How Emotional Intelligence Creates Effective Leaders

Research indicates that Emotional Intelligence (E.I.) – how we handle ourselves and our relationships – can determine success more than I.Q. In fact, E.I. may determine as much as 80% of a person's life success. Cognitive ability or what we call I.Q. is only about 20%. Quality leadership training is a combination of E.I. and cognitive ability.

More specifically, Daniel Goleman (along with two E.I. researchers: Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee) explains the role of E.I. in leadership in Primal Leadership, Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (2002). They found the most effective leadership and management styles work through emotions which evolve from the limbic system in the brain.

The limbic system is responsible for sending information to the prefrontal lobes for analysis and decisions. This system is an open-loop design which means other people can and do change our physiology by altering our hormone levels, cardiovascular function, sleep rhythms and immune function. A leader's primary task is to drive emotions in a direction which has positive impact on motivation, strategy and productivity.

Since emotions are at the heart of effective leadership, the key to being an effective leader lies in learning to handle yourself and your relationships in a positive manner. Emotional Intelligence competencies include:

• Self-awareness


• Self-management


• Social awareness – empathy


• Relationship management

Important new research clearly indicates that we rely on connections with others for our emotional stability and motivation. Who is the most likely person employees will be watching? The leader of a group has the strongest impact because people take emotional cues from the top which ripple throughout the organization's emotional climate. In addition, it is not just what another does but how it is done that registers in our limbic system.

Our emotions automatically shift to match the person we are with, even if the contact is nonverbal. This is called "entrainment" and can take place in a couple of minutes in some situations. The more cohesive the group, the more likely moods will be shared – positive or negative.

A Yale study on moods found that moods influence how effectively people work. A primary factor in how well an organization functions depends on how the leaders manage their moods. We know upbeat moods increase cooperation, fairness and business performance. Cooperative and harmonious groups reflect a higher expression of every person's best effort and ability.

Furthermore, how people feel about working at an organization (the climate) can influence productivity. Low morale and lack of cooperation predict high turnover and lower productivity. In addition, distress and worry decrease mental abilities and E.I. This makes it difficult to read the emotions of other people accurately – a skill necessary for empathy.

In addition, research indicates that the emotional state and actions of leaders set the climate. They create the conditions that determine the employees' ability to work well. In general, leaders need to be more supportive and empathetic as work becomes more emotionally demanding. When leaders are negative and unmotivated, there is anxiety and dissonance which undermines morale. When leaders are out of touch with the feelings of employees, they create dissonance. This causes people to feel off-balance, be easily distracted, and perform poorly.

In contrast, emotionally intelligent leaders create resonance or harmony. Resonant leaders rally people around a worthy goal. They are self-aware, in touch with the truth about themselves and their feelings. They use self-management to express emotions appropriately and are able to empathize with others. Without empathy, resonant leadership is impossible. When leaders are energetic and enthusiastic, an organization thrives.

The most effective leadership and management style will use a combination of Emotional Intelligence and cognitive ability. While cognitive ability tends to be set, E.I. is learned through practice, feedback and repetition over time. Although learning to improve Emotional Intelligence is self-directed, it cannot be done in isolation.

Coaching is an ideal way to provide a safe context for change to occur and to better prepare people to be resonant leaders. Some leaders find it difficult to get honest feedback as they are promoted into management positions because employees instinctively want to please their boss and are hesitant to give negative feedback. This can decrease self-awareness and effective leadership development. The coaching process provides essential feedback for continued awareness and skill building.

In summary, to effectively lead and manage relationships, leaders must continue to:

• be self-aware


• manage themselves appropriately


• have empathy with their employees

Leaders need a safe space for learning and feedback which is focused on emotional and intellectual learning. Change occurs through a process which affects individuals, teams and the organization's culture. Coaching supports and enriches the process.

Copyright (c) 2007 Maurine Patten

Top 3 Network Marketing Leadership Principles

To be a leader in network marketing means absolutely everything. Look around the industry…Leaders make all the money. Leaders are the people who other people willingly follow and in this industry…leadership is gold.

So what is leadership? It can be summed up as much can be in these 3 short points.

1. When other people inherently recognize your value. When you truly can teach others, give to others, and improve the lives of others…people will recognize it. That is what people are attracted to.

2. Knowing your own self worth. This principle can sometimes fly under the radar but look at ALL leaders. They all carry themselves in a very particular way. They all KNOW that they have worth to offer other people. It's only when you know your own self worth that anyone else is going to know how valuable you are as well.

3. Constant self improvement. A leader is someone who never stops working on themselves. A leader never stops developing themselves more, adding to their value, and giving back to the people who look up to them.

