Emotional Intelligence is a must-have for all start-up leaders. Basically, emotional intelligence is what helps you stay in control amidst crisis, governs the way you deal with stressful situations and influences your relationships with others. Abstract as it may seem, emotional intelligence can be broken down into 4 pillars: personal baseline, performance keys, communication baseline, and leadership keys. Please read on to know more about emotional intelligence and how you can build on yours.
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Emotional Intelligence is a must-have for all start-up leaders. Basically, emotional intelligence is what helps you stay in control amidst crisis, governs the way you deal with stressful situations and influences your relationships with others. Abstract as it may seem, emotional intelligence can be broken down into 4 pillars: personal baseline, performance keys, communication baseline, and leadership keys. Please read on to know more about emotional intelligence and how you can build on yours.ย
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Personal baseline starts with how well you know your strengths, weaknesses and values. Personal baseline can be broken down into three parts: self awareness, self acceptance, and self assessment. You can practice becoming more aware of yourself by meditating, introspecting, paying attention to your emotions and constantly asking yourself questions about what you value most in your life, or what keeps you waking up every day. After awareness, self acceptance refers to how you can be confident, self assured and set boundaries, saying no to what goes against your values. Then comes self assessment where you objectively reflect on yourself, strengths and weaknesses, and focus on future growth.ย
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This pillar is concerned with how you deal with stressful situations. It gauges your emotional responses, your problem-solving skills and your resilience in face of stress and setbacks. In order to improve in this aspect, you should practice divergent thinking, which basically means thinking of many creative solutions to a problem, and being self-composed, determined, versatile and optimistic in any crisis. Lack of action is also often the cause of even more stress and pressure, thus donโt just get lost in your head! Write ideas down, discuss with your team, encourage them to be positive, and together you can move through any obstacles.ย
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This pillar deals with how you communicate with others and the impact of such communication. It gauges how well you can tune into what others are thinking and feeling, make connections and build rapport with them. A few key things you could pay attention to is practicing compassion with othersโ problems, attentiveness, curiosity, clarity and collaboration in communication. Next time you talk to someone, listen carefully, pay attention to the subtle way they express their emotions, clarify on what you donโt understand and ask questions to prompt more meaningful conversations, and relationships.ย
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From an emotional intelligence perspective, using power to force action is not real leadership. Real leaders build trust instead of pressuring or pulling people into action. They are voluntarily followed. The only effective method to lead is by setting an example for others. Real leaders act with integrity, openness, consideration, appreciation, approachability and influence. Next time, try to appreciate your employeesโ efforts, be open to their feedback, and consider their emotions and thinking. This will make you become a more understanding, compassionate, and effective leader.ย
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