How to effectively and consciously manage a team?
Once we know how to conduct team meetings, how to give feedback and how to manage team performance, we reach the next level of leadership. Conscious leadership.
How to develop skills that help in conscious leadership?
In this article, you will find tips on how to develop first 4 skills of a Conscious Leader.
1. Emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is defined as our ability to recognize, understand, and be aware of how our thoughts and feelings affect our behavior, and thus how we are perceived by others. Moreover, developing our emotional intelligence helps us to consciously express our emotions and encourage others to do the same.
Emotional intelligence and its 3 components:
1. Awareness of emotions.
Every type of emotion we experience has a purpose. When you feel physical pain, you know you have to take some action to relieve it. It’s the same with psychological pain. No matter if it’s anger, sadness, frustration or demotivation, it is a signal that something needs to be done. The key thing is to know, what is happening and how to take care of ourselves. Only then, as a leader, will you be able to manage others effectively.
When you reflect on your emotional intelligence, ask yourself 2 questions:
- As a leader, am I able to recognize and name the emotions that I feel?
- Can I recognize the emotions of others?
2. Expression of emotions.
Many leaders fear to express their emotions because they feel it is unprofessional in the work environment. It’s true when we express these emotions in the wrong way, at the wrong time. For example, if you disagree with someone in a meeting, ask for their perspective, instead of rolling your eyes. Or when someone upsets you, ask for a break instead of slamming the door. Think about how this approach changes the way you are perceived as a professional?
On the other hand, when you and your team are in a difficult situation, everyone will appreciate your authenticity and open discussion about your challenges.
3. Manage/control emotions.
The ability to effectively manage emotions is key to the success for any leader. Here are some reasons why:
- you are able to act clearly and calmly in a crisis;
- your mood doesn’t affect your team;
- your coworkers feel safe;
- you are not torn by negative emotions, which jeopardize your effectiveness.
In today’s world of digitization, emotional intelligence is emphasized as our “human” differentiator. On the other hand, the ability to develop emotional intelligence has been and will be a springboard to conscious leadership.
2. Dynamic communication.
When talking to others, each of us brings a message to this interaction (verbal and non-verbal). Obvious right?
The question is: do you know what attitude and energy you bring to such interactions and do you realize how this affects the person and his/her engagement?
Here is a good example.
Corporation. Big change is coming. The manager stands up and talks with enthusiasm and a huge smile about the fantastic opportunity that awaits the organization. He doesn’t notice fear & terror on employees’ faces. Manager keeps going with his enthusiastic statement without paying attention to people’s reactions. His 15-minute speech will later have a huge impact on moods and engagement in the change itself – an impact that will have to be worked on very hard in the coming weeks.
How to make sure you communicate effectively?
1. Think about what attitude do you communicate with.
- Are you going to war? You’ll get war.
- You can’t do anything and you are a victim of the ′′system”? Others will join and will complain with you.
- Are you truly looking for solutions to the situation? Others will be looking for them with you.
2. Listen and observe, to match your message and energy to others at the beginning of the conversation to slowly pull them up from it.
3. Develop the intuitive listening to dynamically change your message to the situation.
4. Think about how you would like to communicate and plan your development.
“Think about what attitude do you communicate with.”
3. High energy relationships.
Focus on quality. Have you ever felt that someone is ′′draining you ′′ or is a fantastic companion? Have you ever wondered how you affect others and how others affect you?
How to assess the quality of our relationships?
Draw 4 columns with 4 headers:
- The person / relationship you assess.
- Your feeling and energy level you have in this relationship.
- The energy that the other person brings (motivating, inspiring or discouraging and draining? ).
- How does this relationship affect you?
If you know that you are not comfortable in this relationship, you have 5 ways to deal with it:
- Leave it as it is and continue to be a “victim” to it.
- Make changes in it.
- Change perspective on it.
- Accept it.
- End this relationship.
The most important is to make a conscious choice even if you choose number 1. What’s your decision? Which option do you consciously choose?
4. Influencing others.
How do you define the ability to ′′influence others”? Did you immediately think of convincing, negotiations, arguments, manipulation, sales? If so, then it’s normal because that’s how influencing others is mostly often seen.
Most people think that this skill is about giving arguments to convince someone to their opinion. And they are right when we are talking about the basic level of being effective as a leader, salesman or professional.
How does this apply to Conscious Leader and Conscious Leadership?
Remembering that conscious leadership is the next level in leading yourself and others, words are less important here, and attitude matters more. What do I mean? Do you remember your last interaction with the person who inspired you? In addition to what she or he said, it was probably ′′ how ′′ it was said.
Success in this case focuses not on words, but on how involved, motivated and convinced of what they say, but above all, to the task itself or the idea they talk about. The best leaders or sales people focus less on what they say and focus more on the energy they have when in front of their team or a client.
Why is this important? Here are top 3 reasons:
- It’s more likely that we will immediately get the ′′buy-in” of our idea and it will be easier for us to build a coalition around it.
- Others will remember us as authentic leader with passion and vision and will immediately want to work with us.
- We will be able to ′′infect′′ others with our energy and they will also start inspiring themselves and others.
“With what energy and attitude will you go for an important meeting today?”
With what energy and attitude will you go for an important meeting today?
You don’t know? No worries – we can assess that. You can find more details here 👉 Energy Leadership Index™ Assessment
