devonmanelski.com - Emotional Intelligence

devonmanelski.com

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is commonly characterized as one's ability to connect with, persuade, and lead people. While the result of emotional intelligence is unique leadership ability, the path or way to emotional intelligence is an inward maturation process. The key characteristics of emotional intelligence are one's ability to be authentic, to lead with integrity, to lead by example, and to inspire by example. While many people consider emotional intelligence to be an exercise in learning about how to motivate people and leveraging that knowledge; exceptional leaders must have a firm foundation in their own beliefs, a knowledgeable and practical approach to solving problems, a well developed style of working with people, and a solid understanding of their own flaws. Recognizing one's own flaws is not an exercise in criticizing oneself, but rather a recognition that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. It is our ability to see the strengths of others that demonstrate that we are maturing as a leader. Leaders understand that we must work with a diverse group of individuals --with diverse strengths-- in order to build high performance teams and organizations. Recognizing other people's strengths and finding ways to build bridges between yourself and other people is essential to scaling up performance and establishing a competitive advantage. Confident leaders are confident enough to know that while they add value, they do not add all the value that makes up a truly exceptional organization.