How can leaders develop emotional agility and adaptability?

Em um mar de incertezas, a adaptabilidade é o leme que guia. Para desenvolver agilidade emocional, líderes devem aprender a navegar nas águas turbulentas dos sentimentos, tanto os próprios quanto os de sua equipe. Considere um líder enfrentando uma crise imprevista. Em vez de reagir impulsivamente, ele pratica a reflex?o, reconhecendo suas emo??es e questionando a melhor forma de agir. Esse líder também se aproxima da sua equipe, buscando compreender suas perspectivas e preocupa??es, criando um ambiente de confian?a mútua. A chave é a prática contínua de autoconsciência e empatia. Assim, a agilidade emocional se torna uma ferramenta poderosa para liderar com resiliência e sabedoria.

The starting point for developing emotional agility is to name your values. Values are guiding forces for effective behavior. Once we know our values, we can start to align our actions behind those values. The decisions we make can also be guided by the values we have, rather than the emotions we feel in the moment. In my work with high-performing athletes and executives, one of the first things we do is identify values for this very reason. It allows us to change behavior and better regulate emotion in a way that aligns with who a person wants to become, rather than falling into old habits and patterns.

Emotional Agility, otherwise known as "emotional intelligence" is best demonstrated and developed by leaders who make a conscious effort to lead with authenticity! Leading with authenticity entails you allowing yourself to be vulnerable. Vulnerability makes you more relatable as others see your imperfections and realize that its okay to be imperfect. As we lead with authenticity and vulnerability, we strengthen our emotional intelligence to be more accepting of others, flaws and all.

I think that the emotional agility of a leader is based on his/her emotional intelligence, that is, when a leader has self-awareness, and knows how to manage himself, as well as having social awareness and knowing how to manage his relationships, that person can have a wide range of agility to manage personal emotions and therefore, his/her adaptability will be one of the many important results he/she will develop.

Emotional agility is crucial in both personal and professional life, offering benefits such as improved self-awareness, effective decision-making, enhanced resilience, stronger relationships, and growth. It enables individuals to understand and regulate their emotions, leading to thoughtful decisions aligned with their values. By navigating challenges with resilience, individuals can bounce back and avoid being overwhelmed by negative emotions. Emotional agility also promotes empathy and effective communication, fostering strong relationships. Additionally, it encourages learning from experiences and personal growth.

Emotional adaptability is crucial because it allows individuals to adjust their emotions and behaviors according to different situations and demands. It is not about being fake or inconsistent, but rather being flexible and responsive. This ability to adapt emotionally helps in effective communication, collaboration with others, and handling diversity and conflict. By being emotionally adaptable, individuals can navigate various social and professional situations with ease, understanding the needs and perspectives of others. It enables individuals to build strong relationships, resolve conflicts, and work well in diverse teams.

Emotional agility and adaptability add significant value to leaders and organizations. These traits enable leaders to navigate ambiguity and uncertainty with confidence and clarity. By being emotionally agile, leaders can effectively manage their own emotions and those of their team members, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving. Additionally, emotional agility and adaptability allow leaders to build trust and rapport by demonstrating empathy and respect, fostering strong relationships and collaboration. In turn, this creates a positive and productive culture that encourages feedback, learning, and innovation. Moreover, these traits contribute to the overall well-being and performance of individuals and teams.

Helping others to grow and nurturing a great team is probably one of the longer-lasting impacts a great leader has. It outlives him/her, and creates value not only for the sustainability of the company but for the people they inspire and develop. Since we are emotional beings, creating such growth requires an emotional connection. Tapping into other people's beliefs and dreams requires empathy and understanding, great leaders connect and communicate with emotion, they inspire and help us believe. In my experience, when asking other people about the greatest leaders they have had, they rarely remember specifically what those leaders said or knew, but they always, always, remember how they made them feel.

