Emotional Intelligence is a key skill for leaders and this book is precisely designed to give you clear, science-backed and actionable insights on how you can become a more emotionally intelligent leader.
It's proven that emotional intelligence in leadership is not just an add-on to good leadership, it has measurable, clear and strategic results, for example:
- higher performance
- lower level of stress
- higher commitment
- higher motivation and engagement
- better perception of your performance as a leader
- etc.
Emotional Intelligence for Leaders in literature, however, is often long, difficult and academic.
Nothing wrong with that, but if what you are looking are quick and actionable leadership tips on emotional intelligence, then those kind of books may not be ideal for you.
This book aims to be a different take on emotional intelligence and leadership development: it aims to be still science-backed, but direct and actionable with a focus on your leadership skills and leadership development.
As a consequence, you will find a theoretical structure, but filled with tools you can use out of the box, including an emotional intelligence test and templates to track your progress.
Here is a breakdown of the different sections of the book:
INTRODUCTION
A primer of emotional intelligence put in the context of teamwork and leadership, what outcomes you can expect from it, structure of the book and answers to the questions:
- Why developing emotional intelligence?
- Why is emotional intelligence important in the workplace?
- Why emotional intelligence in leadership?
- What does emotional intelligence mean for leaders?
- Is emotional intelligence a skill?
- Can emotional intelligence be learned?
SELF-ASSESSMENT
An emotional intelligence test to assess your starting level and what areas you need to work on. The test will give you a result in each of the 4 areas of emotional intelligence for leaders, and the other chapters will go through each area in detail, allowing you to develop your emotional intelligence skills and leadership skills accordingly.
RECOGNIZING WHAT YOU ARE FEELING
Block 1 of emotional intelligence for leaders: why it is important for an emotionally intelligent leader to have a grasp on his or her emotions in detail, and what impacts it has - this includes an action plan and a reference to improve your skills.
CONTROLLING YOUR EMOTIONAL STATE
Block 2 of emotional intelligence for leaders: how to control and influence your own emotional state - what consequences your state has on your leadership skills, how to avoid a negative impact on your team and how to ensure a positive one. This block also contains a couple of hacks and a template.
READING THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF OTHERS
Block 3 of emotional intelligence for leaders: why read someone's emotional state and how to do it. Emotional intelligence and leadership need to be connected to teamwork to improve performance, and knowing how to relate to your team will help you develop that. This is not a full course in body language, it only offers some basic points and some references.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS IN PRACTICE
Block 4 of emotional intelligence for leaders: an actionable take on how to improve motivation, trust, performance in your team by becoming an emotionally intelligent leader, both in your day to day and on specific contexts like solving a conflict.
This chapter includes a structure and actions to rely on for each point which, combined with the rest of the content, will enable you to see practical effects in a short time.
CONCLUSION
A brief take on emotional intelligence and leadership, and the job to be done.
