Do you ever wonder how some people got to be leaders with a ‘title’?

And do you ever wonder why some people are natural leaders but don’t have a title?

A question that often comes up is ‘Are leaders born or made?’ and ‘Can leadership skills be learned?’

In his research, Daniel Goleman has found that the most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ).

So, how do you know if you have high EQ?

To start with, what is EQ?

I remember my first ever performance review as a leader in the Pharmaceutical industry, when my manager gave me feedback to say that I was a fast learner, highly skilled at my work, very productive and organised, got results, a great manager, however… I needed to improve my emotional intelligence if I wanted to be a better leader.

Honestly, at the time, I was shocked at this feedback. After all, I had been working as a clinician for 17 years, taken care of people in physical, mental and emotional pain, and believe me, I was very aware of my own emotions and had great empathy for the emotions of others.

The missing piece I didn’t understand at that point in time, was having self awareness about the impact of my emotional state on others. Well, actually also I didn’t have great emotional self regulation.

Daniel Goleman describes 5 key skills of emotional intelligence that enable the best leaders to maximise their ownand others’ performance:

Self Awareness

Self Regulation

Motivation

Empathy

Social Skills

Each of these EQ components can be defined clearly and have characteristic hallmarks based on extensive research.

Also, each of us can strengthen these skills with practice, feedback, persistence and support from a coach.

(A bit like improving and strengthening your tennis game!)

Over the next few days, I will describe each of these five key skills of emotional intelligence how they can benefit you as a leader.

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