The Unexpected Role Emotional Intelligence Plays in Leadership Team Building

For organizations that want to identify and train potential leaders, leadership team building activities should be their first step toward success. While identifying your best leaders, keep in mind that past career experience and training is only one piece of the puzzle.

According to research highlighted by Korn Ferry, a well-known executive search firm, women out rated men in overall competencies, with the exception of confidence, for senior-level leadership positions. The women, however, lacked the same career experiences as their male counterparts, giving men an advantage toward promotions to senior levels within organizations.

“What women are missing are the experiences that their male counterparts seek out during mid-level and business unit level roles,” said J. Evelyn Orr, senior director of the Korn Ferry Institute and editor of Korn Ferry’s women in leadership research. “Women need to seek out and say ‘yes’ to experiences that stretch their skills and organizations need to provide women with opportunities to accept those challenges earlier in their careers.”

The emotional intelligence of your applicants might be a better indicator for success than career experiences. When performing leadership team-building activities within your organization, consider some of the following points provided by these articles: A Strong Core Is the Key to Great Leadership  and Strong Leadership Begins With Your Mindset.

Identify core values. According to A Strong Core Is the Key to Great Leadership, just as the body’s “core” is essential for an athlete’s success, the core principles that leaders carry are essential for an organization’s success. The three components for a leader’s success are trust, flexibility and a shared purpose. Leaders must focus on both trusting their team members as well as earning the trust of their team members in order to be successful. In terms of flexibility, mental flexibility is the ability to change your strategies as you learn new information. And a shared purpose is extremely important for everyone in the organization to keep everyone on the same page and working toward a common goal.

How To Repair Broken Trust. This short video offers an exquisite summary of the steps required to repair broken trust.

Mind your mindset. According to Strong Leadership Begins With Your Mindset, good leadership starts with your mindset as a leader. This means that the way you interpret situations and the actions you take are influenced by your mindset. To change the way you approach your business, focus on commitment, accountability, performance and vision to become a better leader.

“Decades of Korn Ferry research proves that effective leaders move beyond technical skills to practicing well-developed relational/social and influencing/political confidence and skills,” said Peggy Hazard, Korn Ferry Managing Principal. “In achieving these skills, women often face obstacles, including different gender norms and ‘unwritten rules’ around power, risk, critical experiences, teaming, networking, style of presentation and communication. With the right development programs, women can build confidence, identify unique barriers and learn how to navigate obstacles to reach their goals.”

A striking example of effective training for potential leaders or managers who have inherited existing teams with regard to collaboration is the TIGERS® 6 Principles that Build High Performance Teams clinic. Here managers explore creating consensus on their teams for emotionally intelligent behaviors that produce enhanced trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk resolution and success in projects; on work teams;  and, for cross functional problem solving. The clinic equips leaders with the facilitation and leadership skills to accomplish strategic initiatives.

Emotional intelligence may seem like an unattainable attribute for potential leaders, but by offering leadership team building activities and focusing on core values and personal mindsets, leaders can bring more experience and innate attributes to your organization.

Copyright TIGERS® Success Series, Inc. by Dianne Crampton

About TIGERS® Success Series, Inc.

TIGERS® is an Oregon Team Building Consultant situated in Bend, Oregon that serves leaders through out North America. Founder, Dianne Crampton, has helped leaders build collaborative work cultures and high performance teams for over 20 years.  She offers team development clinics to HR Executives, Project Managers, Consultants and Business Executives who desire high levels of collaboration within their operations and was nominated by Merrill Lynch for Inc. Magazines small business awards for her unique approaches to post mergers and acquisition team development. She licenses HR executives in the use of TIGERS® proprietary methods.