The self-assessment was a great tool to gage my Emotional Intelligence. I personally feel,
based off that assessment, I would have the emotional intelligence to be a good leader. I
was able to score an 8 or higher in the self-awareness, self-management, social awareness
( or empathy), and relationship management ( or social skills). I was not surprised on the
putting myself in other shoes or the social skills. In my personal life, I tend to always
think of the other person and how they may be feeling. Also, I try very hard to not just
come out and argue when someone or something upsets or offends me. I usually let things
go pretty quickly or do not even notice them sometimes.
From the Big Five OCEAN, I feel that all of them are equally important and able to assist
in being a more inclusive leader. The one I guess I would lean more towards focusing on
first would be personality traits. This would make it easier to relate with and empathize
with when I understand the recurring regularities or trends in a person's behavior in
relation to their personality. Understand how the operate, basically.
From all the ineffective leaders I have had in the past, which is only like 2. Both of them
demonstrated the inability to show empathy for their team and even show active listening.
I would even go as far as saying they both showed the lack of concern to even attempt
to empathize with their employees. This was major.
Skills associated with being an inclusive leader are and should be portable. They should
be able to adapt and grow and be carried out to teams in their own way to reach the team
as a unit and the team members individually. I have the emotional intelligence to be a
successful leader. I am certainly in tune with my own emotions and the why and how of
what I am feeling at any given moment. I am also in tune with how others feel, often
absorbing their energy and mirroring their feelings. I practice minimizing my interactions
with those who are known to have a negative disposition about themselves, an
organization, or other people. I like to draw those conclusions from my own experiences.
I am certainly of openness to experience! I have a broad mind, and often think of the big
picture first. I like to work backwards to determine the strategy. I enjoy meeting people
from new and interesting places and learning of their backgrounds and how they are used
to doing things. Just understanding the basic nature of how someone else is different than
you can help you utilize those differences to the advantage of the organization.
The most ineffective leaders I have been associated with were not conscientious. Most
were unorganized in what they wanted or what the goal was and/or how to reach the goal.
They could not effectively communicate or plan. Some took their position too seriously.
Leaders can port their skills into any setting and succeed. The savvy nature of effective
leadership will allow that person to reconfigure the skills to fit the situation. Based on my
assessment results, I do believe I have the necessary emotional intelligence to lead and
have actually held both a lead and management position in the past. Now, it was not easy
adjusting to a leadership position especially since working for a corporate company
involved a lot of molding of my character, ideas, and even beliefs all for the benefit of
the institution. Now, what helped through the process of leading a big group of
subordinates was my character/trait of being an extravert.Being able to connect with
people is not easy and communication above all is important, but getting the respect and
attention requires a little bit of being creative on how you treat everyone. As easy as it
may seem, working with multiple personalities is far from easy. You have to be prepared
to talk to all types of characters. Being able to lead is also a matter of knowing how and
when to listen vs command. Knowing how to hold accountability on your employees
while doing the same for yourself is also crucial do developing trust.
I believe I have the emotional intelligence to be a successful leader and the survey
confirmed my feelings. I rated high in social awareness, I have empathy towards others,
and I feel like I can catch on to what others are feeling and thinking. I am a good listener
when people need someone to talk to, sometimes all people need or want are to be heard
and acknowledged. I can also give them advice and guide them by putting myself in their
shoes.
The Big Five OCEAN personality trait I feel will assist me the most and that I also feel
strongly about is conscientiousness. I like to plan, stay organized and take my
responsibilities seriously. When it comes to work or school, I feel the most comfortable
when I am able to plan my day and week ahead however I also have an open mind that
unplanned incidents happen but because I stay organized and on task, I allow myself extra
time for the unknown.
An ineffective leader that comes to mind was high in neuroticism. Unfortunately, as a
manager, she was thin-skinned and did not take criticism well. As a matter of fact, when
our superiors would come down on her for her behavior she became very moody and
somewhat unprofessional with her staff. We, her subordinates paid the price for her stress.
