Emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual or a leader to manage and, most importantly, understand his or her emotions while recognizing and influencing the emotions of people around. The role and essence of emotional intelligence have been empathized on significantly in leadership. Generally, one of the most common characteristics of most effective leaders in their high degree of emotional intelligence. The impacts of emotional intelligence in leadership do impact leaders and team members and the organization in general (Mysirlaki & Paraskeva, 2020). One of the benefits of emotional intelligence in leadership is an improved internal awareness that helps leaders to make sound decisions, particularly by understanding how their feelings affect their judgment, productivity attitudes, and other factors.
Emotional intelligence also helps to improve leaders’ self-regulation skills. This case means that leaders can avoid making impulsive decisions or failing to control their emotions through emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence helps in breeding self-regulation that prevents moments that leaders can regret. Besides, it also increases empathy, allowing leaders to understand their emotions and gauge other people’s emotions. Besides, emotional intelligence also improves collaborative communication within an organization (Northouse, 2021). The main reason is that it allows leaders to understand other people, thus improving their ability to pick the best tone depending on different situations immediately. Although workplace stress may be unavoidable, emotional intelligence allows leaders to manage it better, thus preventing it from consuming or affecting them in negative ways. It also allows a leader to avoid taking negative feelings out of other people, thus helping them to enjoy better work and life balance (Lone et al., 2018). As a result, the roles and impacts of emotional intelligence remain a substantial role in leadership as it influences the positive performance of leaders and their leadership roles.
References
Lone, M. A., & Lone, A. H. (2018). Does emotional intelligence predict leadership effectiveness? An exploration in non-Western context. South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management, 5(1), 28-39.
Mysirlaki, S., & Paraskeva, F. (2020). Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in virtual teams: Lessons from MMOGs. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). Sage Publications. ISBN: 978- 1544397566
Leave a Reply