Last week, we discussed empowering your employees by embracing the concepts of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Creating an environment and culture in which your employees can work towards these intrinsic motivations is the key to running a successful organization. Creating this culture also requires you to provide strong leadership.
The day-to-day actions of leaders are vital when building a culture of accountability and transparency. Emotional intelligence is a lifelong pursuit and something that individuals can continue to improve with practice and self-awareness. Leaders that empower, widely demonstrate some fundamental characteristics of emotional intelligence, some of which include:
Communication
First and foremost, communication must be at the top of your priorities. Clear, concise, and transparent communication is critical for leaders. Ensure your messages are received and understood. The responsibility of communication lies with the person delivering the message, not the person receiving the message.
Integrity
Integrity comes from the core of an individual’s personality. Having a clear sense of right and wrong, acting in a manner that demonstrates to the team that you are genuine and will always do the right thing, even when it’s the difficult thing to do. Delivering on your promises and ensuring that everyone on the team is treated fairly and with transparent, open, and honest communication is critical.
Accountability
Leaders take accountability for the results of their organization. They look for ways to enable their teams to be successful and remove obstacles that could, or are, preventing success. Take more than your fair share of the blame and less than your fair share of the success.
Inspiration
Great leaders know that the best way to drive results from a team is to inspire them. Leaders are part of the team, rolling up their sleeves alongside the rest of the group and doing anything required to ensure the success of the project. They invest their time to learn the intrinsic motivators of each of their team members and then implement strategies to ensure their team members know that they’re valued.
Empathy
We often repeat the saying at Clientek: “You have two ears but only one mouth. You should listen twice as much as you speak”. Empathetic leaders listen to their employees and learn to be aware of their feelings and how those feelings impact the other person’s perception. Employees must know that they are free to express their feelings and that they won’t be overlooked or ignored.
You’ve likely worked very hard to achieve a leadership role in your organization. Always remember that your biggest responsibility in that role is making your employees successful. Remembering that simple idea and working towards higher emotional intelligence will set you apart and make you and your organization more successful.