Leadership and EQ

“Inspiring, influencing, and nurturing people and groups.”

 Let’s start this blog off with a few questions for you to consider:

• Who has been the biggest influence in your personal and professional life?
• Who nurtures you, personally and professionally?

Do you realize that anyone you thought about as you answered these questions is actually an influencer or leader in your life?  These individuals may not have an official title for what we typically consider a “leader” in our world—for instance, president, military commander, CEO, etc.  But true Leadership is more than a label or particular position.  Indeed, Leadership involves inspiring, influencing, and nurturing people and groups. Leadership also happens to be one of the twenty-five essential characteristics that comprise everyone’s Emotional Intelligence (EQ).

In addition, you are also a leader in your particular “Sphere of Influence”. There are numerous people who look to you for inspiration, personally and professionally.  You influence everyone from children to adults in your life as you parent, coach, mentor, and interact with people within your Corporate Family®.  As for nurturing, sometimes people wonder what this term has to do with Leadership—but nurturing others may be one of the most essential aspects of leading individuals since it’s all about encouraging their growth and development.

As a leader, we’d like you to think about another essential question:  What intentional effort are you putting into improving your abilities to inspire, influence, and nurture others?  If your answer is “None,” or, “Not enough,” or “I’m not sure,” then the team at LEADon® has great news for you!  You can transform your Leadership abilities because all twenty-five EQ characteristics are malleable—that is, they can improve by implementing specific strategies.  In fact, here are a few ideas to get this process started:

1. If you haven’t done so yet, take the Developing Emotional Competency Questionnaire® (DECQ®) to determine how you score in all EQ characteristics, including Leadership.  LEADon®’s proprietary online assessment will reveal your strengths and weakness in each of the twenty-five characteristics that comprise your emotional competence.
2. Make a list of some of the individuals who are in your Sphere of Influence.  How well do you really know them?  In what ways might they be looking to you for inspiration or nurturing?  Are you influencing them in a manner that will allow them to reach their full potential? As Steven Covey encourages leaders in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you should “seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
3. Reflect on how you are role-modeling the values you hope to pass on to others.  Remember, your Actions (Behavior Patterns) reveal what you truly value.  You can read more about effectively passing on values in The Leading Edge (Wilke & Wilke, 2010), especially Chapter 9 “Corporate Culture Always Impacts the Bottom Line”.
4. Follow up the DECQ® and your reflections in #2 and #3 by taking LEADon University®’s online course, Developing Your EQ to Improve Your Emotional Competence®. We also recommend these specific online courses that target the EQ skill of Leadership:

LEADing with the Benchmarks for LEADers®

LEADers Walk the Talk®

LEADing by Executing:  The Art of Getting Things Done®  

We’ve asked a lot of in-depth questions in this blog.  Now it is your turn.  What questions would you like to ask LEADon®?  Please contact us, and someone from our team will be happy to assist you.  You can connect with us at www.LEADonUniversity.com or call 858.592.0700.    We are looking forward to helping in any way we can as you strive to improve your personal and professional Leadership.