed?

#1 In the ability to relate profitably with subordinates, peers and superiors - knowing how to talk but also how to listen;

#2 By motivating the people around you, giving them a reason to work hard and a sense of meaning;

#3 In the ability to transform individuals into teams whose whole surpasses individual merits;

#4 In creating safe environments for learning - demand without a sense of psychological safety creates spaces dominated by fear;

#5 In the predisposition to act as a coach and facilitator of the development of others, that is, as a talent multiplier.

‍

As Plato said in his famous sentence: "All learning has an emotional base".

Expand your horizons
Executive Education
Published in 
9/10/2017
 in the area of 
Leadership and Change Management

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