My emotional intelligence
I have had many instances in my life where I wish I would have had leadership skills. The Problem was that I did not know what leadership was, or what kind of abilities I needed to have to posess the leadership quality. This is one of the reasons I created this project based on leadership to help myself better understand what leadership is, as well as for others to understand what it is. The most recent Situation where I could have benefited from being an effective leader was in my accounting class. In the class we participate in group assignments every discussion period. Every discussion period I would be a follower, not because I didn't want to lead, but because I didn't know how to effectively, so I left it up to someone else. Knowing now from the OB textbook as well as the references I chose, I not only know what leadership is, but I know what kind of abilites I need to work on in order to achieve effective leadership. I feel as though I do have elements of Emotional Intelligence that Goleman talks about in his article. However, I know that I can worker harder to more effectively use and amplify that intelligence. I'm a very Self-Aware person, I know my strengths, weaknesses, emotions, and of course my needs. As Goleman says that self aware people, " are honest with themselves and with others" and I definitely am honest with myself because I feel that that is one of the only ways I will be able to grow. You need to know what your weaknesses are, and turn them into a strengths. Goleman speaking of self-regulation says that biological impulses drive our emotions which we can not get rid of, but we can control our impulses.* This is something that I do need some work on but I also feel like I have a decent amount of self-regulation especially when it comes to cruelness. If someone says something that makes me feel a certain negative feeling, I can easily just say, "eh, whatever" and that is that. I know this is a very difficult ability for a lot of people but I seem to have been able to use it effectively, but it could use improvement. Motivation is something that I seem to lack a lot, for whatever reason. This is a huge barrier for me and is definitely something I need to work on in order to become a better leader. Empathy is something that I have a firm grasp on as well, if I know a person I know how they will react to certain comments, instructions, criticism, etc...I take that information into consideration and then generate my response in a way where it will not cause tension. I also have very good social skills. I have a firm grasp on most of the elements of Emotional Intelligence but I really need to work on my Motivation of my self, before I can effectively motivate others.