PART I-MODULE 5
The emotionally intelligent leader - Coaching your employees
The emotionally intelligent leader - Coaching your employees
The aim of the following Unit is to show the characteristic all leaders must have.
Particularly, it deals with the importance of being an “emotionally intelligent” leader, which refers to the capacity of an individual to understand others, what drives them, what makes them tick, and how they can work in liaison with them.
Moreover, the Unit shows why it is so important – for the company as a whole – to build meaningful relationship with the employees.
In today’s competitive world, being a leader rather than a boss can boost a team’s performance and guarantee success for the organization. Considering how often people mix these terms, here are some key traits that differentiate bosses from leaders:
A leader is always willing to learn and listen his employees
He/she seeks solutions and encourages rather than criticize
A leader is focused on the team
More important, a leader needs to be inspiring for his employees
Specifically, employers should aim to treat them as they do their best customers. Just as businesses value their customers’ satisfaction, loyalty and referrals, employers should value the same in their employee relationships.
Their performance likely has a bigger impact on your business than you may think.
As future leaders, learners will understand how stop treating their employees as machines. According to several studies, treating your employees as 100% rationally beings can increase their productivity and effectiveness.
Expose them to tough choices and situations of business that will really mold them to start a business of their own. Share ownership and responsibilities with them.
According to Daniel Goleman – who published his first book “Emotional Quotient” in 1995 – an emotionally intelligent leader must have the following features:
Leaders lead by example, inspiring, not afraid of difficult stuff, focused and driven (motivation)
Leaders are confident, honest, direct, consistent (self-awareness)
Leaders are clear, decisive, straight forward, intuitive (self-regulation)
Leaders are good communicators, approachable and listen to others (social skills)
Leaders are empathetic, influential (empathy)
To develop leadership skills, it is not necessary to be a robot and turn the emotions off, but rather to focus on interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
Being an effective leader is about technical skill, strategic thinking and knowledge. Being a great leader also requires emotional intelligence.
Any job that requires someone to work well with other people, to perform effectively in high-pressure situations and to deal calmly with emotive issues, needs that person to be emotionally intelligent. As well as understanding the mechanics of their job, they also need to understand both themselves and those they work with.
For more details on emotional intelligence, please consult Part I, Module 1 - What Is and What Is Not Emotional Intelligence
Some more interesting details and further reading HERE (Management Centre, Emotional intelligence at work)
The aim of the following Unit is to understand why motivate your employees is one of the key factor in a work environment.
Motivation at work is defined as “the passion to pursue goals with energy and consistency – and to work for reasons that go beyond money or status”.
The Unit will show how simple factors of motivation are extremely important for the employees and a strong drive to achieve and sustained optimism – even in the face of failure and lack of organisational commitment.
Motivating employees is one of the key aspects in order to create a friendly work environment and improve the results of your organisation.
Keep your employees motivated, be a respectful, honest, and supportive manager. Rewards and compensation system is the key motivational instrument in each company. There are two important prerequisites to use rewards to motivate:
Link them to performance
Tailor them to the needs and characteristics of the employees – rewards and compensation must be based on what is really important to employees
Components of rewards and compensation system include salary and financial incentives, benefits, and intangible incentives.
Money is one of the most popular rewards, it is actually a necessity for employees, but as a motivator it only works to certain extent and usually in short-term. Motivating financial incentives include:
Pay-for-performance compensation systems
Performance bonuses
Profit-sharing plans
Open-book management
However, be aware that:
Money is not the only motivator that entrepreneurs can use to motivate their employees. There is a wide array of non-financial benefits, including:
Health care benefits
Free meals
Sports activities
Extra vacation days, vacation day on birthday
Free tickets to local cultural events and performances
For many employees, the most meaningful motivational factors remain the simplest ones – praise, recognition, feedback, job security, promotions.
People enjoy getting praise, especially from manager or owner, it is just human nature. It is an easy and inexpensive reward for employees producing extraordinary work. Some companies introduce systematic schemes to praise the best employees.
Recognition and appreciation is extremely important. Saying thank you is absolutely vital. Although it's easy to do, lots of businesses actually don't do it.
Small firms and especially start-ups, can offer staff more rewarding and interesting jobs
They have the opportunity to keep staff much more involved in the development of the business
Small firms can share with their employees how the business is progressing, ask for their input and involve them in the overall picture.
There is less hierarchy in small businesses, so communication is often better and employees feel more involved.
A lack of motivation is the main reason behind poor employee productivity.
If you want to guarantee that productivity in your work environment is at its very highest, let your staff make decisions and giving them the opportunity to really make a difference for the enterprise and improve the productivity.
Encouraging collaboration and teamwork in the work environment it is important, so your staff can bounce ideas off each other.
Also Check out this VIDEO - 10 Ways to Motivate Employees
The aim of the following Unit is to show the importance of a clear and effective communication in the work environment.
Effective communication is a building block of successful organizations.
It might seem trivial but bad management is one of the top reasons employees feel frustrated at work.
It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator.
Things like respect, honesty, support, and clear communication are extremely important when you are the leader of a team.
Effective communication and effective leadership are closely intertwined.
The importance of communication in a work environment can be summarized as follow:
Communication promotes motivation by informing and clarifying the employees about the task to be done and the manner they are performing the task.
Communication is a source of information to the organizational members for decision-making process
Communication also helps in socializing with other colleagues
See also: Management Study Guide, Importance of Communication in an Organization HERE
and the VIDEO Below about What is Leadership Communication?
Authenticity: forget about eloquence — worry about being real. Be honest and sincere. Let who you are, where you come from, and what you value come through in your communication
Listening to others: good communicators are also good listeners
Simplify: say what you mean. Be direct. Don’t hide behind complexity or pile on a ton of information. Simple communication can be smart communication
Use stories: telling good stories creates trust, captures hearts and minds, and serves as a reminder of the vision
A leader’s style of communication is much more participatory, no matter how much power in decision making the leader has. A leader will be interested in the opinion of the subordinate and generally, focuses on ensuring communication is based on discussion.
Everyone communicates at work and it is probably the easiest thing you can do with your employee. Yet it can also be the most difficult.
What a leader should do in order to improve communication within the organisation?
Spend a short period of time each day to have a word with your employees
Discussing things from concerns to ideas
This will not only make your employees happy, it will also provide you with much-needed insight on your business from your employees.
Feeling like you've already improved your Leadership and Communication Skills? Take this test and check it out!
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