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research reveals four core EQ skills:

Personal Competence:
1. Self-awareness: your ability to accurately perceive your own emotions in the moment and understand your tendencies across situations
2. Self-management: your ability to use your awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and direct your behavior positively

Social Competence:
3. Social awareness: your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on with them
4. Relationship management – your ability to use your awareness of your own emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully.

…More at The Emotionally Intelligent Leader by Jason Young 

Leadership is responsible for picking and periodically evaluating their team. An emotionally intelligent leader can delve deeper into a person's performance and address critical issues that do not arise with a leader who lacks insight. This is great for teams as unaired grievances are resolved before becoming huge blowups. An emotionally intelligent leader has the ability to defuse tense situations and manage interactions skillfully. Leadership that displays behaviors of high emotional intelligence is of high value to any company.

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1. You and I know how good we have become, but we don’t have any idea of how good we could be.

What great projects are you undertaking in your business? In your life? Many people go through life driving with their dome lights on instead of their headlights. What you have become is important, but not nearly as important as what you can be.

2. More important than achieving your goals is pursuing your potential.

It is satisfying to achieve your goals and objectives, but that’s no proof that you are living up to your true capabilities. Keep experimenting and trying new things in thepursuit of your true potential.

3. Losers make excuses. Winners make explanations.

Excuses don’t teach you anything and keep you from making needed changes. Explanations help you learn what went wrong and give you insights for needed changes.

…More at 8 Powerful Ideas for Achieving Success

Leadership success is measured in numbers and words. It can be difficult to quantify the specific impact that a leader has but we always look to do so. Success is more than just achieving a percentage growth for your company though. It is also about keeping focused forward and always working towards your potential. It is about learning from failures and implementing strategies to avoid the mistakes that caused these failures. Leadership success is achieved through maintaining a positive outlook with these eight powerful ideas.

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Everyone I’ve ever discussed the concept of trust with has a wide range of emotions related to it. While everyone wants more trust in their relationships, and believes that in an environment of higher trust they will be more productive, less stressed and generally enjoy their life and work more, we are often stymied, wondering how to reach these greater levels of trust.

Arriving at this conclusion comes from one basic mental model that assumes trust grows based on the other person’s behavior. This mindset is proven by comments like:

• “They have to earn my respect.”
• “I have to see that they are honest and dependable.”

When we see trust in this way, it seems to be outside of our control—we must wait for others to prove their trustworthiness in order for trust to build. 

…More at The Courage to Build Trust — Business Management Daily: Free …

Leading with trust is something that takes time and courage. It is an effort to let yourself release a reactive trust model and envelop a proactive trust model. This effort will pay many dividends down the road in improved relationships that will flourish and can lead down many new paths. Leadership needs to understand this fundamental concept and embrace it to build a successful team. Leaders need to be building trust in the workplace as the foundation of their efforts.

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It seems that leadership coaching, which has blossomed in popularity over the past decade, has somehow become the tail that is wagging the dog. Many organizations have been subsidizing leadership coaching engagements with no platform, systemic structure for identifying and capturing enterprise-wide trends and patterns, nor anyone responsible for analyzing and reporting to upper management on key strategic themes or metrics.

Leadership coaching might be delivering huge returns for the beaucoup dollars being invested. But, who can tell?

Coaching, as it is customarily practiced, usually takes place behind a veil of secrecy or on a desert island where what is revealed under the palm tree remains forever buried beneath the palm tree.

…More at The Leadership Coaching Dilemma: Contextual Coaching Is the …

Good leadership teams are in a prime position to identify successful individuals that are part of their team. These individuals can make good candidates for future leadership opportunities. Often a leadership coaching situation can be a tangible benefit to the company and the individual. Leadership coaching can be useful for leaders who are struggling with certain aspects of their leadership and just want to solidify certain skills. Leadership coaching is a great way to improve performance when it is done in context of specific situations that arise within your company. Leadership coaching is a great way to get ready for the future.

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In one leadership study, qualities such as assertiveness, adaptability, intelligence and conscientiousness were cited as the most important. Research clearly shows that transformational leaders – leaders who are positive, inspiring, and who empower and develop followers – are better leaders. They are more valued by followers and have higher performing teams.

As a result, it would only make sense that you strive to improve your leadership skills and get the most out of life for everyone in your sphere.

Consider some of the following tips for how to become a better leader and think about ways that you can implement these strategies in your daily life.

1. Have a clear vision

Take the time to share your vision, your mission and your goals with your team. Your job as a leader is to provide a clear path that your team can follow. Your team also must understand why the goals you have set are valuable to them. Take the time to explain to them, in detail, why and how your vision will not only improve the business, but how it will benefit them in return. Include your team in your strategic planning sessions, ask for feedback and get them to “buy into” your vision for the future of the company.

…More at Top Ways to Improve Your Leadership Skills | Career Rocketeer …

Leaders should take their role seriously and work on this list over time. There are eleven great improvements to make today, tomorrow and every day. If we practice a skill it becomes a habit and these natural leadership abilities will become ingrained in your persona and make you a more efficient, likeable, and intelligent leader. Leaders can incorporate these 11 improvements to their leadership skills today. 

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It turns out that people are motivated by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility–intrinsic factors. People have a deep-seated need for growth and achievement. Herzberg's work influenced a generation of scholars and researchers–but never seemed to make an impact on managers in the workplace, where the focus on motivation remained the “carrot-and-stick” approach, or external motivators.

What do we mean by motivation? It's been defined as a predisposition to behave in a purposeful manner to achieve specific, unmet needs and the will to achieve, and the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals. And why do we need motivated employees? The answer is survival. Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces, and to be effective, managers need to understand that and do something about it.

