Leaders have to be able to inspire, challenge and lead others.  You are not a leader if no one is following you!  You can be sure that your people are asking themselves, “Why should I follow him or her?”   In order to be a strategic leader and engage and inspire and, you need to be able to understand your people – their individual motivators and drivers, who they are as people and what really matters to them

All these skills and behaviours are in the realm of emotional intelligence. Having empathy, a core EQ skill, equips you to be able to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.  It gives you an attunement but it doesn’t mean sympathy or mushiness that you can’t then be logical and make the right decisions.  What it does is enable you to integrate the best of the both – information and the people issues.

Think back in your life those people who have really touched you. Perhaps it was a kind word when you were discouraged or struggling. Or perhaps it was a manager who saw your potential – far more than you were able to see yourself – and gave you that “lucky break” – the one that made all the difference!  Chances are that these people had a good grasp on emotional intelligence.  They were able to tune into who you were at a much deeper level and enabled the best of you to flourish.

While information, knowledge, data is more head based, EQ is about the integration of this with the heart – resulting in better outcomes.  Emotional reasoning is the skill that enables us to integrate our feelings and emotions into our rational decision making process, not ignoring or conversely being overwhelmed by them!

Contact Jasbindar now to get a profile of your  EQ or  emotional intelligence.  If you would like to increase your levels of self awareness and  leadership effectiveness, you can make contact with the EQ/SQ specialist or follow Jas on twitter.