LEADERSHIP WITH EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE
Leadership with Emotional and Social Intelligence …Founded on Authentic Trust …Enhancing Leadership Identity (by PAUL FEIN - [email protected]
There are many influential components that help drive effective and impactful leadership with respect and trust. These components are all part of the growth and development path of a leader throughout their life-long learning journey. Personal confidence and understanding of the leader-management role are built on self-awareness along with defined cultural values and leadership competencies. They can drive individual openness and honesty that results in enhancing the integrity and genuineness of the leader. Authentic, passionate and clear communication from the head and the heart will build courage and connections between people. And empowering collaboration and teamwork motivates contributions with confidence and compassion. All is based on “human chemistry” and leadership identity.
As per Stephen M.R. Covey and his book – The Speed of Trust – “There is one thing
that is common to every individual, relationships, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world – one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time. The one thing is trust.”
Core values define the behaviors and practices of company leaders and the entire employee population. They serve as the foundation and philosophy of the organizational culture along with the supporting business environment. Even though most core values, such as integrity and trust, are similar from company-to-company, the corporate cultures and desired leadership competencies can be dramatically different. And, organizational strategies, managerial styles, visions and missions, and even budgetary constraints, all can further define the workplace culture. Basically, same “value elements” can be connected back to different levels of corporate engagement and managerial philosophies.
Growing transformational leadership capabilities with impact and value is based on building insights and abilities of leaders to connect with people and their inner emotions, that is, with both themselves as well as with relationships. There are many components that are part of a true and purposeful leadership learning journey. Creating high-performance organizational cultures can help drive company growth and profitability. There are four foundational areas requiring key priority as well as focus within the development journey specific to the “human chemistry” of leaders.
1. Building personal self-awareness and emotional intelligence
2. Performing as champions of organizational values and defined competencies
3. Conducting courageous conversations and communicating with clarity and consistency
4. Driving a growth mindset and relationships through active collaboration
Component One: Personal Self-Awareness / Emotional Intelligence
Leadership identity is built on commitment by the leader to enhancing personal insights as well as self-awareness, and to defining their behaviors associated with interactive and engaging relationships with others.
As per the Oxford English Dictionary, self-awareness is the “conscious knowledge of one’s own character and feelings.”
Leader self-awareness is about managing personal competencies that are connected to self-management as well as about social awareness that is connected to relationship management. When leaders understand themselves and know how they are seen by others, leadership skills and abilities can all grow and support the development of other competencies. There can be improvements in people management and decision-making through an increase in confidence and a handle on emotional intelligence – reactive feelings, behavioral patterns, passionate aspirations, and guiding principles as well as values. Self-aware leaders need to be adaptive so that they recognize different situations and individual needs. In the leadership learning journey, there must be a focus on different skills, different levels of commitment, and different levels of confidence. Leaders are always building trust based on truthfulness, honesty, collaboration and appreciation for achievements.
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Component Two: Cultural Values / Organizational Competencies
Organizations need to establish clear expectations and an inspiring vision for the leader to steer the employee population with a defined purpose as well for as the desired results. Overall employee engagement is enacted and driven by emotional and social intellectual commitments. Managerial relationships, work-life balance and learning activities with growth opportunities are all engagement builders. Leaders need to connect with employees and help enhance pride in the organization. Leadership competencies and company values are based on professional, managerial and administrative knowledge. They are the mental and physical capabilities, specifically the hard skills and the cognitive abilities. The soft skills are the behavioral competencies based on conduct with passion, patterns with actions, and standards with wisdom. They are the human capabilities such as influencing, listening and adapting. The purpose of having identified competencies is to link employees to organizational strategies and business objectives, and to help the work population meet job challenges. And, the actual value of having a defined culture with specific competencies is that it can drive the desired behaviors and standards, as well as establish leadership styles based the attributes of a leader. A common language of communication will further enhance feedback and listening activities, define a performance management approach, and identify areas for talent development along with career planning. Change is inevitable – restructuring, new products and people, and challenging competitors. It is all about human connections – “human chemistry”. A well-defined corporate culture and the desired leadership are both founded on true integrity and trust.
