Boss Day: What makes a good leader

Everyone, in some form or another, has a boss. Keeping a business on track with exceptional people necessitates a delicate balance. Bosses are the best leaders because they know how to put their best representatives forward and lead with the confidence that will help them flourish.

Leadership begins and ends with inner strength, which necessitates a deep understanding of ourselves while continuing to learn, grow, and evolve. Strong leaders are flexible to their circumstances, transparent, exude positive energy, and practise emotional self-control, in addition to increasing self-awareness.

Effective leaders are compassionate, service-oriented, and organisationally aware of their environment, with an excellent ability to read people and indications. Finally, they are relationship builders, motivators, effective influencers, coaches, people developers, team collaborators, and conflict and change managers. Emotional intelligence encompasses all of these aspects.

Emotional intelligence is widely acknowledged as a desirable talent that can aid improve professional communication, management, problem-solving, and relationships. According to experts and counsellors, it is a skill that may be improved with instruction and practise and is not usually inherited or born with.

It necessitates adequate communication between our brain's intellectual and emotive areas; it is the link between feeling and reason. The brain science behind Emotional Quotient (EQ) is both strong and fascinating. According to research, for good leaders, EQ is a necessary skill. EQ is the most important factor in predicting professional and personal success. Organizational profitability and performance are influenced by EQ.

The Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is a metric that measures our intelligence potential rather than our current intelligence. It is your EQ that allows you to be social and creative. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognise and understand the emotions of others, including your own. The most successful professionals succeed in their areas because of their EQ, not their IQ.

To get the best out of themselves and their team members, business leaders must improve their self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship management skills. They must also gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their team members on a scientific level in order to determine their team's strengths based on the personalities and intelligence of its members.

This can be done through leveraging, diversifying, and assembling extraordinary teams that generate products and solutions that surpass their competition. Building on these emotional intelligence skills and smoothly merging them with a clear work vision will not only boost their confidence but also their productivity.

When there is a lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace, especially during times like these, the structure crumbles, resulting in a cascade of bad consequences. Self-leadership and team leadership are inhibited, and communication is strained, resulting in a frustrated and disengaged workforce that loses the ability to think and create efficiencies.

The success of leaders' goals, key performance indicators, and financials will be determined by how they employ their emotional intelligence during this time. Understanding emotional intelligence at work will not only boost leadership performance, employee engagement, and productivity, but it will also prepare your employees for a future marked by increased uncertainty and volatility.

By 2030, India will be the world's third-largest economy, and with such a strong need for highly qualified workers, mastering the talents that help you stand out becomes critical.

Building our emotional intelligence will be a lifetime effort that will force us to push ourselves outside of our comfort zones. As we continue to enhance our leadership skills, here are some ideas to help us increase our EQ:

- Learn about your emotional triggers and how can they affect you.

- Frequently and freely solicit opinions from others.

- Take a step back and examine the situation critically.

- Deep breathing, body relaxation, and a clear mind are all good things to do.

- Concentrate on other people's points of view and show an interest in them.

- Take the time to learn the organisational culture's conventions.

- Read the dynamics of each scenario, the people in it, and your surroundings carefully.

- Relationships should be nurtured, and other's needs and feelings should be acknowledged.

- Appropriately manage expectations.

- Accept uncomfortable conversations with open arms and provide clear and constructive feedback.

The tone of an organisation is set by its leaders. If they don't have emotional intelligence, it could have many further effects, such as reduced employee engagement and more turnover. Emotional intelligence is not only a strong predictor of good leadership, but it may also lead to increased productivity, performance, and profitability for everyone. What is your EQ level, and that of your leaders? Invest in employee development and leadership development at all levels of your organisation. Understand that being a leader does not necessitate being in a position of authority. Bring out the best in everyone's leadership abilities!