Leading effectively requires emotional intelligence, which involves being able to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions as well as other people’s emotions. A leader with high emotional intelligence can build strong relationships, build positive working environments, and achieve results. However, leaders with low emotional intelligence may struggle in these areas. This blog post explores seven signs of low leadership emotional intelligence.
Here are seven signs of low leadership emotional intelligence:
Difficulty managing stress and emotions: Leaders with low emotional intelligence struggle with managing their emotions, anger, frustration, or defensiveness. Therefore, a leader should work on developing emotional intelligence by gaining self-awareness, managing emotions, and seeking growth opportunities.
Poor communication skills: Leaders with low emotional intelligence may have difficulty communicating effectively and misunderstandings and conflicts may arise. Therefore, a leader should work on improving communication skills through active listening and clear, specific communication.
Difficulty building trust: Leaders with low emotional intelligence struggle to build trust with team members, partners, and other stakeholders. Therefore, a leader should work on building trust through transparency, honesty, and reliability.
Inability to empathize: Leaders with low emotional intelligence may have trouble understanding and relating to the feelings and perspectives of others. Therefore, a leader should work on empathy by understanding perspectives, seeking feedback, and actively learning about others.
Difficulty with feedback: Leaders with low emotional intelligence may have trouble giving feedback in a constructive and sensitive manner, and they may also struggle to receive feedback. Therefore, a leader should work on giving and receiving feedback by being open to it, understanding its importance, and giving it in a clear, specific and non-threatening way.
Resistance to change: Leaders with low emotional intelligence may have difficulty adapting to change, and they may be resistant to new ideas or ways of doing things. Therefore, a leader should work on becoming more adaptable to change by embracing uncertainty, being open to new ideas, seeking diverse perspectives, and continuously learning.
Lack of self-awareness: Leaders with low emotional intelligence may have trouble understanding their own emotions and how they affect their behavior and decision-making. Therefore, a leader should work on self-awareness by reflecting on emotions, seeking feedback, and engaging in self-improvement activities.
In conclusion, recognizing the signs of low emotional intelligence is an important step in working to improve your leadership if you want to be an effective leader.
Lead From Within: Emotional intelligence is not everything, but without it, nothing else matters.
#1 N A T I O N A L B E S T S E L L E R
The Leadership Gap
What Gets Between You and Your Greatness
After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, Lolly Daskal has observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. But in time, every executive reaches a point when their performance suffers and failure persists. Very few understand why or how to prevent it.
Additional Reading you might enjoy:
- 12 Successful Leadership Principles That Never Grow Old
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- 4 Proven Reasons Why Intuitive Leaders Make Great Leaders
- The One Quality Every Leader Needs To Succeed
- The Deception Trap of Leadership
Of Lolly’s many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World. Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others. Her newest book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness has become a national bestseller.