Leadership and Followership:

“Workers whose leaders scored low in social intelligence reported emotional exhaustion at four times the rate of their colleagues who had supportive leaders”

Daniel Goleman and Richared Boyatzis

Last month our two breakfast groups spent a lot of time talking about and defining Emotional Intelligence – or EQ and how it can predict a leader’s success or lack of success. This month we decided to take that topic one step further and talk about social intelligence, Let’s face it, employees respect leaders who bring out three key emotional responses:

1) Significance

2) A feeling of community

3) A feeling of excitement

This is especially true today when companies are feeling the pinch of the economy. The “head down, fanny up” mentality will not be inspirational enough to your employees in extremely tough times. In today’s economy, smart leaders may find themselves doing a bit more handholding - and the really great leaders will look beyond their comfort zone and the monthly numbers to give their employees a much-needed pat on the back.

Does this mean that leaders need to offer an open door to the time wasters – absolutely not! But a quick “you did a great job on that project”, or “I overheard you with that angry customer – you did good work settling them down” carries a lot more weight than the company-wide email more accurately defining customer service.

After you have developed followers & followership – how do you keep everyone on track? Bruce has developed this very user-friendly planning grid (“My Job, Your Job” worksheet). Take a few minutes and chart out 3 to 5 short-term operational priorities. ID where do you want to be 3 months from now…one year from now and five years from now. Then ID the steps that you need to take today to get started on the route, the key players involved, and their deliverables over the next 90 days.

Many of Big River’s clients actually have this chart blown into a 3’ by 5’ poster and posted it in a common area or break rooms. It serves as a constant reminder of the short-term operational goals for specific departments & employees. Employees can also write ideas on the poster and take more ownership of key action steps. By embracing the research results on leadership, social intelligence and building a dedicated following, leaders are more likely to align business strategies & employee actions – a fantastic combination.