Like with many aspects of business, recent challenges have led to a reevaluation of what constitutes good leadership. A new style of leadership is emerging that prioritizes empathy, open communication and psychological safety. Psychological safety is the belief that you will not be penalized or criticized for sharing ideas, voicing concerns or making mistakes. Establishing a feeling of psychological safety is a crucial step in creating a positive corporate culture.
Using Emotional Intelligence to Drive Psychological Safety
It is important to recognize that psychological safety does not emerge organically but must be carefully cultivated by leaders across an entire organization. To accomplish this, leaders must learn and embody the principles of emotional intelligence (EI). EI is a set of emotional and social skills that help individuals manage their emotions and understand the emotions of others around them. By leveraging emotional intelligence, leaders are better able to manage adversity, cope with challenges, resolve conflict, communicate with team members and drive transformation across their team, division, or the organization as a whole. To use EI effectively, there are three key elements that leaders must consider:
The Key Components of Emotional Intelligence
1. Self-Awareness
The critical core of EI is understanding oneself. To cultivate self-awareness, leaders must be willing to process and reflect on their own emotions, both positive and negative. This requires a genuine buy-in from the leader, who must confront their own triggers and how those triggers influence their behavior, particularly regarding other people. It’s also important to remember that self-awareness is not achieved overnight but is acquired gradually through continuous self-reflection.
Peer feedback is a useful tactic leaders can use to gain an objective view of themselves and their behaviors. No one, no matter how enlightened, can assess themselves with perfect honesty. That’s why it is important to seek out the opinions of others. When asking for feedback, be sure to select people who are comfortable providing you with an honest answer. Flattery may feel nice, but it will not provide you with the answers necessary to enable real change.
2. Self-Management
The second component of EI is self-management. While self-awareness helps leaders recognize their thoughts and feelings, self-management builds upon that awareness to help control and express those feelings appropriately. People are complex creatures. From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, our limbic system is constantly scanning our surroundings, feeding us sensations and impulses that influence the way we react to others. EI enables leaders to cut through this emotional chaos by managing stresses, mitigating anger and channeling negativity into positive communication.
Self-reflection practices such as journaling, mindfulness and meditation can help manage negative emotions. Likewise, reframing one’s thoughts is a powerful skill that can empower emotional self-management. When doing these things effectively, leaders can curtail negativity with clearly defined boundaries and strategies that drive productive solutions rather than emotional outbursts.
3. Social Awareness
Once a leader has honed their self-awareness and mastered self-management, they can move on to the third pillar of EI, social awareness. In this phase, leaders shift the focus from their own feelings to the emotions of others. Social awareness helps leaders manage relationships better, so they can lead with a higher sense of purpose. Being empathetic and practicing empathetic listening improves communication, strengthens relationships, spurs innovation and helps with conflict resolution.
Remember that fostering a sense of social awareness begins at the top. If a leader is open about the stresses in their own life, their subordinates will be more likely to follow that behavior. Create an open-door policy that encourages employees to share their own stresses, crises and successes. Provide regular check-ins to gauge how employees are doing. Organizations often lose personnel due to problems their managers were never made aware of. Having a conversation can go a long way toward retaining a qualified employee by eliminating these everyday stressors.
Leveraging Empathy to Build Better Leaders
The concept of quality leadership is changing. To succeed in this new paradigm, leaders must embody a holistic approach that prioritizes both organizational success and the well-being of their people through psychological safety. As leaders master their internal emotional landscape, they unlock the ability to extend their reach into the emotional landscapes of others, nurturing relationships, fostering innovation and leading with a higher sense of purpose. By embracing EI, leaders are not just leading; they are creating a supportive environment that enables everyone to be their best selves. In today’s business landscape, it is emotional intelligence that distinguishes between a truly exceptional leader and one who merely meets expectations.
