Is There A Space for Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Today?

Emotional Intelligence: 

here's my understanding of what it is:

"Understanding one's own feelings and those of others and how these are expressed as behaviours"

Introduction

This piece sets out to both inform, support and challenge people in Leadership, Management and Supervisory roles. Its history is  based on the findings of research and its practical applications by Daniel Goldman, Cary Cherniss and Reuven Bar-On. It has informed my professional practice (and beyond!) for the best part of twenty years.

Some years ago Cary Cherniss asked employers to list their greatest concerns their organisations face. Here's what they came up with.

1. People need to cope with massive, rapid change
2. People need to be more creative in order to drive innovation
3. People need to manage huge amounts of information
4. The organisation needs to increase customer loyalty
5. People need to be more motivated and committed
6. People need to work together better
7. The organisation needs to make better use for the the special talents available in a diverse workforce
8. The organisation needs to identify potential leaders in its ranks and prepare them to move up
9. The organisation needs to identify and recruit top talent
10. The organisation needs to make good decisions about new markets, products and strategic alliances
11. The organisation needs to prepare people for overseas assignments

A couple of things occurred as I mentally adapted the above to today's challenges

1. Let's use "We" instead of "People"
2. Let's use "Our" instead of "The" (organisation)
3. Some of the above have a much sharper focus as we come to grips with our rapidly changing, challenging and uncertain futures and leaders need to think about which ones matter most right now and then act.

For A While It Felt Like This

We hit the buffers and some fast footwork was required just to keep things going and it feels that we have, since late March been growing our coping mechanisms whilst trying to best guess our way into an uncertain future and very different work patterns.

I've Heard About and Discussed

How some fantastic people have reached out to their teams and offered the above and more, providing continuity, purpose and care in so doing. As we move forward our organisations be they:

• Large corporates
• SMEs
• Education providers
• Community & Charitable

Will need to visit items 1-12 above and decide for themselves

• What to prioritise
• How to communicate their priorities
• How to use existing knowledge and wisdom
• How to capture and communicate new knowledge and learning
• How to support, motivate and up-skill people

It is my belief that we are better able to equip ourselves for this journey if those in leadership roles are aware of the styles of leadership that will take us towards an increased sense of the possible together with how they might be blended as contexts changes.

Here's an introduction to our thinking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch

Our next post will look at Six Leadership Styles and the context in which they might be applied.