Leaders and Emotions -What is the Perfect Formula?

As global markets become increasingly volatile, superpowers falter and pave the way for others to emerge. We continue to live in an age of economic uncertainty. And with the advent of new technologies, the world is becoming smaller and foreign markets are increasingly becoming direct competitors. To meet current day exigencies, we need leaders who embrace change, and seize new opportunities which volatile environments create. Adaptability is crucial. Today, Leaders need to lead from within and not from on top. Emotional Intelligence is imperative.

Emotions are an essential part of being human as they assist in maintaining one’s self-preservation. Traditionally, when we think of emotions, we envision someone crying or someone that is unstable, or impulsive. However, emotions are abound in our lives at the workplace and take place in infinite verbal and non-verbal ways. In fact, emotion is significantly present in any and every interaction. Emotion is needed from Leaders to motivate, condone, convey, envision, build rapport trust, and to learn. Emotion is crucial to Leaders so they can lead.To move forward, we must go inward first. Rather than avoid or try to conquer our emotions, we must understand and channel them to achieve greater heights

Everyone knows a technically skilled individual (or executive) who has all the best credentials for the top job, fail once s/he gets there. Similarly, we also know cases of individuals with more average technical skills and credentials who succeed tremendously in the same position.

64% of the population is not skilled at gauging it’s own emotions or those of others. Thus, roughly 2/3 of people fail to use emotion to their advantage and are controlled by their emotions. Emotions are based on one’s beliefs- what they believe to be true. A stimulus elicits an emotion based on what your beliefs say about that particular stimulus in that particular context. We shape our beliefs from our life experiences according to our perception of reality- which is not always the true reality. We therefore often go through our lives with the assumption that for example “Money is bad” – because you drew this conclusion after seeing your parents argue over money as a child. EQ goes a long way in identifying and even removing such negative beliefs.