Leaders in business looking to improve their organisation’s performance can do so by improving their emotional intelligence: that is, their skill at identifying, understanding and influencing emotion. There is a direct link between the way people feel and the way they perform at work. This is one of the most robust and consistent findings in organisational research. In high performing organisations, people feel significantly more engaged, cared for, valued, proud, and motivated than those in low-performing organisations. Conversely, in low-performing organisations, people feel significantly more fearful, stressed, disempowered and uncertain.

Leadership is fundamentally about facilitating performance. Research has proven that a leader’s emotional intelligence is key to their capacity to facilitate emotions in others that drive high performance and employee engagement. This is more than just a moral compass; it’s also a recipe for success. Organisations with emotionally intelligent leaders achieve a critical lever of sustainable competitive advantage: a high-performance culture and customer loyalty.

So what does emotional intelligence look like when applied to leadership? Emotionally intelligent leadership competencies reflect what leaders do with their emotional intelligence in the leadership of people.

Self-Awareness = The Aware Leader

Self-Awareness is about being aware of the behaviour you demonstrate, your strengths and limitations, and the impact you have on others. Leaders high in this skill are often said to be Present rather than Disconnected with whom they are. Self-awareness is important in leadership because:  • A leader’s behaviour can positively or negatively impact the performance and engagement of colleagues,

Awareness of Others = The Empathetic Leader

Awareness of others is about noticing and acknowledging others, ensuring others feel valued and adjusting your leadership style to best fit with others. Leaders high in this skill are often described as Empathetic rather than Insensitive to others and their feelings. Awareness of others is important in leadership because • Leadership is fundamentally about facilitating performance and the way others feel is directly linked to the way they perform,

Authenticity = The Genuine Leader

Authenticity is about openly and effectively expressing oneself, honouring commitments and encouraging this behaviour in others. It involves appropriately expressing specific feelings at work such as happiness and frustration, providing feedback to colleagues about the way you feel, and expressing emotions at the right time, to the right degree and to the right people. Leaders high in this skill are often described as Genuine whereas leaders low in this skill are often described as Untrustworthy. Authenticity is important in leadership because:    • It helps leaders create understanding, openness and feelings of trust in others.

Emotional Reasoning = The Expansive Leader

Emotional reasoning is the skill of using emotional information (from yourself and others) and combining it with other facts and information when decision-making. Leaders high in this skill make Expansive decisions whereas leaders who are low in this skill often make more Limited decisions based on facts and technical data only. Emotional reasoning is important in leadership because:  • Feelings and emotions contain important information. For example, if a colleague is demonstrating frustration or stress, these feelings provide insight that they are going to be less open and supportive of new ideas and information.

Self-Management = The Resilient Leader

Self-Management is about managing one’s own mood and emotions; time and behaviour; and continuously improving oneself. This emotionally intelligent leadership competency is particularly important. Leaders high in this skill are often described as Resilient rather than Temperamental in the workplace. The modern workplace is one of high work demands and stress, which can cause negative emotions and outcomes. Self-Management is important in leadership because:  • A leader’s mood can be very infectious and can, therefore, be a powerful force in the workplace, one that can be both productive and unproductive.

Inspiring-Performance = The Empowering Leader

Inspiring performance is about facilitating high performance in others through problem-solving, promoting, recognising, and supporting others’ work. Individual’s performance can be managed with key performance indicators. This is important, however, research has shown that this ‘compliance’ style often fails to drive discretionary effort and high performance. Leaders who combine this with a more inspiring style often empower others to perform above and beyond what is expected of them. Inspiring Performance is important in leadership because • Managing performance with rules and key performance indicators usually produces an ‘expected’, result, rather than an ‘unexpected’ high-performance result.

There is a strong positive relationship between leaders’ emotional intelligence and employee engagement.

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