Are the managers in your company fit to lead people?

For years now many organisations have promoted their staff to levels of management just because they are good at what they do.

They work hard, they are good at their jobs, therefore they move up the chain.

Yet we are increasingly finding that people ‘fit for management’ may not necessarily be fit for leadership…

Not yet at least.

Why is that?

Surely working hard and being good at your job means you should eventually get promoted, right?

Wrong.

Being a hard worker and becoming a great leader are two strengths that don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand.

The ability to lead people, to motivate them to be their best, is a skill that should be required of anyone in a management position, yet it is not always taught or followed inside organisations.

So often it seems that in job interviews and performance reviews we are judged more on our technical skills, our qualifications and our accomplishments – rather than our people skills, our attitude and our mental management.

Yet when you eventually do move into a management position, it is somehow expected that you should instinctively know how to lead others – to motivate them, sometimes discipline them, but inevitably empower them to do their best.

This is something I experienced first-hand several years ago when I entered into my first management position.

Of course I jumped at the chance to move up the ladder because who gets management experience without already having management experience, right?

But very quickly I found that I felt well out of my depth when it came to leading a team of people.

I could barely keep my own workload managed… how was I supposed to be responsible for someone else’s?

So I did what so many others have done before me – I learnt as I went by trial and error.

I looked at what others did (what worked and what didn’t) and tried my best to bluff my way through.

Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I failed miserably.

But at the time it was all I had.

So why does this happen?

Surely there is more to leadership than dedication, qualifications and guess-work?

It seems there is.

And it comes in the form of intelligence (but not as you know it).

You may have heard of the term floating around over the last few years – ‘ Emotional Intelligence’.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Quotient (EQ) is the capacity of individuals to recognize their own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour.

EI and EQ are fairly new terms that have been introduced following the idea that traditional types of intelligence, such as IQ, fail to fully explain cognitive ability.

Studies have shown that people with high EI and EQ have greater mental health, exemplary job performance, and more potent leadership skills.

Simply being good at your job is not enough these days, people leaders need EQ, not just IQ.

They need to be good at reading people and adjusting their communication slightly in order to meet the needs of their team.

Doctors are not only judged on their ability to perform surgery, they are judged on their bedside manner (how they treat their patients emotionally).

Pilots are not only hired on their ability to fly a plane, but on their ability to get along with their crew. This is because they are confined with each other in small spaces for long periods of time, therefore it is crucial to ensure they have the necessary people skills to maintain harmony in their environment.

Many organisations are only just starting to realise the benefits of strengthening their teams’ emotional intelligence, but they are quickly wishing they had started sooner.

“A leader can be very destructive or very inspiring. It comes down to their level of emotional intelligence.” – John Mackey, CEO and founder of Whole Foods.

So how can you inspire emotionally intelligent leadership in your workplace?

Start by getting people trained in the art of communication.

And an easy way to do that is with DOTS Precognitive Communication training.

“The programme provokes a journey of self-discovery, helps you understand why you think and act the way you do and why others are naturally different. This in turn allows people around you to discover who you are. It is through this channel that the ability to communicate effectively is made possible,” says David Dickson, creator of DOTS.

Most of us have had times in our lives where our communication was misinterpreted or misunderstood, and it’s frustrating right?

But when we get trained in the art of communication, when we understand how our words are received and processed by others, we become more effective in all of our conversations. Our emotional understanding of others increases because we are able to appreciate our differences.

Our ability to communicate effectively (or not) heavily influences our capability to motivate others, to inspire them and lead them towards success.

This is why we offer DOTS Precognitive Communication training.

Find out what others had to say about DOTS here.

If you have found this helpful in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact us to find out how we can help your team become natural leaders.