Emotional intelligence (EI) is an important trait in successful leaders, but did you know it can be improved like any other skill? Neither did our CEO, Jeff Van Fleet.
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Recently, I came across several articles on Emotional Intelligence (EI) that really resonated with me. |
Happy Summer!! I hope you are enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. I hope you take the time for yourself to relax on a vacation.
I have been thinking lately about how I can do a better job leading our company. As such, I’ve been doing research on the all-powerful Google. Recently, I came across several articles on Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) that really resonated with me. I agree that most effective leaders have strong EI; however, I always thought it was natural. I didn’t realize that we can improve in this area.
One article that I especially liked introduces five steps to improving your EI. It’s written by Harvey Deutschendorf and (unsurprisingly) called “5 Ways for Leaders to Boost Their Emotional Intelligence”. After reading the article (it’s only a five-minute read), I did a bit of a self-evaluation and thought I would share it with you.
| Ways to Boost EI | Jeff’s self-evaluation |
| Increase self-awareness | Hmm. Interesting. How many of you actually want to know how you come across? To be perfectly honest, I want to know sometimes—but other times I really don’t. Dang, I’ve got work to do! Maybe I should look into a coach! |
| Develop listening skills | I like this as it aligns with Steven Covey’s “Seek First to Understand”. I try hard here, but am not always as patient as I need to be. |
| Show a genuine interest in your people | I think he means have and show a genuine interest in your people. I think I do pretty well here because I genuinely care about our people and I really try hard to memorize their names and learn interesting things about them and their families. |
| Develop the ability to manage your emotions and of those around you | OK, this is an area where I need to put in some work…enough said. |
| Develop a strong sense of appreciation | I think I do pretty well here. Frankly, I enjoy appreciating other people and celebrating their successes. However, I can always get better. |
I suggest that you read the article and consider doing your own self-evaluation (or ask your coach, peers, or team). Plus, there are some other really interesting articles on his website!
I hope you have a great summer. It’s a terrific opportunity to spend some time trying to assess and improve yourself (and your EI)!
Keep having fun,
Jeff Van Fleet
President & CEO
Lighthouse Technologies, Inc.
Software Testing | Quality Assurance Consulting | Oracle EBS Consulting
