4 Ways To Increase Your Emotional Intelligence To Be A Better Leader

In my opinion, emotional intelligence is the key to successful team communication. Emotions guide us, and it is only natural that they can influence our management style and approach to leadership.

It is also a bottomless source for self-development. The more we increase our EQ, the more our team management can change. I have developed several ‘golden rules’ that help me continuously improve my team leadership.

‘Press pause’ when reacting

As leaders, we come across different people and situations. Some are pleasant and some are frankly infuriating and disappointing. When working on one’s emotional intelligence, it is important to learn not to react to any situation instantly and give yourself time to process emotions and feelings.

How will it help? Pausing before displaying an instant reaction to something or someone gives you a much-needed moment to think the situation over and manifest the right emotions to the right people and at the right time.

It also gives you an opportunity to maintain a cool and sober head, which allows you to make the proper decisions and not be ruled by emotions. This, in my opinion, is one of the best indicators of a leader with a high level of emotional intelligence.

Acknowledge your mistakes

To err is human. And every leader first and foremost is just that — a human. We cannot escape mistakes. One of my biggest blunders was mistakenly scheduling a photoshoot and a job interview for a candidate on the same time slot. Imagine a candidate’s surprise as they walked in and saw me in a cocktail dress and a smokey eye make up, as they were getting ready to get a job at SupportYourApp. That was almost 10 years ago, and it taught me the importance of planning and a calm attitude — something that has since been helping me overcome anything.

One of the signs of emotionally intelligent people is that they can acknowledge their mistakes and learn from them.

How will it help? Being able to recognize, accept, and correct their mistakes will help a leader deal with their team’s errors and do it as calmly as possible. This will promote creativity and simplify brainstorming sessions because team members will feel free to share their ideas without the fear to make a mistake.

Do not shy away from challenges

Every challenge we overcome makes us stronger. Shying away from challenges can create a bubble where everything seems smooth and peaceful, which is far away from the modern business reality. After all, only in the past 5 months we have gone through fears of recession, big tech layoffs, and global political and military unrest.

Challenges surround us. Avoiding them may be even tougher than taking them on. Plus, those who try to escape the challenge lose a good opportunity to increase their EQ and learn something new.

How will it help? Taking challenges head on and using them to increase a leader’s emotional intelligence will set a good example for the entire team and, in turn, make them even more resilient.

Remember about empathy

Empathy is one of the best and strongest tools at a leader’s disposal. If executed correctly, an empathetic attitude can become a true trademark of effective leadership, the most efficient display of emotional intelligence, and the best way to increase it, all rolled into one.

Everyone can have a bad day, a headache, or can simply lack the necessary knowledge to be successful and accomplish grand things every day. It is one of the best qualities of a leader to recognize it and display empathy when needed.

How will it help? Empathy will help a leader build a stronger relationship with their team. It can help them display real growth and emotional intelligence on a daily basis. Moreover, 86% of professionals say having an empathetic leader helps them have a better work-life balance, which can prevent burnout and help teams grow outside the workplace.

There you have it — an empathetic leader can benefit the teams both in and outside an office.

Every leader has their own approach to EQ and their own ways to improve it to be better every day. The most important thing is to find just the right key to unlock the secrets to emotional intelligence.