The earliest test of Leadership comes with that first assignment to manage others. Most new managers initially fail this test because of a set of common misconceptions about what it means to be in charge.
What is a Leader. A leader is a person who guides or inspires others within an organization or community to achieve a goal. Leadership development begins with the simple realization that you want to be a leader. Life has many opportunities to press forward and take charge of a situation, or to be a follower and sink into the background.
What does leadership mean to you, and how do you measure leadership? One approach is through management and leadership competencies. We define competencies as measurable skills, knowledge, and abilities that identify successful managers.
Leadership cannot be taught, as any other talent that we get from the beginning of our life. Still, leadership could be further developed and transformed into something more controllable and consistent.
What is required from a successful leader? I strongly believe that to become a successful leader it is important to understand your advantages and disadvantages and use this knowledge to motivate and lead people. One of the most complicated tasks of the leader is to obtain management skills that would potentially add discipline and structure in the leading process and communication between the leader and his followers.
Based on my personal observation and analysis, a successful leader, apart from direct leading skills, has to have several major characteristics, such as flexibility, ability to listen, and ability to receive and provide proper feedback.
Emotional Intelligenceplays a big role in being successful and in pursuing your purpose. For those who ask, emotional intelligence has been defined so many different ways. But in this instance it's the ability to be sufficiently optimistic, positive and self-motivated in order to set and achieve goals. Basically it is the ability to work well with people and it influences our assessment of people to overcome and handle conflict and life situations.
Emotional Intelligence is broken down in 4 key components, self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management. Let’s see if we can teach emotional intelligence to you:
Self-Awareness
The most critical EQ competency area is self-awareness; it is the foundation for succeeding in all of the other competencies. Heighten your self-awareness by exploring how your brain functionality impacts behavior when you are triggered and experience an emotional hijacking. This helps you be more aware of your behavior.
Self Management
Once you are self-aware, you need to learn techniques to manage your emotional impulses, including pre-emptive and responsive techniques. You can then link your impulse control to better decision making, goal achievement, conflict management and relationship management.
Social Intelligence and Relationship Management
Since emotions ultimately drive performance, reading and influencing others’ emotions are essential leadership skills. Observation is the best practices to better identify what emotional barriers others are experiencing to improve conflict management, employee engagement, and retention.
People follow leaders they trust and respect. Understanding the specific EQ competencies of optimism and empathy, directly correlating optimism to increased respect, adaptability and productivity for you and your team, and connecting empathy to enhanced trust, effective communication, empowering feedback, productive conflict and the ability to influence and gain commitment.
In conclusion, your ability to coach others largely impacts your leadership success. To effectively coach requires the ability to be self and socially aware, and to self and socially manage.
Most business leaders ask themselves weather their leadership style fits the need of their business, but fewer managers ask whether their own style also fits their own beliefs and personality.” Does my leadership style reflect who I truly am?” A business career is a marathon, not a sprint, and if you aren’t true to yourself, eventually you’re going to wear down. The process of becoming a leader is a journey of continues learning and self development and emotional intelligence is the key factor.
Debra Allen
REALTOR / Mentor Trusted Advisor
SEVRAR Realtor of the Year 2010 & YPN Top 40 under 40 - 2013
Real Estate Special Commissioner appointed by the court
CIPS- Certified International Property Specialist
Global Business & Alliance Counsil Chair 2014/2015
Director of International Business Development
CIPS, ABR, GRI, e-PRO, AHWD, TRC, ASP, REOS, SFR, GREEN,CRMS