Tag: leader

Get Ahead With EQ: How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence Skills for Leadership Success

~ jordan ~ Leave a comment

If you want to make your way to the top of the corporate ladder, there’s one skill that is key: emotional intelligence (EQ).

It’s an important skill for successful leadership and can mean the difference between a promotion and staying stuck in the same position. EQ is all about understanding human behavior and emotions, being able to identify them in yourself and others, and using that knowledge to work effectively with others.

If you’re looking to boost your EQ skills, look no further. We’ve put together all the information you need to know on this topic. In this article, we’ll cover the basics of emotional intelligence and provide tips on how to develop those skills in order to get ahead in your career. Let’s get started!

What Is Emotional Intelligence in Leadership?

When we talk about emotional intelligence (EQ) in leadership, we’re referring to the ability to recognize and manage our own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. It’s an important quality for any leader and it can have a significant impact on how effective and successful they are.

Having strong EQ skills can help leaders make better decisions, communicate more effectively with their team, and build meaningful relationships with their colleagues. It can also give them insight into how best to handle challenging or unpredictable circumstances—such as motivating a team during difficult times or dealing with an emotionally charged situation in the workplace.

Ultimately, developing your emotional intelligence can help you stay ahead of the game—both professionally and personally. Not only will it lead to greater success in your chosen field, but it’ll also allow you to be a better leader by understanding yourself and those around you more deeply.

How Does EQ Impact Leadership Success?

It’s no secret that having strong emotional intelligence (EQ) skills can help you become a better leader. But why? To put it simply, EQ is about understanding and managing your own emotions as well as recognizing and responding to the emotions of others. When it comes to leadership, this means developing the ability to recognize and understand emotions in order to create better relationships with team members, find solutions to conflicts, and promote collaboration among teams.

Research has shown that emotionally intelligent leaders:

Are better able to make decisions and solve problems

Have stronger relationships with team members

Are more successful in leading change initiatives

Are more effective at motivating team members

Achieve higher levels of success in their roles

Leaders who possess strong EQ skills also have a greater ability to inspire trust among their teams. Trust is essential for any relationship—but it’s especially so between a leader and his or her team. After all, if you don’t trust your leader, do you really want to follow them? It’s so important that it’s been said that the most successful leaders are those who are able to build trust among their teams.

What Are the Components of Emotional Intelligence?

When it comes to understanding emotional intelligence, there are certain components to consider. These include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, empathy and relationship management.

Self-awareness

At its core, self-awareness is about having a deep understanding of how you feel in different situations. It means recognizing your emotional states and how your reactions affect others. As a leader, this is important because you need to be aware of your emotions before you can effectively manage them and respond to others in a way that’s useful for the business.

Self-management

Self-management is about understanding and being able to control your emotions in difficult situations. As a leader, this is especially important to help you stay focused when faced with challenges or criticism. It also means being able to manage stress and take appropriate risks — something that’s key for success in any business environment.

Social Awareness

This component of emotional intelligence focuses on understanding the feelings of others — particularly those who report directly to you or are part of the team working on your projects. This doesn’t mean just tuning into their emotions; it’s being able to identify what they’re feeling so you can respond appropriately and support them when needed.

Empathy

Empathy goes beyond recognizing the emotions of those around you; it means having an understanding of where they are coming from on an individual level. As a leader, this helps create trust within the team by showing that you understand their perspectives, even if their beliefs differ from yours – essential for collaboration between team members.

Relationship Management

Being able to effectively manage relationships means being

What Are the Benefits of Emotional Intelligence for Leaders?

You might be wondering why it’s worth investing your time in improving your emotional intelligence skills. After all, there’s a lot of other aspects to being a leader.

Well, developing your emotional intelligence actually offers a lot of benefits for leaders, which can help you become more effective and successful:

Enhances Your Ability to Communicate and Connect

Having strong emotional intelligence means that you have better insight into yourself and others. This improves your ability to relate to people on a deeper level, allowing you to read peoples’ reactions better so you can adjust your communication style accordingly. This helps allow meaningful connections with people and improved morale amongst employees.

Makes You More Open-Minded

People with higher emotional intelligence often display more open-mindedness in their approach to problem solving, as they are more capable of understanding other people’s perspectives and empathizing with them. Having an open mind is essential for effective leadership and makes it easier to collaborate with others in decision making processes.

