Tim Kroggel Director GTM Focus Markets at Messagebird. Tim is an expert in building teams for hypergrowth.
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In this article, I want to share my perspective on the characteristics of great leadership and why three emotional intelligence skills in particular are vital. I was lucky enough to experience some truly great leaders in my previous and current company who motivated me to go above and beyond for them, my team and myself in my career, and this is what I learned.
Self-Awareness
Phillip H. Marvis explains in his book Management Education for Global Sustainability that “Self-awareness is fundamentally an integral necessity for personal development.”
People have debated for many years if leaders are born or made, yet there is no scientific answer to that. Still, I genuinely believe that constant self-reflection will help you, your employer and your team move the needle in the right direction. Leaders who have a high degree of self-awareness observe how their feelings affect them, other people and their job performance. Those leaders are not unrealistically hopeful or overly critical with themselves or others.
To enhance self-awareness, companies need to review their education/training to include limbic approaches. Emotional intelligence is born mainly in the brain’s neurotransmitters, which govern feelings, impulses and drives. Research indicates the best learning occurs for limbic systems when motivation, extended practice and constructive feedback are used.
Besides collecting constant constructive feedback from peers, colleagues and mentors, certain executives work with career coaches to help them unfold blind spots regarding emotional intelligence.
The author Tasha Eurich defines two main types of self-awareness:
Internal Self-Awareness : This defines your understanding of your aspirations, fit with your environment, values, passion and impact on others.
External Self-Awareness : This defines how you see other people and how other people see you in terms of the factors above.
In her research, Tasha Eurich found that internal self-awareness is associated with “higher job and relationship satisfaction, personal and social control, and happiness; it is negatively related to anxiety, stress, and depression.” Leaders with a heightened external self-awareness tend to have a better relationship with their employees and team members, feel more satisfied with them and see them as more effective in general.
Self-Regulation
Showing an emotion that wasn’t planned to be revealed isn’t a pleasant feeling. I believe all of us have lost our cool once or twice in front of a friend, colleague or worse, a client. Biological impulses drive our emotions and feelings. We cannot do away with them — but we can manage them.
Emotions and feelings do not hold back leaders with a solid ability to self-regulate. They are no prisoners of their impulses. So how do these leaders manage this ongoing inner communication and channel this energy into valuable ways? In my search for advice, I learned that a critical capability is to remove yourself from the situation and analyze the problem from a third-party perspective. This is why you often encounter in sports a change of behavior between the game itself and post-game interviews. Leaders who master their emotions are perceived as strong leaders as employees and peers feel they create a fair and trustworthy environment.
Research shared in the book "For New Managers" shows that self-regulation supports leaders with adoption to change. In our modern work environment, constant change is part of your job scope as work environments constantly change. Leaders who can self-regulate are comfortable embracing change; they don’t panic and suspend judgment while seeking information and executing those new obstacles. It is important not to confuse self-regulation with coldness. A leader who can regulate themselves doesn’t necessarily need to be cold. It’s quite the opposite; self-regulated individuals know when to show their passion, enthusiasm or anger. Managing emotions to your benefit is a powerful leadership tool, leveraged by leaders in all different types and forms, from sports icon Jürgen Klopp to visionaries like Steve Ballmer.
Motivation
The ability to motivate is a key tool in the toolbox of a successful leader.
An often shared quote from former CEO of Xerox Anne M. Mulcahy explains: “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person — not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”
According to Gallup’s meta-analysis, the business or work units in the top quartile for employee engagement outperformed the work units in the bottom quartile by 21%.
The challenge leaders encounter starts with the idea that employees are motivated differently; title, money, power, impact or perks that come with the role have different effects on the motivation within each individual. Leaders need to spend time and effort understanding peers and employees to ensure they can bring out the best side of them.
Conclusion
In enhancing emotional intelligence, leaders need to review their education/training to include limbic approaches. Emotional intelligence is born largely in the brain’s neurotransmitters, which govern feelings, perception, impulses and drives. Research indicates that the limbic system learns best through motivation, repeated practice and constructive feedback. Leaders need to start with their own self-awareness and understand that their internal self-awareness does not equal their external self-awareness. The ability to manage your emotions can be your own prison or your very own superpower. Lastly, the ability to motivate is key to helping teams or individuals become the best possible versions of themselves.
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