Most leaders, often in technical disciplines, believe the same myth connected to managing the human side of the company. The myth is that dealing with people who have emotions means that managers need to be emotional. However, the belief that they must be outwardly emotional is simply a mistake. The cause of this type of reasoning maybe a little weird. The belief in some company cultures, in certain types of businesses, is that employees are to be treated likes cogs in a machine. In fact, emotional intelligence is about recognizing emotions. Without an awareness of emotions, you cannot respond in a constructive way.
Emotional intelligence helps mitigate costs
Technical processes are very complex to understand. Technical leaders work with high levels of abstraction on a daily basis. Their teams must perform under tight deadlines. They are trained to look for interdependencies between highly specialized disciplines. People taking part in technical processes are therefore very dependent on one another. A lack of communication or poor regulation of emotions interrupts otherwise smooth processes. It increases stress and employee turnover. Consequently, procedures must be repeated causing delays.
Emotions are our subtle language
The smartblogs.com website talks about why a highly skilled scientist who was ready to leave her job (and take away decades of knowledge she had acquired about the company’s product). The reason was the boss who couldn’t communicate properly. Few very simple, emotionally intelligent approaches to mutual communication improved the situation. Now they are able to work well together.
Emotions enable us to understand ourselves and others better. When we recognize the emotions of others, we can understand them on a much deeper level. Another myth is that empathy equals approval – that is also not true.
-jk-