When I think of emotional intelligence, I can’t help but think about Daniel Goleman’s quote: “Cognitive skills get you in the door of a company, but emotional skills help you thrive once you’re hired.” This couldn’t be truer in today’s work environment.
Personal Competence — The Self
- Self-awareness is about understanding your emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives. It’s beneficial, as a leader, if you’re able to recognize personal feelings and how they impact others.
- Self-regulation is the ability to control or redirect impulses and moods. Through self-regulation, you can self-reflect on your emotions and then pivot. This helps leaders build an environment of trust and fairness.
- Self-motivation is a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status. With self-motivation, you set the bar high for yourself as a leader and strive for success no matter what.
Social Competence — Relationships
- Empathy is being able to sense the feelings of others by imagining yourself in their lives or situations. Paired with self-awareness and self-regulation, an empathetic leader can understand employees or people around them and views things from a different perspective.
- Social skills are the ability to manage relationships and build networks by easily finding common ground. Someone with great social skills is someone who is often characterized as charismatic. With social skills, you can easily build rapport and help people loosen up around you while still wanting to perform at their best.
To be clear, not everyone has a high degree of all 5, but you can learn and develop any of them. The key is being able to recognize where you need to level up, though anyone who knows me knows I think everyone should always be working to get better at all of them.
I am always looking to enhance my self-awareness, so I often tap into my “trusted advisors” to get feedback. Looking to level up in one of the five areas? Fill out our contact form to book a training session with Paul.
Paul Bramson is renowned as a powerhouse on keynote stages and in training arenas. He is widely regarded as being one of the most impactful speakers, trainers and C-suite coaches in the world today. Paul is recognized as a leading authority and thought leader in the areas of communication, leadership and sales boasting media mentions in Forbes, Fast Company, Fortune, BuiltIn, Yahoo, and MSN. With an extensive 25-year tenure, Paul has continually ignited and empowered professionals, leaders, and teams across all echelons. His ability to captivate and engage audiences originates from an authentic zeal, unique aptitudes, and an unyielding dedication to professional and personal enhancement.