Blog

1. INTRODUCTION

A person can have everything, but if they do not possess emotional intelligence, we can consider that person doomed. Recognising and managing emotions is part of our daily lives. We regulate ourselves and communicate with other people daily. In our interactions, effective communication lands us with the ability to understand other people’s emotions, being aware of our emotional triggers and of those around us and we learn the skill of building better relationships.

I wrote a book titled Authentic Leadership Mindset which was published on Amazon in 2024, and chapter 13 of the books talks about emotions. I will throw in extracts from the book to blend in with this article. This article takes the approach of creative writing as a matter of interest in the subject of emotional intelligence and effective communication.

“Do not let your emotions overcome your intelligence”. – Sadhguru

2. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Emotions in leadership have got to do with the art of arousing feelings, for an example, through an emotional speech. Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage your own feelings and feelings of those around you. The end goal of a leader is to lead emotions to positivity and peace. Your words or actions must relieve stress of your followers. This act must be truthful, even if the truth is bitter.

“The truth will set you free, but it will hurt you first”. – Pastor Sithembiso Zondo

You should know when to lead from the head (logic) and when to lead from the heart (feelings) and find the balance. There is no right or wrong approach because it is just people’s nature to either use the head or the heart more. As a leader you need find the neck. The neck is a bridge between the head and the heart. It is a balancing feature. The situation you are dealing with at that particular point should guide you, and this is the reason you need emotional intelligence to tell you which approach to use and which situation.

Emotions are very complex and have been studied intensively in psychology.  The famous James-Lange Theory of emotions sets out three propositions. The first proposition is that bodily responses are reflexive and unlimited, and this means that there are many patterns and variety of emotions that people can experience. The second proposition is that bodily responses are recognised and reflect emotional consciousness. The third proposition is that an emotion is not learned, but instead, it is a reflexive response to an exciting object or situation. This essentially means that what you experience with your senses gives rise to how you must feel.

This means that as a leader, you need to be aware of your feelings so that you can control your emotions. Leaders who do not control their emotions are seen in public bursting in anger, crying, overly excited and so on. However, as a leader, you need to keep it cool and be balanced. The reason for keeping it cool is because the people you are leading may not necessarily see things the way you do but may react to your emotional reaction.

Negative emotions must be controlled because they affect self-concept, and they include traits of anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness. Assess yourself and find out whether you can control your emotions. If yes, which of the negative emotions are the most dominant? You can practice control by pausing for longer periods in between sentences when something or someone tries to touch the negative emotions because that triggers you. You can decide to discuss the triggering subject matter at a later stage when you are emotionally ready.

Practicing cool, calm, and collected approach at all given chances is very important and enhances the leader’s image and character. This is not to say you will not slip due to frustration or excitement but let that be one out of ten situations or likelihood.  

“When there is no enemy within, the enemy outside cannot hurt you”. – African Proverb

Effective leadership is no longer just about intellectual intelligence, technical skills or vision. In today’s fast-paced, interconnected world, leaders must also possess emotional intelligence (EI) to inspire, motivate and drive their teams toward success.

3. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE MATTERS IN LEADERSHIP

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize and understand emotions in oneself and others, and to use this awareness to guide thought and behavior. It involves self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. This kind of intelligence matters most in leadership because once you can use a clinical approach coupled with intelligence, as a leader you benefit. It matters because you can build trust which fosters open communication, transparency and creates a culture of trust.

A leader’s emotional roller coaster can affect productivity. Once you, as a leader, master the skill of managing emotions, you can boost productivity by understanding team members’ strengths, weaknesses and motivations, you can also optimise project’s assignments. In dealing with teams, there is bound to be either collaborations or conflicts. Emotional intelligence helps you to navigate conflicts, facilitate teamwork and promote a positive work environment.

It is a given that a leader must make decisions. Emotional intelligence assists you to develop effective decision-making skill. As a leader, you need to consider emotional implications of decisions and ensure more informed choices with an insight of consequences of the decisions made. Lastly, emotional intelligence supports adaptability because it enables leaders to navigate change, ambiguity and uncertainty.

4. ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN LEADERSHIP

I indicated earlier that emotional intelligence helps leaders to understand themselves and others. I like to emphasise on the leader knowing themselves. Firstly, the leader needs to be self-aware of their emotions, strengths and weaknesses. Secondly, success is likely to follow leaders who have empathy, and this is shown through understanding of team members’ emotions and perspectives. Showing empathy is demonstrated by, thirdly, effective communication with clear and respective interaction. This action help with fourthly, conflict resolution through managing disputes constructively. Lastly, coaching and mentoring is another important aspect because this is where a leader develops team members’ skills.

As a leader, you can develop emotional intelligence through practicing self-reflection and introspection, encouraging constructive criticism towards yourself, engaging in active listening by focusing on others’ concerns rather than yours, and developing empathy by putting yourself in others’ shoes.

5. EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Effective communication is more of conveying information, ideas, thoughts opinions and feelings in clear, concise and understandable manner, The leader ensures that the message reaches and is interpreted correctly by an intended audience. Communication can be verbal or non-verbal. The audience judges verbal communication through assessing the articulation, tone, pace, volume and language. Further to that, non-verbal communication is also judged through the body language, eye contact, and proximity such as space in between.

Effective communication and emotional intelligence are connected in that in that emotional intelligence enhances communication skills, while effective communication fosters emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence recognises the emotional cues in communication, understands others’ emotions, conveys emotional needs, manages conflicts with emotional awareness, and adjusts communication style to audience to make communication effective. The combination of all these aspects benefits the leader and the followers. Therefore, emotional intelligent leaders must pay attention to how communication is conducted, what must be communicated, timing of communication and whether information communicated is relevant to the user.

6. LESSONS TO BE LEARNT BY LEADERS

Leaders must learn to communicate effectively during the times of change and uncertainty. Communication must be adapted to suit diverse needs of diverse teams. There is also an aspect of forever changing technology, and this means that leaders must integrate technology and leverage on their digital tools to enhance communication. Geographically, technology makes the world smaller than before and brings people together digitally from all corners of the globe, and this brings about the additional responsibility of learning diverse cultures. Possessing emotional intelligence helps the leader to navigate cultural differences and to communicate effectively.

7. CONCLUSION

The take aways of this paper can be summarised by indicating that emotional intelligence and effective communication are interdependent. Developing emotional intelligence enhances communication skills. Effective communication fosters strong emotional intelligence, and the combination of both aspects produces stronger relationships, improved collaboration and enhances decision-making.