Most of you will have heard of, and have a pretty good understanding of, Emotional Intelligence as a concept. Understanding its true importance in today’s world and how to apply it skilfully may be less well-established.
In very broad terms, Emotional Intelligence is the ‘knowing’ and the ‘sensing’; attributes that alone are enormously beneficial to leaders. If Emotional Intelligence is the 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 (knowing), then Compassion does a great deal of the heavy lifting for the 𝗛𝗢𝗪 (doing).
Over the next few days, I am going to be running a series of articles on here that focus on Compassion. The upsides, the downsides and the practical use of compassion in addressing business issues. Spoiler alert: it is a balance – perhaps more so that many of you may have assumed. Not only that, but the balances are several and multi-dimensional. But then, life would be boring if it was easy…
I try to meet with, virtually or in person, lots of my business and coaching contacts, and I find this an effective way of keeping up to date with the latest relevant issues. It also helps to ‘ground’ me and encourage me to check in with my own work and approach. Along the way I have lots of discussions about leadership which inevitably entails wildly differing views and opinions.
Out of the proliferation of remote work during and after COVID, a new challenge for organisations has emerged: many important skills are not easily, or cannot be, nurtured through screens. In the traditional office environment, the subtle yet powerful process of learning osmotically plays a critical role. Leaders model behaviours, and employees, often subconsciously, absorb crucial skills such as adaptability, emotional intelligence, and intuitive decision-making. Even resilience can be enhanced through witnessing other people’s coping mechanisms.
Reflecting on what I feel makes a leader truly great, I realise that leadership is generally misunderstood. It should not be about rank or authority;