Empathetic Leaders Are Emotionally Intelligent

Emotional intelligence is vitally important if you want to build a supportive and nurturing workplace culture. Empathetic leaders are naturally emotionally intelligent because they know how to identify and manage their own and others’ emotions.

A key element of emotional intelligence is empathy, which is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and experience the world as they do. Empathetic leaders interact with people really well because they know how to read others and adjust their own emotions to best suit the situation. They have a way of making things comfortable for everyone involved.

A great way to get started building emotional intelligence is to teach yourself and your staff how to listen actively to one another without reacting. Simply listen to the other person and take in what they’re saying. When negative emotions arise, just redirect them to happy ones. The more you practice this skill, the more emotionally intelligent you’ll become.

The reason I know that emotional intelligence is beneficial to organizations is that, throughout the course of my consulting career, I’ve never met an emotionally intelligent leader who got worse results than one who is emotionally stunted.

Let’s work together to foster a supportive and nurturing workplace culture in your organization.