Emotional Intelligence (EI) – that is, the capacity to work effectively with your and others’ emotions while engaging in human interactions. EI is demonstrating itself to be a critical factor in leadership effectiveness. Increased numbers of empirical research studies are being produced that reveal outcomes that can no longer be ignored by serious leaders. Some of the key measures associated with emotional intelligence that are being examined are job satisfaction levels, job effectiveness, the contagiousness of moods and physiological responses to others (heart rate, health). Studies show that the emotional intelligence of the boss directly affects employee job satisfaction levels, and this in turn impacts upon employee turnover. Furthermore when a boss brings a negative mood to the workplace through displays of irritability, and anxiety it takes away from a climate of enthusiasm, which diminishes work effectiveness. In contrast, when a boss is able to exude an optimistic and enthusiastic mood it impacts positively upon innovation, productivity, team work and increased resilience to difficult circumstances. With a greater number of research studies demonstrating the positive impact that increased emotional intelligence has upon business results, it is becoming more difficult to ignore this element of leadership development. The good news is that leaders can improve and grow in this area. I have worked one-to-one with leaders to achieve this very thing. So where do you start to work at improving this area? There are a number of options available to you. You might want to look at taking an assessment to
