Building Your Authority - Emotional Intelligence

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“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.” ~ Dale Carnegie

When you think of a "perfect authority," in your professional field what comes to mind?

You might picture a professional who never loses their temper, no matter what problems they’re facing.

Or you might think of a professional who has the complete trust of their staff, listens to their team, is easy to talk to, and always makes careful, informed decisions.

These are qualities of someone with a high degree of Emotional Intelligence.

High Emotional Intelligence is what differentiates successful and great professional leaders from the rest.

High Emotional Intelligence is what differentiates successful and great professional leaders from the rest. CLICK TO TWEET

I am aware that I just shared a strong statement with you. In this edition, I will share with you why I believe this is true and how you also can get EQ traits to work for you and to build your authority.

We all know these professionals who are self-aware, self-motivated, self-regulated, and eager to do more and more.

But what is it that makes this sort of professional on many occasions, transcend the competition and accomplish together with their team the impossible?

Understanding how emotions affect your own performance, as a professional, is important.

Understanding how emotions impact your team’s performance is even more important.

Think about a great manager that you’ve had in the past in your professional career.

You likely (I hope) felt comfortable going to that person with your questions, concerns, and needs, and they were likely receptive to you and worked to address them and make sure that you felt supported. And if (or when) you both had disagreements, they were likely respectful and productive exchanges.

And you probably remember these people for good. Right?

So how can we re-wire our brains to perform at a higher level and STAND OUT in a crowded professional marketplace?

To understand it, let me start by defining “Emotional Intelligence” for the sake of this edition.

“Emotional Intelligence” - Definition

So, what is emotional intelligence?

In short:

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage emotions and relationships.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage emotions and relationships. CLICK TO TWEET

The term emotional intelligence comes from?the?work of researchers?Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer ?(Daniel Goleman later popularized their work in his book,?Emotional Intelligence).

In their work, Salovey and Mayer concluded that people with emotional intelligence do the following:

1. They understand their own emotions (positive and negative).
2. They understand the emotions of others (positive and negative).
3. They are effective at regulating their emotions to?pursue their goals.
4. They are effective at influencing positive emotions in others.

So, what does that have to do with building your authority and standing out as a professional?

Emotional intelligence begins with a professional recognizing and then managing his or her own emotions.

When you as a professional are able to do this, you can begin to improve your credibility?with others.

The next step for you, as a professional, to stand out with the help of emotional intelligence is to recognize and manage the emotions of others.

“Emotional Intelligence” - Dimensions

Emotional intelligence has the following five dimensions:

1. Self Awareness - Being aware of your emotions (understanding what you are feeling).
2. Self Motivation - Ability to persist in the face of obstacles?and setbacks?(influencing constructive emotions in yourself).
3. Self Management - Ability to effectively manage your emotions and impulses (controlling your destructive emotions).
4. Empathy?- Sensing how others are feeling?(understanding what others are feeling).
5. Social Skills - Ability to effectively handle the emotions of others.

So, now that you are familiar with the general definition of EQ, let’s go back to the main question - how can we re-wire our brains to perform at a higher level of EQ and stand out?

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence

To help you to implement the advice into your own professional career, let me share with you how you can cultivate your emotional intelligence:

1. Self Mirroring

While mentoring many lawyers and professionals to build their authority and stand out, one question I asked many of my mentees is: how do you want to stand out?

What do these top professionals look like? What do they do that makes them stand out and be considered authorities in their respected fields?

If you can clearly see what those professional authorities are doing to stand out and then think of your current reality, you will identify weaknesses.

That could be a great starting point to start growing your own authority by using EQ.

2. Create a Self-Challenge

One of the proven ways to change habits is by making small steps in the direction you want to go.

If I can confront my weaknesses and see in my mind's eye how I'll respond to certain difficult situations I can push myself in real life.

Try it for yourself.

Visualize yourself and how you may handle a challenge in your practice.

Get comfortable with that challenge.

When you confront those issues in real life they will begin to come more easily and you surely solve them.

3. Use support

If you have colleagues who are seeking growth in their professional career or to grow their professional practice as well, ask for support.

By the way, it can also work with support from a friend outside of the office who has a similar challenge.

Offering candid feedback and mutual trust is important for growth for both of you.