Improves Stress Management Skills

The self-awareness aspect of emotional intelligence helps leaders better identify sources of stress and take proactive steps to reduce it as much as possible. In addition, strong EQ skills also lead to increased confidence in dealing with stressful situations as they arise — effectively helping leaders stay calm under pressure.

How Do I Develop My Emotional Intelligence Skills?

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a step-by-step checklist to help you improve your EQ? Well, there is! Developing your emotional intelligence skills requires building awareness of both your own emotions and those of others. Here are a few strategies that can help:

Self-reflection

Start by reflecting on the situations in which you find yourself. Take time to pay attention to your emotion and how they impact your thinking and behavior. Ask yourself questions like: What emotions am I feeling? Why am I feeling them? How do they affect my decisions?

Improve Your Listening Skills

Pay attention to not just the words, but also the tone, facial expressions, and body language of those around you. Try to identify the underlying emotions that might be behind someone’s communications—and develop an understanding about why those feelings exist.

Improve Your Empathy

Empathy is a key component of emotional intelligence and involves understanding another person’s perspective. That means learning how to put yourself in another person’s shoes and listening deeply with an open mind and heart. This can be incredibly difficult, but it’s essential for successful communication with customers, colleagues, partners, etc.

Ask for Feedback

No one has all the answers when it comes to developing emotional intelligence skills, so don’t be afraid to get feedback from others—especially people who have skills you would like to emulate. Ask them what steps they took to develop the emotional understanding they have now. Use their advice as a roadmap for your own development journey.

Top Tips for Improving Your EQ for Leadership Success

A key factor for success in any leadership role is the ability to understand emotions, both your own and those of the people around you. Developing this emotional intelligence, or EQ, is essential in order to navigate both yourself and the atmosphere around you in the workplace. Here are some top tips for improving your EQ:

Listen actively

Listening actively involves not interrupting and focusing on what someone is saying intently. This useful skill also means repeating back what you hear to show that you have understood—this can be a great way to increase understanding, as well as building bridges with those around you.

Take responsibility

Being able to take responsibility for yourself and acknowledge when things have gone wrong is a sign of good EQ. Being prepared to stand up and apologize or make amends shows integrity, maturity and strength to those around you.

Show empathy

Empathy means being able to understand how another person feels—it does not always mean agreeing with them but rather acknowledging their feelings. When faced with a situation where someone else is angry or upset, empathizing will help diffuse tensions and avoid further distress.

Allow yourself time

If faced with a difficult situation in which emotions are running high it can be hard not to react immediately or get drawn into arguments that deal with only surface issues rather than the root cause. Give yourself time before responding by taking a step back, counting up to 10 if necessary, so that you can think rather than just act on impulse.

In conclusion, developing your emotional intelligence is essential for success in leadership roles. EQ allows you to better understand and manage your emotions, create relationships with your colleagues, recognize, and empathize with other people’s emotions, and better recognize how to respond to different situations.

Leaders who have a strong understanding of their emotions and those of others gain a greater insight into the team dynamics and are better equipped to make decisions that are in the best interest of those they lead. A leader with a high EQ is better able to get the best out of their team and achieve their goals. With the right guidance and support, anyone can sharpen their EQ skills and become a better leader.

Master the Art of Delegation: How to Empower Your Team and Get More Done

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Do you feel like you’re constantly running around in circles, trying to get everything done? Are there tasks piling up so quickly that you can barely keep up with them? It sounds like it might be time for you to master the art of delegation.

Delegating is the process of entrusting specific tasks and responsibilities to team members — and it’s an essential skill if you want to successfully manage a team. Sure, delegating projects can be intimidating — but it is possible to delegate without giving up control or authority over your team.

In this article, we’ll discuss a few tips on mastering the art of delegation. You’ll learn how to identify which tasks should and shouldn’t be delegated, what questions to ask when assigning tasks, and the best ways to empower your team members so they can succeed at the tasks they’ve been given. Let’s dive in!

What Is Delegation and Why It’s Important

Learning the art of delegation is key to unlocking success as a leader. It’s all about striking the right balance between taking responsibility for tasks and handing them over to your team. Delegation gives you a chance to empower your team and get more done.