Component Three: Purposeful Conversations / Clear & Consistent Communication
Energetic, enthusiastic and engaging transfer of information is very dependent on open relationships and courageous trust. Strategic and impactful communication is core to authentic leadership and it must go beyond emails and texting. Leaders need to communicate with clarity, consistency and purpose. They may even have different connecting styles – passive or outgoing, thoughtful or forceful, diplomatic or aggressive, inspiring or decisive. There are many ways to improve and enhance leadership communications as well as personal presence.
Active listening is an art, a skill, an ability and an actual process to seek understanding and meaning, built on awareness and trust. A leader must show full presence both physically with face-to-face eye contact and engagement, and mentally with an open mind, accurate and meaningful listening to what is being said and not said. A leader must show caring and respect along with appreciation and humility.
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Feedback, both formal and informal, positive and constructive is a very useful way of connecting if done well and in a timely fashion. Key is to remove judgmental remarks, vague insights, and exaggerated generalities. Care must be taken that blended feedback is not too long and overly psychoanalytical. Success is achieved through value-oriented and specific messages, that are clear with details, supportive with feelings, and focused with facts. Always prepare and understand the situation, followed by connecting, delivering and closing with positive support.
Courageous conversations are used by leaders with behaviors that drive passion and desire for risk-taking and for impacting business results. These leadership connections are founded on reducing barriers and removing misunderstanding in problem-solving at all levels – individuals, teams, and total organization. Leaders with courage tolerate failures and never hide mistakes, always encouraging and building creativity and innovation.
Influencing skill as a leader is the ability to persuade, to drive successful goals, and to build creativity as well as imagination. Key is to develop inclusion, involvement and connections with passion and compassion. There is a balancing of telling and sharing of knowledge with open asking and gaining discoveries by encouraging stretch thinking. Reciprocity helps leaders get closer to people, and employees get close to the leaders based on new insights and new confidence. Influencing is about giving and taking, and driving positive relationships. This type of behavior can be modeled through mentoring and showing of support.
Motivating is a process of leading that creates engagement, builds appreciation with praise, and drives development and growth. The mindset focuses on handling of “VULCA” – volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity. Both external extrinsic motivators are balanced with internal intrinsic motivators. Rewards and job security have short-term impact, versus the desire for long-term aspects specific to gaining fulfilment and enjoyment with work. Motivating can be connected to coaching by listening and discovering, and providing feedback that reinforces and encourages stronger behaviors. Spot coaching, performance coaching, and development coaching, all result in enhancing relationships, trust, compassion, and a mutual learning mindset.
Communicating successfully with impact is a critical competency of effective leadership. It forges partnerships at work and with customers, it inspires commitment along with accountability, and it grows relationships as part of the life-long learning journey. Key is to always build connections through communication that has clarity, conciseness, cohesiveness and courage.
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Component Four: Relationships / Collaboration
Team collaboration and leadership partnerships are based on openness and trust along with the ownership of an inspirational and motivating vision. Strategic teams have a clear direction and a common purpose based on established goals as well as expectations. They define the desired deliverables that can be measured as well as time targeted. Team members have established roles and responsibilities that drives ownership of the commitments to the objectives and cooperative alignment to the long-term vision. Leaders also establish processes to enhance the execution of actions and encourage creative approaches to achieve results. Specific milestones and defined methods help deliver on team promises. Mutual collaborative and interpersonal relationships improve the sharing, supporting and communicating of performance and personal goals by the team members. They all become more self-aware, adaptive and flexible, and grow interpersonal skills with an open mindedness.
Closing Thought and Reflections
Leaders need to commit to transformational change and to actually become change agents. They need to constantly enhance self-awareness and build trust. Leadership is always about being completely real and authentic, and about gaining the acceptance by others. Leaders need to keep growing with “human chemistry” and to be a part of the life-long leadership learning journey.