Develop soft-skills for strong leadership
Develop soft-skills for strong leadership
Artificial intelligence (AI) might be grabbing all the headlines these days, but there’s a different kind of old-fashioned intelligence that is arguably more valuable and has just as much potential to transform our workplaces.
Emotional intelligence (EI) – the ability to use, understand and manage one’s own emotions and be aware of the emotions of others – is a critical leadership skill.
Leaders with high emotional intelligence build trust in their teams and organizations, work well collaboratively and avoid impulsive decisions. They can manage conflicts and defuse stress. They are self-aware and, perhaps most importantly, they’re empathetic. They “get” people and they seem unflappable.
Soft skills rule
While AI is likely to disrupt the work of many, tech skills are not more important than so-called soft skills that are either elements or byproducts of emotional intelligence. Take a look at the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 list of top core skills:
- Analytical thinking
- Creative thinking
- Resilience, flexibility and agility
- Motivation and self-awareness
- Curiosity and lifelong learning
- Technological literacy
- Dependability and attention to detail
- Empathy and active listening
- Leadership and social influence
- Quality control
Technological literacy and quality control seem like outliers when the rest of the list links significantly to emotional intelligence. Self-awareness, empathy, active listening, resilience – all are closely associated with high emotional intelligence. Research has found a strong link between high EI and analytical thinking, problem solving and creativity. Why? Emotions can get the better of us and cloud our thinking.
The most important leadership skill
And while empathy appears at No. 8, the World Economic Forum describes empathy as “the most important leadership skill for our troubled times.”
Catalyst, a non-profit that champions the advancement of women in leadership, surveyed 900 employees in the U.S. on the effects of empathetic leadership on their work.
The survey found 61 per cent of employees with highly empathetic senior leaders were often or always innovative at work, compared to 13 per cent of people with less empathetic leaders. Further, 76 per cent of people with highly engaged leaders said they were often or always engaged at work, compared to 32 per cent without that empathetic guidance.
So we all want to be empathetic and emotionally intelligent leaders but how?
Invest your learning and development budget, both money and time, in this critical skill. One way is to train in coaching.
Ultimately, coaching is about self-awareness – about helping the person you’re coaching to be self-aware, to look within themselves for solutions. To do it well, the coach must be self-aware as well.
Coach Lombardi got it right
As the coach and client work together, the coach has to be fully present, observing what’s said and not said, be curious, and be OK with silence that, while initially uncomfortable, can create space for reflection.
Courses, like Leader as Coach, offered at Lethbridge Polytechnic, can help you develop many of the core skills found in great leaders. Practising those skills in your own workplace can help you unleash innovation, engagement and commitment on your team. The result? Long-term benefits to your business bottom line and outcomes.
As legendary football coach Vincent Lombardi famously said, “Leaders are not born; they’re made.” With targeted learning and development, coaching theory and practice, you can be the transformational leader your team needs. And with high emotional intelligence, it won’t just be your professional life that benefits.
LC Extension is the corporate and continuing education department at Lethbridge Polytechnic, providing decades of experience in personal and professional development and customized learning solutions.