Effective leaders embrace meaningful conversations. They foster an environment where emotional well-being, communication, and trust are maintained, ultimately contributing to a more positive and productive work environment. Leaders with emotional intelligence reflect optimism, confidence, and a strategic approach to undesirable situations. They regulate a positive work environment where employees feel encouraged, respected, and valued.
The Need to Start Offering Emotional Intelligence at Workspace
Low emotional maintenance results in a negative work culture. Employees may feel unheard and undervalued, leading to a lack of motivation and low morale. A sense of disconnection often develops between the team and the leader.
This creates a challenging and toxic workplace where employees often hesitate to share their concerns or ideas for fear of facing dismissive responses or backlash. Without effective leaders, teams lack collaboration, and work-related challenges and personal issues cause burnout among employees.
A leader’s emotional intelligence is vital to fostering a positive work environment; otherwise, it creates stressful silos that are unable to work productively and collaboratively.
Furthermore, using dismissive language with the employee or colleagues can imply that their feelings and struggles aren’t real. The last thing you want to do when someone is coming to you while they’re struggling is make them feel unheard, unsupported, and unseen.
What Difference Could It Make If The Leader Is Emotionally Supportive?
In fostering a positive work environment, a leader’s emotional intelligence is vital. It helps employees feel valued, encouraged, and respected, thus improving satisfaction, building trust, and enhancing overall teamwork. Employees can openly share their thoughts or ideas, seek guidance, and contribute to the well-being of the organisation when a leader is emotionally effective. They tend to develop a sense of commitment and purpose for the firm.
Most importantly, employees can be themselves. They don’t have to fake it around their colleagues or seniors.
As Raj Sisodia mentions in one of his books, “Emotional intelligence (EQ) combines self-awareness (understanding oneself) and empathy (the ability to feel and understand what others are feeling). High emotional intelligence is increasingly being recognised as important in organisations because of the growing complexity of society and the variety of stakeholders that must be communicated with effectively.”
As much as it is important for leaders to maintain their authority over the team’s vision, employees needs cannot also be ignored. Accepting this fosters more effective workers and reduces overall employee turnover.
Effective leaders have the capability to put themselves in their employees shoes, thus making thoughtful and deliberate decisions. They can easily pick up the tone of their team, making for effective communication. Emotionally intelligent leaders build stress-free workspaces. Moreover, they also refuse to take on any negative feelings or build grudges against their employers. This approach helps in developing a safe and secure work environment with the least amount of toxicity.
Ways to Be an Effective Leader
Emotionally intelligent leaders can regulate their own emotions and support others in doing the same.
When talking about emotional support, it is expected from everyone around us, be it our friends, family, or colleagues.
During a challenging situation, validation can bring the most comfort, especially if it comes from your leader. It can be as simple as an acknowledgement. Furthermore, taking a step towards seeking to understand the situation can make an employee feel that a leader cares about them and wants to support them, raising loyalty towards their leaders.
The least one can do while a person is struggling is prescribe a solution. It centres the conversation on you and can leave a person feeling unsupported.
Do you want to be the leader who puts burdens on others or the one who lightens them through collaboration? Pour in your views in the comments below.