During my last leadership seminar, in which the topic of emotional intelligence was also to be addressed, a participant asked right at the beginning of this segment: "Do we really need to talk about this topic again? We're already so soft on it anyway. We have to take every sensitivity into account. At some point, enough is enough - especially when economic conditions keep getting tougher."
This comment from the participant primarily highlighted for me the dilemma that leaders in lower and middle management find themselves in. They are feeling the pressure from senior management as a result of the current economic crisis. At the same time, they want to uphold company values such as appreciation, equality, teamwork, and customer focus. On the other hand, they struggle with how to manage numerous projects to achieve high customer satisfaction while working with fewer team members. In other words, they are caught between a rock and a hard place.
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for leaders facing this dilemma. However, the components of emotional intelligence - such as self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social competence - are the best prerequisites for recognizing and assessing available action options to at least partially resolve these dilemmas.
Components of Emotional Intelligence:
- Self-awareness and self-regulation: Recognizing one’s own emotions and consciously controlling one’s own behavior.
- Empathy: Perceiving and understanding the emotions of others and adjusting one’s behavior according to the counterpart’s situation.
- Social competence: Building and maintaining relationships and connections with others.
This is the response I gave to the seminar participant when he asked whether we really needed to talk about emotional intelligence again: "Especially in times of change, leadership also involves managing emotions. A leader’s success largely depends on how well they manage both their own emotions and those of their employees. This does not mean that a leader should avoid clearly communicating difficult truths, such as job cuts or increased workloads. However, in my view, after delivering such messages, a leader must not leave their employees alone with these unpleasant realities."
In a nutshell: Emotional intelligence will always have its place - especially in uncertain times, as this is when a leader must have an even stronger sense of their own emotions and those of their employees.
This text first appeared in my newsletter "It's innovation Wednesday". It is published once a month. For subscription click here