The essence of leadership then is the art of working on yourself to the point where your self is fully developed and mature. Obviously growth will never end, but there are certain pinnacles of understanding. And when you reach those pinnacles of understanding, it's at that point that you can share your knowledge with all those around you.

So never stop growing and you will never stop leading.

Top 3 Reasons Why Successful People Don't Work Alone

You may be only one 'mindset' away from becoming the next Bill Gates?

And you can truly be one if you understand the universal law behind mindset. While there are many 'theories' behind success, a practical way to achieve success quickly is to model the mindset of an achiever. There is nothing simpler than this?

The definition of mindset is 'A habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations.

From my observations of many self-made millionaires, there is a distinct similarity among all of them, which is they do not work alone.

Successful self-made millionaires are team players. They do not work alone. But most people have the false perception that these successful people are 'Hercules' who work 24/7! That's totally silly!

Successful people are powerful in applying the art of leverage. Archimedes once said "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world." While we are not trying to move the earth here, this concept applies well into business. Leveraging on strengths, diverse opinions, creative tension, division of labor, emotional support, individual watchdog are the powerful factors you need to leverage in business.

Human beings are lazy! We all fall into the habit of procrastination and so does successful people. But do they let procrastination start them from stepping onto the fast track to success? Definitely not! While discipline is possible to keep procrastination at the bay, successful people does a two-prong attack. Discipline and accountability through teams. A public commitment to your team keeps you accountable for your words and actions.

Creativity and innovation. Teams are capable of bring an arsenal of thinking hats to your life and business. Brainstorming sessions lead to new ideas and breakthroughs. Your next windfall may lies in the next team meeting you have. If you have been working alone all the time, its time you step out of your comfort zone! Teams are a powerful concept. From observations, successful people engage in Mastermind group meetings. Henry Ford, Napoleon Hill, Thomas Edison are great Masterminders and they have accumulated great fortune through their Mastermind groups.

While teams were once shot down for having known as a herd mentality, that is far from the truth. Teams are not herds. Teams are great levers in business success. So stop working alone and get creative and playful with a team. Life will never be the same since you are going to see my profits. This is the mindset I want you to bring away with.

The Art of Happiness- Be Happy Now

Would you like to be 100% happier than you are now? How about 1,000% happier? What stands between you and having greater happiness now? Read on to see how you can discover the happiness you're looking for in your life. It's just one step away.

Have you ever noticed how often people rely on others in their pursuit of happiness? How they expect someone else to make them happy? You might hear people say things like: "If only he would be nicer." "Didn't she know that would hurt my feelings?" "I would be happy if he would only talk to me more."

When people have this idea in their head they can spend a lot of time figuring out how to fix or change other people.

What's the trouble if you try this strategy? Not only do the other people feel irritated, they often get defensive at your attempt to "FIX" them. And it leaves you powerless. If THEY don't change, YOU can't be happy.

But even more important is that, since what you focus your attention on grows, focusing on what you don't like will cause it to become what you notice most in your life.

Say, for example, when your significant other comes home they often leave a trail with their clothes, bags, books, whatever, strewn throughout the house. It drives you nuts! Every time you look at the residue of stuff they leave behind them, you feel irritated.

This has gone on for so long that now you notice every little piece of debris, everywhere you look, all the time.

And what you focus your attention on grows.

Perhaps you say something like this to them: "Can't you pick up after yourself? You are such a slob."

It's probably not the first time you've talked about the clothes on the floor. And probably not much has changed since that first time. So what happens next?

The person leaving the clothes around probably gets annoyed at being told what to do. You lose hope that things will ever change. And you focus more and more on what you don't enjoy about your partner.

Remember, what you focus your attention on grows!

So here it is, the step that will move you closer to being happier than ever before: Develop YOUR ability to focus your attention on what you ENJOY.

Maybe this sounds too simple. But ask yourself: "What would my day be like if I started and ended it by simply noticing or remembering everything that I enjoy in my life?"

Remember, what you focus your attention on grows. Focus on what you enjoy - it's quite simply the fastest, easiest step you can take to start finding happiness in every moment.

Try this. Pretend that you have an emotional bank account. Every one of your thoughts makes a deposit. This means that if you're constantly depositing painful memories in your emotional bank account, they will grow and grow.

They'll even start multiplying if you're using the law of compound interest. What's this? It's compounding the effect of thoughts like: "What a slob!" with more thoughts like: "She doesn't care about me." or "He's the most selfish person I've ever met."

Now, do you feel happy?

Now imagine that each day, you look for things that you enjoy, and you are thankful for them.

Your significant other comes into the house and smiles. Is that something to be thankful for? They ask you if you would like a cup of tea. Is that something to be thankful for? You see them put something away, without being asked. Is that something to be thankful for?

