In: Economics
Self-awareness is at the heart of it all. It describes your ability not only to understand your strengths and weaknesses but also to recognize your emotions and their effects on the performance of you and your team. To deliver the best in others, you must first bring out the best in yourself, which is where self-awareness comes into play. One simple way to test your self-awareness is to complete 360-degree reviews, in which you measure your results and then balance it against your boss 's views, colleagues, and direct reports. Through this process, you will gain insights into your own behavior and discover how the organization perceives you.
Self-management refers to the ability to manage your emotions and maintain a positive outlook despite setbacks, especially in stressful situations. Leaders who lack self-management tend to react and have more difficult time keeping their impulses under control. A reaction is tendentially automatic. However the more you are in tune with your emotional intelligence, the easier you can make the transition from reaction to reaction. It's important to remember to pause, breathe, collect yourself and do whatever it takes to manage your emotions whether it's taking a walk or calling a friend so you can respond to stress and adversity more appropriately and intentionally.
While understanding and managing your own emotions is important, you need to know how to read a room, too. Social awareness describes your ability to recognize the emotions of others and the dynamics in your organisation's play. Leaders who excell in empathy practice social awareness. They strive to understand the feelings and perspectives of their colleagues which enables them to communicate and collaborate with their peers more effectively.
Leaders set organisation's tone. If they lack emotional intelligence, the consequences could be more far-reaching, resulting in lower employee engagement and a higher turnover rate. While you might technically excel at your job, if you are unable to communicate effectively with your team or collaborate with others, you will overlook those technical skills. You can continue to advance your career and organisation, by mastering emotional intelligence.