Leaders: Don't Leave Your Emotions at Home
ORLANDO, Fla.: Take heed leaders! Don't leave home without them – your "emotions" that is! It's contrary to what many of us grew up hearing: "don't bring your emotions to work," or "don't let them see you sweating it!" I have clients who struggle with being one person at work and a different person at home. Whew! That's exhausting!
Leaders, you are powerful human beings complete with amazing minds, feeling hearts, strong bodies, and healing souls. How is it possible to bring only "half" of who you are to work and to "life" for that matter? Is it effective? Efficient? Productive? Rewarding? Satisfying? What's unfortunate is that some leaders are not coached on how to use or manage emotions effectively, so they can lead others authentically.
That's where Emotional intelligence (EQ) comes in. EQ is a set of life and business skills worth learning and applying if you desire personal effectiveness, health, powerful relationships, and quality of life. These skills are learnable, measurable, and are valuable at work and in life. The journey to EQ begins with your commitment to learning and a willingness to look within, the courage to face discomfort, and openness to feel, listen, and take action.
Emotions play a huge part in our everyday thinking and decision-making processes. Our brains are wired to help us "feel" things first then we rationalize; hence the flight or fight syndrome when we face danger or experience fear. Rightfully so, our focus as a society is on gaining knowledge and technical skills. There is a myriad of intelligence assessments to measure knowledge and brain capacity with plenty of schools and programs to complement them. However, the demand for emotional intelligence is huge now– more than ever – with plenty of research to substantiate it.
In fact, Dr. Stephen Covey, author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," states, "Research shows convincingly that EQ is more important than IQ (intelligence quotient) in almost every role and many times more important in leadership roles."
You've heard the adage, "it's not what you know, but who you know" to move up in your career. While that may be true for some, given the state of our world and even personal affairs, let's rephrase it to say, "it's not what you know, but who you know AND how you interact and react that makes the difference." If your IQ got you this far in life, then EQ can take you farther by leaps and bounds.
Experts by Anita, "the Passionista," Torres, the CEO and founder of Passion Powered Leadership Coaching and Consulting. With over 20 years of training and development experience, Torres is a motivated Certified Executive Coach.