Now imagine depositing these memories in your emotional bank account, day after day. And compound them with as many other thankful, grateful thoughts as you can so they grow and grow. "It's lovely when he brings me tea; he's so considerate sometimes." "I'm so glad we like doing things together." "We just have so much in common; she is so much fun to be with"

How do you feel now?

Happy or sad, good or bad, pleasure or pain - authentic happiness is up to you. Focus on what you enjoy. Enjoy being thankful. It's something anyone can do, even you.

What you focus your attention on will grow. You do have an emotional bank account so start saving your happiness up today. With a bank-full of thankful, you'll be a master at the art of "having happiness now."

Disciplined Leadership

You want to manage a disciplined team, focused on achieving results, beating the competition and demonstrating continuous improvement. You want to generate enthusiasm while making measured progress toward common goals. You want the entire team to succeed, to work together and be the best that they can be. You may be wondering how to begin.

It starts with you.

Define the Goals

Define your personal measurable objectives. Your goals must be tangible, measurable and substantive. It is not enough to define a goal as completing a task. You need to define a target date and a method of measuring the completion.

For example, a poor goal would be a personal challenge to lose weight. However, a good goal would be to define the amount of weight to lose and a reasonable target date to achieve the desired weight.

The same concept may apply for personal business goals. You may have financial targets like a budget. You may have a schedule to complete a project, research or analysis. You may need to achieve a specific quota or ranking. Whether your goals relate to your work or your personal life, you need to define them.

Write down your goals and place the list somewhere that you will see it every day.

Develop a Strategy

Your strategy consists of specific steps and milestones. The milestones are periodic measurements to determine that you are on the path to achieve your goal.

For example, if your goal is to achieve a revenue quota, map out specific opportunities that may contribute to the attainment of that goal and then make a plan for each one. If the goal is to complete a project, define the steps necessary to complete the project with associated measurements and milestones.

Check in on your strategy and compare your progress at predefined intervals. Allow some flexibility in between those scheduled intervals, but challenge yourself to remain on schedule as each milestone date arrives.

List the Benefits

Identify the benefits of achieving your goals.

For example, if the personal goal is to lose weight, the benefits may include a new wardrobe, more energy or even better health benefits. If your goal is to achieve a desired budget, identify the residual positive impact.

The benefits of achieving your goal should not by limited to attaining the goal alone. On the contrary, there are typically many benefits realized during the course of completing each step of your strategy. The benefits may include physical, financial, psychological or many other types of motivational rewards.

Organize

Organize your plan, your materials, your thoughts and your environment. This not only applies to the items that contribute to achieving your goals, but it also applies to the numerous items that may distract you from your goals.

For example, clear the clutter from your desk and clear the distractions from your sight. If there are documents that have been sitting for several weeks or months, chances are that the documents are not high enough priority to get done, but not low enough priority that you can stop thinking about them. Create a place to store the low priority items until you are ready to resolve them. In the meantime, remove the low priority distractions so you can focus on the high priority goals.

Exercise Daily Discipline

Challenge yourself to exercise daily discipline. You have purpose. The goals that you have defined are important. The way to achieve your goals is by structured and consistent effort and attention to detail.

Challenge your excuses. You may not feel interested in doing the necessary task or strategic objective that it takes every single day. When this happens, reflect on your passion for your established goal and do what it takes to keep the momentum.

Focus on Results

Keep your focus on the final goal as you work through your strategy and maintain your daily diligence. As you head toward your goal, it should be like a beacon or lighthouse that leads your effort. Align your activity with the desired ultimate results.

As you attain each milestone in your strategy, focus on the outcome and benefits of your progress. When you have achieved your goal, focus your reflection on the results of your accomplishments.

Reward Yourself

Enjoy some small rewards for accomplishing strategic tasks in accordance with your milestones. If you miss your measurement or milestone, withhold your reward in anticipation of the next milestone or attainment of your goal.

When you do achieve your goal, keep your promise to yourself and savor the reward. Give yourself a small gift of recognition that you can keep as a constant reminder of your accomplishment. Sometimes you will need this as motivation when you define your next personal goals, or as inspiration to maintain daily diligence.

Lead by Example

Practice this discipline in your own activities. As you develop a structure and routine for attaining personal goals with daily diligence, you will be able to share these benefits with your team. You will be able to teach and encourage them to achieve results as you have done. You will be able to help them align personal strategies with focused goals. Eventually you will be able to share the mutual rewards of achieving personal and professional goals.

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Words of Wisdom

"The first and best victory is to conquer self."
- Plato

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself."
- Rabbi Abraham Heschel

"The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready."
- Henry David Thoreau

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