Emotional Intelligence is Key in Leadership

In the last post with Diana Neto Pereira, Transformational Coach, we talk about the importance of establishing a Healthy Remote working place. Leaders and HR departments must prioritize the healthy (physical and mental) of their employees, to avoid burnouts, video-fatigue, and other pathologies related.

A very important factor is the EQ, the Emotional Intelligence leaders had developed during the years, especially Empathy. This is crucial in challenging moments like this one. Is the ability to understand what employees are feeling, what are their needs, and “taking the perspective that employee mental health isn’t a burden but fundamental to the organization’s success.” - Bryan Robinson, Forbes.

How reacted and managed leaders and executives the first-ever global lockdown while working mostly remotely? What kind of attitudes can we notice? Thanks to research by Doodle[1] on his platform on more than 30- million meetings during the second quarter of 2020:

- The study revealed a clear pattern of a virtual-only meeting era with Americans always meeting and always working due to a heavy reliance on email communication for scheduling, poor planning and inefficient processes.

- A 109% rise of virtual board/shareholder virtual group meetings quarter over quarter

- A 136% increase in demand for frequent check-ins during COVID-19

- A slight dip to 9% during lunch hours, the only time during the day showing a decline

- Morning meetings are not welcome in the United Kingdom: Although the British are early risers, the United Kingdom doesn’t schedule meetings during that time. Instead, afternoon meetings in the middle of the week are their sweet spot.

- More than 50% of German meetings occur between 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm, leaving the mornings to complete more focused, ‘deep’ work. Surprisingly, weekend meetings are more common in Germany than in the US and other European countries.

- And speaking of empathy, Southern Cross University spoke with over 1,000 professionals across three continents to discover the most effective investments professionals make to further their careers. The study showed 9 in 10 people who sought therapy said it helped them reach their career goals. And 41.5% who sought therapy were promoted within the past two years.

"Emotional Intelligence is Key in Leadership. One might be a Data expert but if its uncapable of reading people one may never be able to keep performance, effectiveness and as a consequence, results at an optimal level.  

Today more than ever Emotional Intelligence plays a major role in the Corporate World. 2020 has forced us to adapt to a completely new reality, every individual has been affected to a certain level and only a Leader with capacity to “read the room” can succeed in a time of difficulty. 

No matter what is happening in the market, everything boils down to people and communication, isn’t it true that most successful leaders were able to thrive in times of crisis? Because they were able to engage people in their mission regardless of the context they were in.

This said, the robotic, data-based kind of management is no longer an option. As seen already by examples of extremely successful companies, allowing the space for conversations around mental-health and self-development has played an incredible role in their achievement.

Charles Duhigg, the Author of “Smarter, Faster, Better”, in reference to Google’s Project Aristotle (a study launched in 2012 to understand why some teams stumble while others thrived) in an article published by brandchannel.com , said that “Project Aristotle is a reminder that when companies try to optimize everything, it’s sometimes easy to forget that success is often built on experiences—like emotional interactions and complicated conversations and discussions of who we want to be and how our teammates make us feel—that can’t really be optimized.” And Emotional Intelligence is the main ingredient to make this recipe work.

Businesses have to be more willing to invest on people’s development in order to achieve higher goals but also, to be able to adapt to change in a smooth and successful way.

But how?

There are innumerous ways businesses can increase their level of emotional intelligence, weather be by providing coaching to their managers, or give the space for conversations that are more than just about numbers, really training their HR teams to have concerns for how people are feeling and communicating, etc.

Many simple solutions that can create a major impact in overall results that I will be glad to discuss further with you in the upcoming webinar “Get Ready to Lead” on the 2nd of October.

You just need to register and submit your questions! https://bit.ly/ipr_Oct2020