L07: Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Skills for Leaders

Emotional intelligence, or often called emotional quotient, is the ability of leaders to identify and manage emotions in themselves and in others. This understanding helps leaders to understand what’s right culturally, both in the company and outside the company. Emotional intelligence enhances leaders’ ability to translate these emotions into actions that show flexibility and personal and social problem-solving ability.

Interpersonal skills are emotional intelligence in action which leaders can use to understand when reacting with others. Both emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills enhance leaders’ communication with other effectively both verbally and nonverbally. 

In this chapter, leaders would understand emotional intelligence and how to develop the ability to uncover the “emotional context” which means getting below the surface of the words. From this learning, leaders can connect emotional intelligence to leadership styles which might fall into different categories: visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding. Leaders might also vary leadership style when the situation warrants it. However, the ability to select the most effective leadership style for different situations require leader’s emotional intelligence to assess the situation correctly and assume the style appropriate for the context and audiences.

The first step to understand emotional intelligence is to understand your self-awareness, strengths, and weaknesses. Leaders can use popular psychological profiles to understand themselves better or use the MBTI, concept of personality assessment. In addition, MBTI concept can also enhance leaders understanding others. Leaders can use MBTI to understand how others are motivated and how better to work with them.

After better knowing themselves and others, leaders should develop an approach to improving emotional intelligence, improving nonverbal skills, listening skills, motivating and mentoring, and networking. 

Theodore Roosevelt said, “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” Importantly, it is the power of emotional intelligence. People who relate well to others do better in the workplace and as leaders of organization. Transformational leaders connect with other openly and honestly. They understand emotional intelligence and have interpersonal skills.

L06: Graphics and Powerpoint with a Leadership Edge

As being mentioned on the step of presentation, adding appropriate graphics to a presentation could help individual reach audience easily. The leaders can use graphics to improve presentations and documents, particularly if the material is structural, so complicated that it can be illustrated more efficiently and more effectively with a visual aid that with words alone. When select appropriately and designed carefully, graphics embody and carry the meanings that create the messages. Also, leaders use visuals that are integral to the communication of their intended meanings.

Also, graphics will contribute to the success of the oral and written communication because it makes presentation more persuasive. Knowing how to deliver messages effectively with words and pictures is a powerful tool for leader.

When using graphics and PowerPoint in the presentation, they should always be purposeful. In other words, graphics should make the content more understandable; emphasize the main ideas expressed by the speaker. Concept graphics are also useful in clarifying ideas and in creating mental pictures for the audience. Graphics normally work better to help an audience understand relationships and concepts of presentation.

For graphics adding to the presentation, the data and text charts should be simple enough for audience to understand easily, and convey the messages clearly and effectively to the audiences. Individual should ensure choosing the most effective colors and fonts which do not distract audiences.

To summarize, the goal of having graphics in presentation is to aid the audiences in understanding the data and central message of presentation. Graphics should be chosen purposefully and make the presentation more persuasive. Leaders should use graphics to support the message and PowerPoint as the tool it is intended to be. Using correct graphics design will provide a leadership edge and help individual project a positive ethos.

N07: Finding and Using Negotiation Power

One of tools negotiators can use to give themselves an advantage or increase the probability of achieving their objectives is a ‘power’.  Many negotiators believe that power is very important in negotiation and who have this power usually understand how to put pressure on the other party, how to persuade the other party to change their mind.

Where could negotiators get the power or the capabilities to give themselves an advantage?

-       Negotiators can get the power from information sources of power; negotiators can assemble and organize facts and data to support their position, argument and desired outcomes.

-       Negotiators can get the power from personal sources of power; they can acquire power from their psychological orientation, cognitive orientation, Motivational orientation, Dispositions and Skills and Moral orientation.

-       Negotiators can get power from their position in an organization. They can gain the power from their responsibility, duties or position of the job. Also, power can come from creating a resource stockpile in an environment where resources appear to be scarce.

-       Power can come from the relationship. Negotiators goal interdependence, Referent power, Networks can also have an impact on how negotiators constructively use their power.

-       The power can come from the contextual sources of power. Power can be based in the context, situation, or environment in which negotiators take place.

Negotiators should treat power as the potential to alter the attitudes and behaviors of others that an individual brings to a given situation. Power is implicated in the use of many negotiation tactics, such as hinting to the other party that you have good alternatives (a strong BATNA) in order to increase your leverage. In general, people have power when they have “the ability to bring about outcomes they desire” or “the ability to get things done the way them to be done.”

N06: Communication

In a negotiation process, clear and effective communication is a must, in both verbal and nonverbal. To achieve negotiation goals and to resolve conflict between two parties, negotiators need to know that there are 5 different categories of communication that  negotiators could discuss. Firstly, The partied can exchange offers, counteroffers, and motives of each party. Secondly, the parties can share information to each other about alternatives to a negotiated agreement. The parties could share information on evaluations of success; outcomes or even their positive reactions to the outcomes. Also, the parties could discuss about ‘ social accounts’ which is explaining things to the other party. Lastly, negotiators can make a discussion about the negotiation process.

