Having high emotional intelligence makes you a better leader.

Introduction

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Influential leaders all have something in common – a high degree of emotional intelligence .?

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Daniel Goleman, a psychologist who studied the link between emotional intelligence and business leadership, said: “Emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but [they] still won’t make a great leader.”

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His research found that 80-90% of high-performers in the C-suite are distinguished by their high emotional intelligence . They all had a high degree of self-awareness, empathy, and social skills.

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But, what exactly is emotional intelligence? It’s the ability to understand and manage your emotions and recognize and influence the feelings of the people around you. This skill helps you know yourself and others to respond to different situations.

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Undesired Feeling & Impact of Believing It

A high degree of emotional intelligence is characterized by having self-awareness, empathy, and social skills. Without it, leaders will struggle and doubt their abilities to effectively lead others. In the absence of:

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1. Self-awareness: Leaders will not have an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, recognize their emotions, or understand how their feelings will impact them and their team’s performance. Additionally, leaders will not be able to regulate their feelings without self-awareness, especially during stressful situations. They’ll struggle to maintain a positive attitude, will make rash decisions, blame others, and be closed-minded.

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1. Empathy: Leaders will not be able to feel what their teams are feeling or understand their perspectives. This will make it harder for leaders to offer support, encouragement, and appreciation, making them devoid of compassion. Not having empathy will drastically derail leaders in their careers. For example, the Center for Creative Leadership research found that one of the most significant driving factors that prevent leaders from advancing in their careers is their inability to establish strong interpersonal relationships .

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1. Social skills: Leaders will not be able to effectively communicate, resolve conflicts, influence, coach, and mentor others. They will not be able to inspire their teams to pursue their company’s vision.

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Though emotional intelligence is important to a company’s success, most leaders aren’t invested in developing it for three reasons.

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1. Most leaders aren’t a good judge of their emotional intelligence. As Amanda Madorno, a Vistage speaker and coach who specializes in helping leaders develop emotional intelligence, said, “When I coach leaders, I do an initial assessment, and it’s a brutal awakening for some. It’s one of the first times they may have received feedback on where they are on the ‘emotional quotient scale.”

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1. Once leaders achieve a certain level of success, they become complacent, become resistant to change, and lose their desire to grow.?

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1. Some leaders aren’t aware that their emotions are driving their behavior. Without this awareness, they allow their feelings to manage them, resulting in rash decisions and terrible results.

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Desired Feeling & Positives of Shifting To This Pattern

Highly emotionally intelligent leaders will be more motivated to fly higher and higher towards their visions because with:

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1. Self-awareness: Leaders will have the ability to take an honest look at themselves, identify their strengths and weakness, and make necessary changes for growth. Additionally, by managing their emotions, they’ll make more measured, thoughtful, and analytical decisions, reducing the tendency to react to situations impulsively. As supported by Egon Zehnder International's research, these qualities indicate that they’ll be more likely to grow professionally and succeed .

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1. Empathy and Social Skills: Leaders will be able to communicate more effectively. They’ll be able to ask open questions, seek feedback, engage in active listening, and take responsibility for their mistakes.?

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Additionally:

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• A study by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services found that 38% of emotionally intelligent organizations report significantly stronger customer experiences (40% versus 12%) and higher customer loyalty and customer advocacy (31% versus 8%) than companies lacking in emotional intelligence.

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• Another study by Waterford Inc. found that companies led by people with high emotional intelligence have, on average, 50% less turnover, 56% higher customer loyalty, and 38% above-average productivity. They’re also 27% more profitable.

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3 Action Steps To Develop Emotional Intelligence

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In the following section, I share three action steps for developing emotional intelligence:

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ACTION STEP #1: To build self-awareness and self-management, leaders can practice:

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·? Noticing their feelings

·? Paying attention to what’s happening at the moment

·? Giving themselves time to consider their reactions

·? Getting feedback on how they respond to stressful situations

·? Slowing down their response times before making decisions or reacting

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ACTION STEP #2: To build empathy, leaders can:

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·? Show genuine interest in their team

·? Be willing to help their team with personal issues

·? Schedule one-to-one meetings

·? Keep an eye out for work burnout?

·? Host team-building events

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ACTION STEP #3: To build social skills, leaders can:

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·? Engage in active listening with their team

·? Ask their team for ideas and feedback

·? Show respect and appreciation towards their team

·? Encourage a positive working environment

·? Take notice of non-verbal communication like body language

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Client Testimonial

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Here’s what Jeff Smith, CEO of Scalable, said about his time working with us:

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"If you’re at a place where you are craving breakthroughs in vital areas of your life, whether that’s in life balance, better relationships, attracting love, growing your business, or even spiritual or physical health, you can get those areas in flow and in abundance with Lifestyle Perfected. The risk is relatively little, and the reward is life-changing. I’ll place bets like that all day long :)"

What’s Possible

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Think it sounds great, but wondering if it’s really possible to shift your Undesired Mindsets into Desired ones to grow your business?

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At Lifestyle Perfected, we empower you to feel, think and experience life and business the way you want by implementing our Align, Automate, Achieve methodology.

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We’ll equip you with leadership tools and resources that span all life and business areas.?

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You’ll benefit from rituals that create time, growth, happiness, peace, personal financial planning, project management systems, and communication tools guaranteed to elevate your performance to new heights.

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If you would like to learn more about how you can shift your Undesired Mindsets into Desired ones to grow your business, reply to this email with “ALIGN,” and I’ll walk you through it.

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Sending you love,

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The Lifestyle Perfected Team