Les dirigeants peuvent développer l'agilité émotionnelle et l'adaptabilité en utilisant des techniques telles que l'intelligence émotionnelle, la communication empathique et la gestion du stress. Ces outils permettent aux leaders de mieux comprendre et gérer leurs propres émotions, ainsi que celles des autres, favorisant ainsi la flexibilité et l'adaptation dans un environnement en constante évolution. Ces compétences sont essentielles pour les dirigeants car elles leur permettent de prendre des décisions éclairées et de créer un climat de confiance et de collaboration au sein de leur équipe.

One of the best places one can start to develop emotional agility is to use a valid and reliable assessment to measure both your behavioral tendencies and emotional intelligence. We all need to see ourselves as others see us in order to understand where we need to develop. Once we have a baseline of where we are in our emotional agility journey, we can focus on what's most important in our current life circumstances to advance us. A simple, four quadrant tool can help as we take the input from our assessment and plug in actions to take (do more of, do less of, stop doing, and start doing). I've found that an ongoing series of 60-day plans with 4 to 6 specific action items will help create new habits and enable substantial progress.

I believe in Self-Awareness as being key to understand yourself, and definitively Self-regulation, Self-expression, and Self-adaptation are important. Nevertheless, the true driver behind any development effort has to do with your will to change. You can have all of the above, but you must first find a reason to change. Through my career I have met very talented individuals, highly capable of change, but what I find many times is they probably don't see a clear reason to do it. It is not only about your ability to manage your emotions or learning to develop them, but you also first have to be convinced that, by doing so, you can be a better version of yourself, live a happier life, be fulfilled and leave a brighter legacy.

Self Awareness and the space to explore ourselves beyond all programming and limiting beliefs, patterns and habits are key. I believe it needs structural support to first work on the clarity of who we truly are (purpose, values and visions) and clear the blocks (limiting beliefs, generational trauma and patterns) with a pro. That part is less about talking, then the space to feel (in order to heal) without judgement.

A method I've used with success is once a mentee and I can agree on where they are and where they want to be, we jointly create a development plan that focuses on 4-6 specific areas for a 60-day time period. Using neurolinguistic programming to have coaching clients process their plan each morning in anticipation of the day, and debrief how their day went at the end of the day, has delivered measurable improvement. Over the years I've continued to enhance this approach, along with asking good coaching questions, and its prove to me effective.

Coaching is giving concrete tools, a strategy, experience and helps with staying consistent. One smart way for starters is to provide the mentee with tools for self regulation and to design a morning and evening ritual around them to stay consistent. Those times of the days are especially valuable as we can prime our whole day and sleep and create a healthy, regulated cycle.

Coaching is a unique and powerful opportunity in your executive career. Your coach is one of the few people in your life who is completely neutral and unbiased. They are willing to challenge your thinking and, in service to your growth and goals, allow you to feel uncomfortable in a way few others will. They can clearly see how your thoughts, feelings actions and results are linked so you can develop clarity and more emotional agility. They will also hold you accountable while feeling supported. There are few professional relationships that can be so transformative in developing emotional awareness and success.

One thing that might be helpful is observing self in the situations that were challenging. At the end of the day it is relevant to retrospect such situation focusing on: emotions, thoughts and behaviour.

emotional agility demands safety. if leaders are not psychologically safe, they are now being asked to mask, filter, and sort through emotions for the sake of the people around them. emotional regulation is often weaponized for many folx, ESPECIALLY systemically excluded people, and held as a standard that really means keep emotions out of the work. and when you put these folx in leadership contexts where they represent the community they are being asked to serve? yeah. that doesn’t work. it’s important to hold orgs accountable to being emotionally agile in their expectations for emotional agility. and ask if they’ve even created the culture to demand emotional regulation, or if people are navigating survival mode within their walls.

A calm nervous system is the success factor not enough talked about. When our system is calm, our IQ goes way up and we’re in solution mode. When we’re stressed the opposite is the case and we can not lead. Not ourselves. Not others. As state dependent beings we are we can use Breathwork, cold therapy and so much more to regulate quickly. I’m grateful that articles like these shine a light on the importance of emotional well-being. Feel it to heal it!