Part 1: This era’s most wanted skill for “Business Leaders”

I’m sure all of us agree that the business environment world-wide is changing, not only in the magnitude but also in the frequency. 

By the time, one settles down with one, something else comes up! Being thoroughly equipped to deal with these “rapid disruptive changes” has never been so crucial for business & personal success before. 

The question is – What does it mean to us as Business Leaders?

Is it only about being proactive to the changing environment or is there something more to it. The biggest difference between the organizations which have successfully paved way through these tidal changes has been – their pro-active focus on the change management.

“An organization’s focus on how it’s relevant stakeholders are managing this change is directly proportionate to its success in the long run.”

This article talks about the most important, yet possibly most ignored Leadership competency – “Capitalizing Human Emotional Energy” in these times of change.

One of the biggest reasons why you’ll want to run away from this competency could be the element of “deep – self reflection“. Wait a minute – if anything like this -> Who has got time for all this rubbish? Let me concentrate on my profits and KRAs! All this emotion related stuff is HR + L&D’s job – is coming to your mind, it is important that you know that you are in a dangerous zone of vacuum and meaningless objectives for self and business.

While I cannot do justice to this subject in one article, here are few questions for your quick self-reflection : 

First reflections :  “Capitalizing Human Emotional Energy”

1. In your meetings with stakeholders (Clients, teams, board members etc.), do you closely watch other people’s reaction? Can you exactly sense what’s the mood and feelings in the room? Do you feel rushed with time in meetings and tend to ignore these emotions for other reasons?
2. Are you comfortable taking feedback and hearing the emotional vent outs? How do you react to them? How do people feel after venting out in front of you?
3. Do you get your team’s feedback around the behaviors being displayed? Do you do it with in-tact teams or 1-o-1? Do you spend some time debriefing the behaviors displayed in the meetings with your team?
4. Have you defined team norms yourself or have you ever facilitated a discussion with your team around what behaviors should they encourage collectively?
5. Do you know your team members well? Do you often ask them about their life, family, thoughts, feelings, emotions, career aspirations in your formal/informal meetings?
6. How do you make the other person realize that you respect the difference of opinions and personality?

While you mull over these questions, let me put together my next article about step-by-step approach to “Capitalize human emotional energy”. 

Being emotionally intelligent is a skill that makes you successful and happy in both personal and professional life-goals. You can opt to read my blogs that explain this important life-changing concept in very simple words.