Two Vital Leadership Tools You Need

Business leaders have never experienced a more fast-paced and complex leadership environment. Many are struggling to adapt quickly enough and are frustrated by their constraints.

Focusing on sales, profit and strategy is not enough. How you lead your business in overcoming today’s challenges is vital. Relying on your experience and intellect alone will not produce the results you seek.

To grow, your company is relying on your leadership. Cultivating high-value innovation, building trust relationships with all stakeholders, thinking strategically and systemically, and managing change are skills that leaders strive to improve. Making time to refine these traditional skills is challenging enough, but now the way you refine them requires the development of additional leadership tools.

We’ve learned that human beings are equipped with many types of intelligence beyond analytical intelligence (IQ), including emotional intelligence (EQ), systems intelligence (SYQ) and others. While we know that IQ does not change much once adulthood begins, EQ, SYQ and the others can be developed throughout our lives. Analytical intelligence alone is not enough to deal with today’s business challenges – today’s leaders need to develop their EQ and SYQ.

Emotional intelligence (EI) combines your understanding of yourself (self-awareness) with your understanding of others (empathy). John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, puts it this way:

“High EQ is increasingly important in all organizations because of the growing complexity of society and the multiplicity of stakeholders that must be understood and communicated with effectively.”

How do you learn? How do you make decisions? What energizes you? What’s important to you? What do you expect from others? Why is it important to grasp how those you lead answer these questions? This is the essence of EQ.

Systems Intelligence (SYQ) involves seeing the larger, integrated picture and understanding how different components of a system interconnect and behave over time. SYQ helps anticipate the immediate and long-term consequences of strategies and actions. It identifies the root causes of problems and how to prevent them. SYQ helps organizations evolve to meet changing circumstances. Finally, an intuitive understanding of systems can help you combine your analytical intelligence (IQ) with your EQ to build enduring stakeholder relationships with those inside your business and with those outside the business on whom you depend. As complexity grows and doing business becomes increasingly interdependent, it’s difficult to overstate the value of SYQ.

EQ and SYQ – two vital leadership tools you need to develop.

How are you leading your business?

How can you develop your EQ and SYQ?

THERE’S STILL TIME!

Explore how Principled Leadership maximizes your growth potential at our  
No-Excuses Growth Workshop
November 8th, 7:30-10 a.m.