A Leadership Skill You May Be Missing

how leadership skills can be developedcan leadership skills be learned

23 Jun

Improve Project Performance with This Key Leadership Skill

A recent research study by Zhang and colleagues took a deep dive into the scientific literature and found that a leaders’ Emotional Intelligence (EI) has a positive impact on project performance, and that this impact is more significant in more complex projects.

Leaders with higher EI can influence the behaviours and attitudes of team members, enhancing their engagement and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Leaders with higher EI can also express positive emotions - this helps support a psychologically safe work space, where teams can more openly express their opinions, leading to creative problem solving.

In short, it allows you to truly leverage the thought diversity of your team and becomes a key competitive advantage.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence (EI) refers to a person’s ability to identify, understand and manage emotions including their own and those of others. This ability can help a person navigate various social and work situations.

People with high EI tend to have the following skills:

They can recognize and label their own emotions.
They can manage those emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving.
They can regulate their emotions and use them to adapt to different situations.

Having a higher EI is also associated with good physical and mental health, and general well-being, a win-win all around!

Emotional Intelligence is a Learned Skill

Luckily, unlike a person’s IQ, there is evidence that EI can be improved with training.

One study found that workplace training that included a 4-hour workshop covering the GENOS EI model and exercises to help participants recognize and manage emotions in themselves and others, a 30-min one-on-one feedback session, and an individualized follow-up reminder sent by sms was able to significantly increase the EI of nurses compared to those that didn’t receive this training.

Another study found that leaders that attended an EI training programme for 1 day per week over a 4-week period - where they learnt about regulating emotions, recognizing emotions in others, and understanding the impact of their behaviour on the emotions of others - had higher EI as well as lower stress levels and improved health and well-being. Leaders that received the training showed an average increase of 10.5% in work morale and an average decrease of 11.1% in work related distress.

EI ability is a key quality in leaders that can help create a positive work environment and improve work performance.

Interested to work on your emotional intelligence as an individual or team, let us help - contact connect@consciousworks.com or book a brief chat with our team.