Harnessing the power of emotional intelligence to create high-performing teams

Emotional intelligence is the difference maker

The difference between leaders with emotional intelligence and those without is most apparent among the people they lead. It is night and day, and you see this all the time. When you hear people talk about their best leaders and mentors, the ones that stick out in their head, you will often hear about how understanding, flexible, and fair they were. And when you hear them talk about their worst leaders over the years, you’ll hear them talk about how unfair, mean, or unforgiving they were. And probably a lot more choice words I can’t write here!

People remember how you make them feel more than anything else, and this shows up in ways that are often easy to forget. In leadership roles, it’s easy to fall into a line of thinking that places technical skill, knowledge, and hard work above all. You know, you have to be the smartest and work the hardest to set the example for your team, maximize your performance metrics, and make the correct decisions. When you’re in this mode, you might forget about the importance of emotional intelligence and how you’re making your team feel along the way.

IQ is important, but it’s statistically proven that building your EQ (emotional intelligence) is a more surefire way to improve your effectiveness as a leader. I recently read an article from the Niagara Institute that made it clear as day. Here are a couple major takeaways I had:

Emotionally intelligent leaders are the backbone of their organization

Emotionally intelligent leaders keep the ship rowing fast in calm waters and are the first to stabilize it when the going gets tough. Employees with emotionally intelligent leaders are 4x less likely to leave their companies than those led in a low EQ environment. Emotional intelligence is a must-have skill in when leading change, giving feedback, addressing personal issues, and spotting talent. If you’re a high EQ individual, you are the go-to person for everybody around you, from your direct reports, to your peers, to your own leaders.

Emotional intelligence makes personal and organizational goals attainable

By displaying emotional intelligence, you can set yourself up for success. Among 34 workplace skills, emotional intelligence was found to be the strongest predictor of performance. In fact, 57% of people managers say that their highest performing reports demonstrate strong emotional intelligence. So, by building a high EQ environment for your team, you are significantly more likely to help them achieve their individual goals, their team’s goals, and the company’s goals, which reflects greatly on you as a leader.

How to harness the power of EQ

EQ is a transformative quality. Emotional intelligence is a skill that can be learned. You can actively take steps to develop your EQ and apply what you are learning. My 20+ years of experience in this field has shown me that the biggest difference between a high EQ and a low EQ leader is what they are equipped with. They want what’s best for their people and for their company and truly want to see those around them thrive, but they don’t have what they need to do it.

Their world changes when they start with Dignify, and all of a sudden, they get to know all about who a person is, what motivates them, and how to communicate with them, and vice versa! They have Check-Ins, striking up great conversations, discovering similarities, and relating to each other in ways that they couldn’t have known about beforehand. They improve their ability to receive information, discuss emotional matters logically, and respond appropriately. Dignify provides leaders with a baseline that makes applying emotional intelligence natural, comfortable, and psychologically safe.

Here is how you can harness the power of EQ with Dignify:

Development

Emotional intelligence is a learned skill that can be developed. Anybody can practice their emotional intelligence, and there is no ceiling to how emotionally intelligent one can become. The Dignify Academy provides you with foundational principles that you can apply to improve your leadership through EQ. In addition, you gain access to Dignify Snapshots, which show you how a person is motivated, how they prefer to communicate, and more. You can use the Snapshot to have regular, high-quality conversations with your team members and understand how to support their dignity in any situation.

Widespread implementation

Emotional intelligence isn’t important only for your top leaders – it’s something that needs to be filtered throughout your organization to be effective. Your managers in the field and department leads are the ones that are going out and interacting with people every day. With Dignify, you can easily equip your leaders in the field with the same training and resources available to you, solidifying emotional intelligence as an integral part of your workplace culture.

The bottom line

An emotionally intelligent leader can be a difference maker in any organization. A must-have skill, EQ enables you to retain employees for the long run, lead change effectively, and enable your team to perform to the best of their abilities. Building and applying emotional intelligence can be difficult and confusing, but with a system like Dignify in place, it becomes clear, comfortable, and attainable.

JOE KIEDINGER

ACTION PLAN: Invest in a system for emotional intelligence – get started with Dignify and see what happens when you harness the power of EQ!