So, what is delegation? It’s simply assigning tasks, projects or decisions to a member of your team, while clearly outlining the responsibilities and leave of absence associated with that task. Setting clear expectations helps make sure everyone involved knows what needs to be accomplished, who’s responsible for it, and how it fits into the bigger picture.

When done right, delegation can be one of the most powerful tools for harnessing collective creativity, leveraging the unique skillset of each team member and helping everyone grow as individuals and as a team. Not only does it free up your own time for higher-level tasks, but it also builds trust with your team members; by entrusting them with responsibility and boosting their confidence in their ability to make decisions in their area of expertise.

Preparing Yourself to Delegate Effectively

No one expects you to just jump into delegating without any preparation. Before you start handing off tasks, there are a few things you can do to make sure that the delegation process goes smoothly and yields good results.

First, make sure that you have a clear understanding of your role and goals as well as the roles and goals of each team member. It’s important to keep in mind the skills and abilities of each team member when deciding what tasks to delegate—you don’t want to give someone a task that they’re not equipped to handle.

Second, set expectations for the delegating process. This means being clear about deadlines, communication protocols, and expectations for feedback on progress. And if there are any resources or materials needed for a specific task, they must be provided in advance in order for delegation to work properly.

Finally, it’s vital that the person doing the delegating is available to answer questions or provide clarification when needed. Without this support, it can be difficult for team members to feel comfortable taking ownership of their tasks and succeeding with them.

Setting Clear Goals and Expectations

If you want to really empower your team and be successful in delegating tasks, it’s essential to set clear goals and expectations. That way, your team will understand what is expected of them and can work accordingly to make sure that the job gets done right the first time.

Here are some tips for setting clear goals and expectations:

Research & Prep

Before you start delegating tasks, take some time to research the task or project at hand so that you can understand what needs to be done. Doing this will also help you understand exactly what is expected from your team and make things easier for them.

Set Deadlines

Make sure to set a timeline for when each task needs to be completed by. This will help keep your team on track and keep them motivated. You can also hold them accountable if they miss deadlines.

Create Guidelines

Provide instructions or guidelines for how each task should be done, including any specific requirements or preferences that you may have. This will help ensure that the job is done correctly and help give your team a better understanding of what is expected of them.

Finding the Right People to Delegate To

Once you’ve decided what tasks to delegate, who do you delegate them to? Finding the right people is critical for successful delegation. Here are a few tips to help you find the best-suited people for the job:

Assess each person’s talents and skills

Take the time to assess each team member’s skills and talents so you can determine which person is best-suited for a certain task. Ask yourself which members of your team have the expertise necessary for a project or task, as well as which members have the capacity to take on more responsibility.

Ask around

Don’t be afraid to ask your team members what tasks they would like to take on. This will help you identify passionate individuals who may be looking for a chance to shine. Hearing their ideas can also help boost morale and make employees feel more empowered in their roles.

Leverage technology

If your team is remote or distributed, leverage technology and tools like polls and surveys to quickly identify who on your team has skills and experience in certain areas. This will help you quickly identify who would be able to take on certain tasks or projects.

By assessing each person’s talents and skills, asking around and leveraging technology, you can easily find the right people for delegating tasks — empowering your team to work more efficiently while freeing up your time too.

Monitoring Progress and Offering Support

Monitoring progress and offering support is an integral part of delegation. It’s not enough to simply assign tasks and leave your team to their own devices. You need to check in periodically and provide support where needed. Fortunately, there are several ways to do this effectively:

Create performance review procedures

Creating a system of performance reviews will help you monitor your team’s progress and identify areas where you may need to provide additional support. During these reviews, you can discuss any feedback or feedback, as well as opportunities for growth or improvement.

Set specific goals and objectives

Setting clear goals and objectives for each assigned task helps keep your team on track and ensures that they stay focused on the task at hand. When necessary, you can provide additional resources or guidance to help them meet these goals in a timely manner.

Provide ongoing training opportunities

Providing ongoing training opportunities is essential for helping your team stay up-to-date on the most current industry trends and practices. This not only helps them stay ahead of their peers but it also helps you ensure that they are knowledgeable enough to complete the tasks they have been assigned with confidence.

By monitoring progress, setting clear goals and objectives, and providing ongoing training opportunities, you can help ensure that your team is empowered and successful in their delegated tasks.