…More at How to motivate employees | Psychology Today

Leaders require employees who are motivated because motivated employees are the work-horses of the office. They are go-getters who want to succeed for themselves which translates into success for the company. Leaders can and should develop a methodology for designing projects that are intrinsically pleasing to their team. This is not to say that you need to make up work for your team but rather you should adjust your presentation method and frame the project in light of how it will impact the company and the team by working on it. In other words, give the project purpose or meaning. Leadership can always improve employee motivation by tweaking a few key factors.

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Helping people be accountable is more than identifying what they need to do; it is about clarifying what needs to be accomplished.

Clear outcomes can often be achieved several different ways. We tend to be too rigid about the means and completely miss the end. For instance, in the example above, the objective wasn’t running, it was fitness.

Structure your efforts around the end goal, and involve the person you’re working with in determining the “how.” Giving them an active role in creating the process will engage them and create a greater sense of ownership.

…More at Leadership Accountability: Holding or Helping? | Sanborn and …

Everyone has goals and new years resolutions this time of year. Goals are a healthy and natural way of accomplishing tasks and making meaningful progress in our lives. Goals and resolutions often fail however because we do not associate a goal with a particular benefit. Leaders can help their teams link benefits with their work goals. It is very important for the human mind to have some driving purpose and a goal without a benefit can be a challenging task. For example, lets say you give your team a project to retool the user interface of the dashboard for your member portal and do not give them a reason or benefit to doing so. Without the why behind the project, it is difficult for your team to see the purpose of the project. Telling them that by retooling the UI you can enhance the clicks on extras that will improve the bottom line by 4% and boost the year end bonuses greatly enhances the motivation behind the task. Leaders need to be able to generate accountability which can be a major challenge.

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Step 1: Commit to hiring the best talent possible – every time. Committed managers do whatever it takes…  They commit to carefully hiring the very best talent possible.  They commit to studying the performance difference between top and bottom talent.  Committed managers do not rush the employee selection process because they know the costs of getting it wrong are high.  
Step 2: Do not rush the employee selection process. All too often I see a sales manager who is tired of hiring low performing sales people who says, “I am tired of the headaches.  I will do what it takes – I will wait until all steps are taken and the right candidate is found.”  Then they need a sales person next week and they rush the employee selection process.  Within weeks, they regret rushing the process because the new hire is not the ideal candidate.  Take the time necessary to hire the best possible talent.  
Step 3: Partner With Stakeholders. As a manager, it is your job to get results.  The best possible talent will help you get there.  Identifying and hiring the best possible talent requires partnership and the most important partnership is with HR. 
I have a “love-hate relationship” with HR.  Some HR professionals are incredibly intelligent and some are incredibly…  less intelligent.   
Whether your HR person is brilliant or not – you need to partner with them.  You cannot do it alone nor can you work against them.  You need HR and/or at least an external recruitment firm to help you with the employee selection process.        

…More at 6 Steps to Better Employee Selection

Employee selection is vital to your business and every leader needs to have hiring experience. Leaders are best-suited to know the strengths and weaknesses of your teams. This makes being able to think critically and truly examine what your team needs of paramount importance in the hiring process. There are many factors to consider when selecting new employees and you are in the best position to notice whether a candidate is going to work out. Consider the six steps above and try integrating them into your employee selection process. Employee selection is one of the most important moves a leader can make for his or her company. 

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Innovation is impossible to achieve without taking a necessary amount of risk. In a world where the success rate of new product entries in the grocery business is 1 in 100, it is inevitable that every success sees failures along the way. An effective innovation leader should encourage creativity and risk taking, while also practicing a tolerance for failure.

In order to foster initiative and innovation, ask yourself these questions.

• Do you allow free research and development (R&D) time?
• Do you invest in innovation: money, people, resources?
• Do you celebrate failure and risk taking?

In a tough economy the willingness to take risks can wither, so it’s critical to let team members know that failure will not result in punitive measures. A strong leader practices failure management by setting and agreeing on the risk taking bandwidth or budget. It is ok to fail but that failure should be seen and recognized as a learning experience.

….More at Innovation Excellence | Innovation is Creativity x Risk Taking

It is the job of leaders to know their industry and have a vision for what the future holds for their company. This is imperative so that they are able to allocate appropriate levels of devotion to innovation. Innovation requires that teams know that failure is an option. Failure is simply a step in the right direction. Leaders must be able to project this attitude and truly believe it in order to get the most out of their teams. A team that is constantly afraid of the repercussions of failure will consistently underperform. Only through true risk-taking can you achieve innovative results. Innovation requires great leadership.

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Mistake #1: People use the terms “management” and “leadership” interchangeably. This shows that they don't see the crucial difference between the two and the vital functions that each role plays.

Mistake #2: People use the term “leadership” to refer to the people at the very top of hierarchies. They then call the people in the layers below them in the organization “management.” And then all the rest are workers, specialists, and individual contributors. This is also a mistake and very misleading.

Mistake #3: People often think of “leadership” in terms of personality characteristics, usually as something they call charisma. Since few people have great charisma, this leads logically to the conclusion that few people can provide leadership, which gets us into increasing trouble.

…More at Management Is (Still) Not Leadership – John Kotter – Harvard …

Managers and leaders both help a company thrive but with different means. A manager can be a leader and a leader can be a manager but one does not imply the other and establishing the difference will help to avoid this common error. Management and leadership are terms commonly used synonymously but have very different meanings and we hope that you will avoid this mistake in the future.