Skills associated with being an inclusive leader are portable. An inclusive leader will learn
how to work with others and learn from each other's ideas and backgrounds and that can
assist a leader wherever they may go. From the results of the self-assessment I believe I
have the emotional intelligence to be a successful leader. I try to always find ways to be
empathetic with others and focus on ways I can understand or relate to the situation. This
allows me to have a better communication style in order to train properly. I've been told
because I try to understand and communicate well with others, my team sees me as a
manager they can come to if they have any questions or concerns.Having emotional
intelligence components definitely assist with being an inclusive leader because it provides
self-awareness as well as social awareness. I believe many departments have high
turnover for the reason they dislike their manager. I've been in that situation where I
couldn't go to my manager for anything for fear that I be reprimanded like a child or told
I was wrong without taking the time to explain the reasoning. Both of my children play
in sports and one thing I've noticed if the coach that gets listened to or that make an
impact are the coaches that use effective communication. If you're just yelling at the
players and telling them how horrible they are playing, how is that being an effective
leader? It comes down to understanding your surroundings, analyzing the situation, and
communicating the information in relatable way to everyone. These skills are thus
portable skills which will constantly be in use in a leadership role. I have the emotional
intelligence to be a leader . I have a heart to teach, to delegate, and to help others. There
are many great components that make up a great leader such as being truthful, being firm,
being a great teacher, and thoroughly communicating. I feel communication is key with
everything in life. If both parties understand the task at hand and how to execute an error
wont be an issue in the end. When you have an agreeable personality trait you're able to
put others before yourself. This is a great trait to have as an inclusive leader when it
comes down to decision making . It will help you to see which choice is the smartest ,
and which choice can cause failure. No one is perfect which means your answer may not
always be the right answer, or the right step to take.Being an analytical thinker is also a
great trait to being an inclusive leader. An analytical thinker is a person driven by
curiosity to get to the bottom of things and solve a problem or find an answer. An
analytical thinker wouldn't chose the quickest and most easiest route to take for a quick
answer, but instead the route which would give them an more efficient answer by
researching multiple possibilities. When I think of the past leaders I worked under most
of them were great leaders , while some of them were ineffective leaders. A common
personality trait the ineffective leader possessed was lack of Self Awareness, and their
lack of this caused them to not realize when it was time to exercise humility. Skills are
portable for an inclusive leader. When you're able to do something well you'll most likely
have to use that set of skills again. I believe I have the EI to be a good leader because I
do well with Empathy. I take the time to put myself in the other parties shoes. There are
a lot of external factors that can influence employee performance negatively. Taking the
time to listen and help iron out issues can get the employee back on track quickly. If not
the problem can fester and bring the whole team down. I try to instill this in the leaders
I have working for me, because things are rarely black and white. A lot of conflict can
be resolved by being empathetic.
Openness to new experiences and agreeableness have helped me to be a better leader. I
am always ready to hear new ways of doing things, and I try to foster a work
environment built on mutual respect and teamwork. Everyone has a part to play, and as
long as we are all doing our part the job gets done.
Lack of emotional intelligence would be a common factor for a lot of my previous
leaders. A lot of them were toxic, and would yell, or use threats to get the people under
them to do what they want. Rarely did they go beyond the surface information to find
out the why of things, and they just took everything at face value.
I think inclusive leadership would be useful in any industry. It was in the military while
I was in, and now that I am in the agriculture industry, it is just as important as ever.
My performance evaluations rate how much of an inclusive leader I am, and it is part of
succession discussions at my company. After completing the self-assessment on Emotional
Intelligence, I scored the following:
1. You are high in self-awareness— “The ability to read and understand your own
emotions and moods.”
2. You are high in self-management— “The ability to control your emotions, and to
behave reliably.”
