What is Emotional Intelligence and how does it relate to executive coaching?
Emotional intelligence (EI) is also known as emotional quotient (EQ), emotional leadership (EL), and emotional intelligence quotient (EIQ).
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize your emotions, understand what they’re telling you, and to realize how they affect people around you. It also involves your perception of others. When you understand how they feel, it allows you to manage relationships more effectively.
It is divided into the four clusters of Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management, defined as follows:
Self-Awareness
The core of Emotional Intelligence is self-awareness. Self-awareness is comprised of three competencies.
– Emotional self-awareness, where you are able to read and understand your emotions as well as recognize their impact on work performance and relationships.
– Accurate self-assessment, where you are able to give a realistic evaluation of your strengths and limitations.
– Self-confidence, where you have a positive and strong sense of your self-worth.
The starting point and key in these areas is the ability to be critically self-reflective.
Self-Management
Self-management is comprised of five competencies:
– Self-control, which is keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control.
– Transparency, which is maintaining standards of honesty and integrity, managing yourself and responsibilities.
– Adaptability, which is the flexibility in adapting to changing situations and overcoming obstacles.
– Achievement orientation, which is the guiding drive to meet an internal standard of excellence.
– Initiative, which is the readiness to seize opportunities and act.
Social Awareness
Social awareness is comprised of three competencies.
– Empathy, which is understanding others and taking an active interest in their concerns.
– Organizational awareness, which is the ability to read the currents of organizational life, build decision networks and navigate politics.
– Service orientation, which is recognizing and meeting customers needs.
Relationship Management
Relationship Management is comprised of seven competencies:
– Visionary leadership, which is inspiring and guiding groups and individuals.
– Developing others, which is the propensity to strengthen and support the abilities of others through feedback and guidance.
– Influence, which is the ability to exercise a wide range of persuasive strategies with integrity, and also includes listening and sending clear, convincing and well-tuned messages.
– Change catalyst, which is the proficiency in initiating new ideas and leading people in a new direction.
– Conflict management, which is resolving disagreements and collaboratively developing resolutions.
– Building bonds, which is building and maintaining relationships with others.
– Teamwork and collaboration, which is the promotion of cooperation and building of teams.
The first of these clusters – self-awareness – can facilitate the use of emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour, and to manage or adjust emotions in order to adapt to environments and/or achieve goals.
In other words, your own self-awareness serves as an aid to understanding other people’s emotions. Furthermore, you respond with empathy to their needs. This is why Emotional Intelligence is so crucial to leadership positions.
So how do self-awareness and Emotional Intelligence apply in an executive coaching context? A good coach will work with you step-by-step, bringing you to a greater self-awareness, enhanced self-management, and an increased depth of empathy. Your coach will help you acquire the basic skills associated with Emotional Intelligence.
Get in touch to discuss your leadership challenges and objectives and how an executive coaching programme might help improve your EI.