Tips on How to Reassign Unfinished Tasks

If you’re looking to master the art of delegation, one of the best ways to do it is to reassign unfinished tasks. If a member of your team has been assigned a task and can’t complete it for whatever reason, then you need to make sure that it gets reassigned to someone else.

Here are a few tips on how to reassign unfinished tasks:

Make sure that everyone on the team knows who is responsible for what tasks. This will help ensure everyone is aware of who needs help and will make it easier to reassign tasks if needed.

Communicate clearly when delegating new tasks and follow up regularly so that everyone knows what’s happening with each project. This will help ensure that no task falls through the cracks and gets forgotten about.

Have an open line of communication between members of your team so they can keep each other updated on their progress and any changes that may need to be made in order for them to complete their work on time.

Foster collaboration within your team by encouraging people to work together on projects when they are able to do so, instead of assigning individual tasks which can lead to delays in completion if someone runs into difficulty or has a question about the project.

Assign clear deadlines for completion of each task and make sure all team members are held accountable for meeting them, as this will help ensure progress continues in a timely manner even if there is an unexpected delay due to illness or other issues outside of their control.

By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way towards mastering the art of delegation and empowering your team to get more done with less effort!

Learning the art of delegation is essential for managers and team leaders. By delegating the right tasks to the right people and trusting in your team, you can create a culture of empowerment and enable your team to unlock their true potential.

It can be difficult to let go of the reins sometimes, but remember that delegating allows you to increase focus, maximize efficiency, and develop trust in your team to do the job as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Delegation is a crucial leadership skill, and when done correctly, it can have a transformative impact on your team and the success of your organization. Mastering the art of delegation is a great way to get more done and empower your team in the process.

Greatness is for others

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“Greatness is not for you — it’s not for your benefit. Greatness is not about being famous nor even about being appreciated by others. Greatness lies in being of service to others, participating in creating a better world, and calling others to greatness.” Jesse Lyn Stoner

“D” was a career Barclays Banker from the United Kingdom. The largest commercial bank in the Middle East hired him to lead a significant part of their Banking Operations. Our banking operations at the time had around 1,600 of the 10,000 employees. In 2019, the Bank generated SR11.4 Billion ($3,000,000,000) in net profits. In the same year, they reported SR507 Billion ($43,000,000,000) in assets. This 2021, NCB bought out the Saudi American Bank (formerly a CitiBank affiliate) despite the pandemic.

At this point in my career, I had the opportunity to report to a Filipino, American, Saudi, and New Zealand National. Yes, “D” has a dry sense of humor like most British nationals I have met. In hindsight, “D” has exemplified servant leadership, although he claims that he is an atheist.

Let me share this in the form of bullet points:

1. Clear Vision. He would take the time to explain to us the vision of the function. His habit of describing a particular goal or project objective is so easy that everyone in the room would understand what he expects from us. Most of the time, he would stand up and draw on the whiteboard. He knew that images tend to be easily understood. He was very keen on clear communication as well.

2. Leadership Development. Mentoring us came easy and intentionally from “D”. Feedback was immediate and fair. Praises were given in public. Reprimands were done in the privacy of a closed office or meeting room. In a tough feedback session, he would have the humility and control to hold his thoughts and allow us to explain our side. Unlike most leaders where you are guilty until proven innocent, he would make sure to hear us out first. Hearing us out was done genuinely. He wanted to understand. It was not your typical “hearing out the direct report” to find holes to shoot at.

You would see “D” spending most of his time on his people agenda. He would discuss, provide constructive feedback, hold interviews of new hires for his Division, and perform performance appraisals. He does not look to pass or fail people. He looks for ways to get his people to get “A’s”

3. Training. Dave is a firm believer in training and development. He would even get approvals for an additional training budget should we happen to consume the funds by mid-year.

4. Rules are never broken. D believes that once you start breaking or bending the rule, then you create chaos. Most of the organizational dissatisfaction stems from bending the rules for certain people.

Case in point, I had a direct report whose mother was in the hospital for a prolonged period. The health coverage limit was already exhausted. Her son, who reported to me, had to find alternative funding. He came to me asking for a top-up salary loan. Unfortunately, the rule we had was that we have to fully pay our salary loan before applying for a new one. It was an emergency.

