The importance of soft skills in the workspace has been given attention over the past. Research shows that emotional intelligence is one of the fastest-growing skills on demand as per the reports of the World Economic Forum. That’s why you must learn to manage your emotions as a leader.
Ironically, many graduates lack such skills as they concentrate on gaining their technical prowess. What they don’t know is that; effective management of our emotional intelligence is one of the most exceptional ingredients to success.
Have you ever met or watched a movie with the pivotal character emotionally impoverished? For a fact, things get damaged, and the people around them get affected directly when their emotions run amok. Many companies fail because if having leaders who are not emotionally intelligent. They severely damage employee morale, retention, and finally, the sit there and watch the company fall. That’s not the leader a company would like to have. This article addresses five effective ways in which leaders manage their emotions.
To manage your emotions, you must know when and how to share
I don’t advocate for leaders to be unemotional robots and die with their feeling inside. This is an unhealthy direction for any leader to take. Emotionally intelligent leaders know how to use their emotions to connect with others effectively. They can share their feeling and enhance their relationship—this a healthy way to go.
No matter what an employee is passing through, an effective leader can express emotions that let that person feel at home and cared for.
Emotionally intelligent leaders have their emotions in check. They know when to express and how much to let out in a particular situation.
Do what’s right instead of what’s popular.
Many leaders indulge in making decisions according to the popular ones for instant relief from a difficult situation. It takes an effective leader to overcome the urge to give in to what’s fashionable but instead make decisions based on what’s right. It takes self-confidence and a lot of boldness to get to this level.
Trust your intuition
As an emotionally intelligent leader struggling to make a decision, you should be capable of getting inside you and use the gut instincts to make the decision even if there might be compelling reasons pointing at you not to do so.
EI leaders do not spend their time and energy looking for scapegoats but instead learn from past mistakes and failures. That’s the secret they use when trusting their intuition and making decisions based on a problematic situation.
Make a point of fighting inertia, apathy, and procrastination.
It’s a sure thing that we have all had days that we feel like doing nothing, doing very little, or at times leaving things undone.
Leaders are also humans, and they share these struggles too. The difference between them and emotionally weak leaders is that they don’t have the luxury of giving in. They take it upon themselves and play the responsibility role perfectly well. They are always on the action even if they don’t feel like it because they know others depend on them. Giving up is not defined in their life.
Look for a solution instead of blame games.
Doing easy things and falling into such traps is very easy as it sounds. Avoiding responsibility at awkward moments is natural. That’s way emotionally needy leader finds it effortless to shift the blame on others when things go wrong. This is not what leadership entails.
Effective leaders look for solutions. They are eager to find what went wrong to prevent it from reoccurring again in the future. They treat their past as a school, learn from it, and move on from it.
Conclusion
Effective leaders have mastered their feelings. They know their responsibility towards these around them. They are veritable masters of when to express their emotions and when to keep them in check. All that summed up makes the difference between them and regular leaders.