4. Go out of your routine

This way helped me and many other professionals dealing with many challenges.

You can use an offsite location or be involved in a team activity outside of your office.

This is a great way to break old habits of yourself or of interaction with your team members.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the best ways to stimulate the creativity of your and your team members and many times allows for you to try new responsive patterns with your colleagues.

5. Cultivate self-confidence

I mentioned many times before that self-confidence is an important trait to become an authority in your field.

EQ can help you achieve it faster.

Learn for example to reward yourself even for the smallest wins in your practice.

Another example is getting comfortable with feedback, by seeking constant constructive feedback from relevant people.

This is uncomfortable, I get it. But if you get negative feedback (which will be painful), you can begin to build on your weaknesses.

All these sorts of small actions will help cultivate your self-confidence.

6. Control your Emotional reactions

Recently, when helping a lawyer to build her authority and grow her practice, we realized that her team was underperforming because she was out of the office too many times.

I assessed the issue with her, and we decided to modify her schedule accordingly.

Becoming emotional in such a fast-paced, high-stress professional career is inevitable, but your success depends on your ability to maintain an even keel.

In other words, by controlling her emotional reactions and pointing a finger at her team for the low performance. She took a step back to address the real cause of the underperforming.

You can imagine the effect this had on her practice.

Positive, of course! ??

7. It is Contagious!

Here is the secret – EQ is contagious.

EQ is contagious! CLICK TO TWEET

So, you cannot only keep it to yourself.

High or low EQ travels through professional firms like wildfire.

If you're approaching your work with self-awareness, empathy, and compassion your team will too.

Part of building your authority and standing out is learning to be someone who can remain positive during adversity.

I know it is not easy (I’m guilty too). But that is why it is always a work in progress.

LAST THOUGHT

Daniel Goleman, the author of the book?“Emotional Intelligence”, notes in his article about emotional intelligence in the workplace , that:

“no matter what leaders set out to do—whether it’s creating a strategy or mobilizing teams to action—their success depends on?how?they do it.

Even if they get everything else just right, if leaders fail in this primal task of driving emotions in the right direction, nothing they do will work as well as it could or should.”

To stand out from the crowd as a professional is not difficult if you understand how to develop your emotional intelligence.

Your IQ alone is not what will make you stand out and develop your authority in your field.

High emotional intelligence as well as embracing your authenticity will?set you apart from other professionals in your field.

To be an effective Authority, you must have a solid understanding of how your emotions and actions affect the people around you.

Studies show that emotionally intelligent professionals outperform their less emotionally intelligent colleagues in production and revenues.

The better a professional relates to and works with others, the more successful they will be in building their authority.

In addition, emotionally intelligent professionals are likely to stand out amid the rise of?artificial intelligence and machines?performing more tasks in the workplace.

Take the time to work on self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Working on these areas and applying emotional intelligence will help you excel and can give you an edge for your future success!

Try it!

Or better yet - Do it!

Want to discover more on how to develop your EQ to build your authority in your field and attract the right clients – and the steps you need to take?

Have any specific questions with regards to building your authority position and your personal brand or need our help in building your authority position and attracting more of the right clients consistently, please send us an e-mail and share it with us. We definitely can help!

Your time to STAND OUT is NOW!

How do you use emotional intelligence to lead and grow your practice?

???Join my brand new online course “Networking with Results” [for a special price] here and get access to the content, community, and coaching you need to grow your practice or schedule a strategy call here.

If you have any specific questions with regards to building authentic relationships with clients, client retention, or referrals, please send us an e-mail and I will be happy to help.

???Looking for a mentor? I have last place in my new mentoring program. If interested, send me a PM or email to: [email protected]

Until the next edition, SWITCH ON and keep STANDING OUT!

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Warmly,

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Itzik is considered the global leading authority on business development, business networking & client relationships and personal branding. He is a highly sought-after international speaker, trainer, business mentor, & attorney-at-law. He is also the bestselling author of “The Attention Switch ” & Founder of THE SWITCH?? , the leading online training, and education platform for professionals globally. Itzik teaches trains and mentors lawyers, other professionals, and professional firms to attract and win their ideal clients by becoming seen as authorities in their field, creating and maintaining successful and strategic relationships, and learning to SWITCH their relationships to referrals+revenue+results.

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