I empathised with my direct report and signed the exemption form from HR.. It needed the signature of the Sector Head. I walked over to the office of “D”. I was confident that “D” also has a mom and sign the exemption form.

He looks at the document, reads it, looks up at me. He quietly handed me the unsigned form. He said that he could not sign it. He then explains that one of the biggest problems he had to fix when he joined was the low morale of the Division. The previous Sector head had signed for a lot of policy exemptions. He had a huge heart for his team, and his intentions were pure.

However, the exemptions lit up a lot of internal feuds. People are claiming favoritisms. One employee gets a gasoline allowance exception when another employee does not get it, even if they are in the same position. Another employee has his wife and children in the HMO as an exemption, while another employee does not.

Although “D” cannot sign the exemption form due to the HR policy, he passed the hat. He took out an empty brown envelope from his side drawer. He pinched a few bills from his wallet and placed them inside the envelope. I then understood that we would raise money to give to my direct report.

5. “Passing the credit.” I have never seen “D” take credit for any of the achievements in our Division. He would always thank the team in public. If the Bank CEO or the owners credit him for a job well done, he would be quick to draw and pass the credit to his team. He does not just casually give credit to the team. He would name the team member and what each has contributed to the achievement.

I can go on and on but let me leave you with a thought. “D” understands that the greatness of his Division does not come from him. “D” understands that greatness comes from his people.

We have to have a clear intention to develop our people. Now that is truly a servant leader.

Thank you very much “D” for everything I learned from your leadership.

Thank you and stay safe,

Jordan Imutan

jordan@imutan.com (email)
@jordanimutan (social media)

The 4 Stages of Growth

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This is a prelude article to a four-part series I will be writing. The next article will be called ‘The four building blocks of servant leadership.’ Before we dive into the four building blocks of servant leadership let us first talk about the stages of growth. It is a simple framework I learned after working with a McKinsey consultant a few years ago.

In a nutshell, when we learn something new, we have to go through four basic steps or stages. The first two stages fall under the responsibility of the person teaching us. The last two stages are our accountability.

The first stage is when we are ‘unconsciously unskilled’ of the new competency we are learning. For example, we are learning how to drive for the very first time. As you enter the vehicle with your instructor, you don’t know what you don’t know. Also, you do not possess the necessary driving skills at this point.

In the second stage, we become ‘consciously unskilled’ of driving. We start to learn the fundamentals of driving. We learn how to start the engine, safely change lanes, keep our distance from the car in front of us, park, and so on. We are now knowledgeable of what it takes to drive safely. However, we are not yet skilled drivers. This is where the responsibility of the teacher ends. From here onward, the student is now accountable for the next two stages.

The student now makes a choice or a mind-shift. The student makes a decision to practice the skill or forget about it. This is the same case in mentoring. Students can learn what it needs to be a great and effective leader or they just don’t bother. Dave Jones, my former direct manager, used to say ‘you can lead a horse to water but you cannot force it to drink.’

The choice to practice the knowledge acquired helps the student develop the new skill. Thus, the third step. The student is now ‘consciously skilled.’ The student has driving know-how and made the choice to hone the skill through practice.

One day the student will reach the final stage ‘unconsciously skilled.’ He no longer has to think about the skill. It has become muscle memory. It’s the same again in leadership development.

For instance, great leaders are great listeners. In the beginning, the leader would have to consciously keep his opinion to himself and let the people in the room share their thoughts. It is always good practice for the highest-ranking person in the room to speak last. This is contrary to a leader’s instinct. They are usually in a hurry to discuss or resolve the issue at hand. They are the first to speak. When this happens, most of the people will either agree with the leader or just keep their opinions to themselves. This is definitely not a collaborative or healthy environment.

I had the privilege to work with a great leader that allows the people in the room to voice their opinions first. Faisal Sakkaf showed everyone that their view is welcomed and respected. Speaking last also gave Faisal the opportunity to hear a possible gem or two from the group. Possibly, there is an idea that comes out of the discussion that is better than his original view. He can then recalibrate his views as the discussion ensues.

Think back about leadership lessons you learned or read about in the past. How far in, the four stages, did you bring the skill? Were you persistent enough to push it through the third and fourth stages?

Stay safe,
Jordan Imutan
http://www.servantleadersph.com
+63.917-5183554
jordan@imutan.com