3. You are high in empathy— “The ability to read other people’s emotions and to
understand their perspective.”
4. You are high in social skills— “The ability to develop meaningful interpersonal
relationships and to communicate clearly with others.”
From my results, I do believe that I have what it takes to be a successful leader. Based
on my EI results, I would be able to control my emotions, but also take care of others
and lead by example. Leaders must have positive social skills, be sensitive to others’
feelings, but also be able to lead a staff and get deadlines finished.To be an inclusive
leader, I feel that the most important personality traits/components are conscientiousness
and openness. Leaders should be aware that everyone should feel welcome and accepting
to others. Being inclusive in the workplace allows all different cultures and diversities to
work together. Looking back at ineffective leaders that I have had in the past; they did
share a few common attributes. Some of the personality traits that they had were
insensitivity, a lack of self-awareness, and were not empathetic. These traits were
detrimental in being a successful leader and were unable to motivate our team members.I
believe that skills associated with being not only a great leader, but an inclusive leader
are portable skills. Any successful leader should be able to achieve new skills and take
them with them wherever they go.
Overall, the topic of emotional intelligence is extremely interesting and I think it would
behove employers to have all management complete EI testing. I do agree that if
Managers took the time to listen to employees, it would allow them to get back on track
(pending that they did need to have corrections made to their work). By communicating
effectively with one another, we can allow ourselves to grow as leaders but also set the
example for our team members. Being open is a great example of how to become a better
leader! If we engage and open ourselves to new opportunities or learning methods, we
can grow into the leader we strive to be.The most effective leaders certainly have
empathy. It seems that leaders are constantly playing a game that attempts to avoid being
naturally empathetic and on the other hand overly so, or showing no empathy at all.
Communication and honesty also play a part in the relationship between leaders and
followers and the amount of empathy given.I agree with you that you need to be an
analytical thinker to be a leader. As a leader you are always positioned with new issues
or problems that must be solved. You need to use your analytical skills to work through
them and find, as you mentioned, the possibilities for a solution. I think that is actually
one of the most difficult traits to learn.I believe consistency is an essential trait to possess
as a leader. When you're on task and able to keep up with your schedule in a repetitive
manner it shows that you're honest and dependable. As a leader being honest is what
helps float the ship your team has to believe you'll tell them the truth no matter what.
Your team also has to believe that you'll always be there for them and what's best for the
business.I found myself thinking that each of the traits/characteristics noted would be
great to have whether someone had goals of being a leader or not. Perhaps, the only
difference could be that a true leader possesses each of those traits at a very high
level.Now, to me, consistency might just be the trickiest of all traits. If one is leading a
rather large group, then different messages would need to be conveyed to each sub group
in different ways. So, if consistency to one person means to use the same style over and
over with a group that is not receptive to that style, then it can be assumed the some of
the sub groups will lose trust. Like trying to feed meat to a vegetarian over again. The
leader could break down the needs and wants of the group as a whole, then somehow
drill down to determine which subsets are present. If the leader can consistently convey a
blanket message to the group while addressing the needs and wants of each subset, then
success would be achieved. The benefits of knowing your emotional intelligence results
are multifaceted. They could include the ability to:
understand co-workers, empathize with them, and know how to best interact with them
know how to adjust to meet deadlines take criticism well and improve based on feedback
be open to making adjustments and improving the overall workplace.I believe that good
leadership needs a balanced approach using the qualities of the Big Five Ocean and
Emotional Intelligence. With every situation being different, a leader needs to determine
what works best in a particular scenario to achieve positive results. Thinking about it
further, having empathy helps us understand what people are going through and convey
our needs in a way that will be constructive. Having a balanced emotional intelligence
will help leaders accurately assess the situation and person or group that he or she is
leading and give them the tools to actively stay in tune with their team needs going
forward. As you mentioned above, even the attempt of empathizing with employees and
recognizing their feelings is major and can help make a working environment much more
effective.
