Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

One of the great buzzwords of the last several years has been EQ, or emotional intelligence.  John Maxwell ranks this as the most important form of intelligence because it is behind our ability to connect with others.  In this time of social distancing, unrest, injustice, and uncertainty about the future connecting with others is the most important thing we can be doing.  

IT professionals, in particular, can reap benefits from focusing their #leadership and their teams on raising their emotional intelligence. Zoom and Webex meetings take away some of the personal touch, as our interactions tend to be hyper-focused and lose the nuances gained by a handful of interpersonal meetings during a typical workday. These nuances can be the difference between cohesiveness and a functionally competent but unengaged team.

However, it is not just the team interactions that matter or that can use a boost. Technology is always improving and equalizing competitors. Software such as ServiceNow are creating ecosystems that are highly integrated and able to replace multiple disparate legacy systems.  This means that maintaining an advantage, especially for the smaller business, comes in the form of connecting with customers rather than offering a functionally different product or service.  

The ever-evolving capabilities of the IT world in the areas of automation and AI lead to large strides in efficiencies and capabilities but will narrow the differences between competitors. This will create an even higher need for emotional intelligence and building the correct synergies in your team. The human component and ability to connect will be the difference maker. This applies both to building stellar teams as well as to competing for customer loyalty.

Surprisingly step one of improving emotional intelligence begins not with working with others, but with introspection and self-improvement.  Emotional Intelligence is the ability to connect with others, get into their context so that you know what they know. The biggest barrier to connecting with others is not knowing yourself.

How are you taking steps to build emotional intelligence?

This was originally published on LinkedIn in 2020, reposted here after the launch of this site