Language to use in a negotiation is also important. Negotiators need to communicate well and effectively. Negotiators need to use the language that make messages more credible and compelling, as well as showing “attending behavior”, their expressions, body language and tone of voice.

At last, to improve communication in negotiation, the parties have to know how to ask good questions to each other in order to get all needed information, and use those questions to turn difficult negotiations into an easy task. Negotiators have to listen the other party’s thoughts and feeling, priorities, preferences and importantly, understand other party’s more completely by using “role-reversal techniques” which is letting themselves to be in other’s position.

L05: Leadership Presentation

The skills of a leader are clearest when he/she is speaking whether internally to larger groups of employees or externally to the community. Through public speaking, individuals provide the innovative ideas that lead to change, participate in the dialogue that makes the organization grow, and bring attention to themselves and their abilities. Leaders engage in public speaking all the time. Therefore, leaders must become proficient in public speaking, comfortable and confident in all kinds of presentation situations so that they could project a positive ethos for themselves and their organization.

In this chapter, we will learn the step of developing presentation, Three “P’s” process: planning, preparing, and presenting. For a successful presentation, planning is a must.  Individual should first consider the context which helps frame the presentation, and define the purpose of presentation clearly and specifically. Also, individual needs to understand audiences he/she intends to approach so that he/she can choose the right medium to deliver the presentation with the logical structure.

After having a good planning, the preparation consists of developing the introduction, body, and conclusion to help leader to achieve the greatest impact to audience. Interestingly, adding appropriate graphics to a presentation could help individual reach every one easily. Furthermore, during the preparation, we have to ensure that our presentation will be delivered smoothly and flow logically from one to the other. As we know, practicing a presentation is often the key to delivering it successfully in front of audiences. All presenters need to find a practice method that works for them and make sure that they allow time for it.

During the presentation, individual needs to focus on the delivery style, make an eye contact to audience, show his/her comfort, confidence, enthusiasm, and professional look. Public Speaking is often considered one of greatest fears. Therefore, the most important method to overcome that fear is to be well prepared.

Lastly, the ethos determines the overall effect of our presentation. A leader must project a strong, positive ethos in all presentation situations. The best way to do that is to know the most on the subject and believe in what you are saying to the audiences and to be fully prepared. Be Yourself, Be Confident!

L04: Creating Written Leadership Communication

Not only having a clear purpose of communication, understanding the audiences, and having a good strategy would be enough to develop the successful communication; the leader needs to consider an effective medium to communicate with audiences. Different medium is appropriate for different situation. The context and the message we intend to send to audiences will guide us which medium is the best suited to use. For instance, if an organization aims to reach and spread words to mass audiences, the easy and fastest way to do so is to create a blog which is easily shared and create connection between the organization and audiences. However, the drawback of creating blog cannot ensure that the message reached the intended audiences. As a result, importantly, before choosing the right medium to communicate with audiences, the company has to clarify own purpose of communication, analyze who is the audience to make a connection with, and develop an effective communication strategy to reach them.

These days, communication through social media becomes so powerful. Social media are changing the face of communication across all industries. Social media can be an effective tool for an organization to build a customer-centric organization that not only communicates authentically but also listens to customers and learns from that interaction. It is important for a company to consider carefully how to approach social media and how to present the company in these very public, constantly changing spaces.

Either developing communication in the traditional way or through social network, the content needs to be organized coherently. We need to anticipate our audience’s response and stay focused on our purpose of communication. Besides, we should aim for the same directness and conciseness throughout the discussion. The statement needs to be easy to read, easy for reader to find what they need to know.

Lastly, formatting is important in creating a professional appearance for all of written communication. Nice formatting attracts readers to the documents and enhances the effective communication. Therefore, we need to ensure that written communication of all types are developed in an effective way and supports leadership communication.

N05: Perception, Cognition, and Communication

Not everyone realizes how the role of perception, cognition, and emotion has an influence on negotiation process. Perception and cognition are the basic building blocks of all social encounters, including negotiation, in the sense of that our social actions are guided by the way we perceive and analyze the other party, the situation, and our own interests and position.

The perception of negotiators is very important which could influence on their ability to interpret with accuracy what the other party is saying and meaning. Therefore, negotiators need to understand how information is perceived, filtered, distorted and framed, so that they can prepare themselves when dealing with those information as well as processing it more readily. The ‘framing’ idea is influential in negotiation because it’s about focusing, shaping and organizing the world around us.

Cognitive biases are errors when negotiators have during information process and tend to block negotiators performance. To handle wisely with misconception and cognitive biases, negotiators need to first be aware that these negative aspects which can possibly come up anytime. Furthermore, parties need to carefully develop discussion of the issues and preferences to help reduce the effects of perceptual biases.