Emotional Intelligence in HR Leadership: Enhancing Team Dynamics

Emotional Intelligence in HR Leadership: Enhancing Team Dynamics

Introduction

Fatigued by resolving conflicts amongst the team members in your organisation? Buckle up as we are about to understand the importance and techniques to develop emotional intelligence in HR leadership to enhance team dynamics swiftly.

A fast-paced, growing work environment demands constant creativity backed by well-researched decisions to ensure the minimum risk of a debacle in the plan. This constantly results in high intellectual escalations, leading to massive burnout amongst the workforce and other consequential decisions.

HR leaders are instrumental in contemplating and reforming the existing work culture and documenting the team’s performance. It has been attested that the striking HR leaders display their mettle in handling complex situations, balancing the team’s morale, and unravelling intrapersonal conflicts of emotions while staying focused on surpassing the KPIs and obtaining the business goals.

In this article, we will be covering,

• What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)?
• Elements Boosting Emotional intelligence in HR Leadership
• How does Emotional Intelligence in HR Leadership Impact the Workplace?
• Importance of Emotional Intelligence in HR Leadership
• Techniques to Develop Emotional Intelligence (EI) in HR Leadership For Team Development

What is Emotional Intelligence? (EI)

Emotional intelligence is the psychological trait that enables the individual to leverage on identifying sentiments of their own and others. This intellectual trait is questioned in HR leaders who can handle their own emotional spikes and display empathy with their associates.

The concept of emotional intelligence was coined by Peter Salavoy and John Mayer in 1990. Stakeholders and decision-makers have come to terms with recruiting dexterous, emotionally intelligent HR professionals as leaders to supervise their business operations.

Elements Boosting Emotional Intelligence in HR Leadership

95% of HR managers and 99% of working employees believe that emotional intelligence (EI) is essential for working professionals. The components that contribute to the growth of emotional intelligence are:

• Self-awareness

HR leaders must be capable of perceiving their state of mind and the quality of influence they have on others. This includes noticing different emotions, moral values, strengths, and weaknesses.

• Self-regulations

It is the enduring ability to cope with one’s own emotional and mental state that is goal-oriented from an optimistic viewpoint. This involves handling crunchy situations under pressure.

• Empathy

One central element of developing emotional intelligence for an HR leadership role has to be empathy. It is the capability of grasping and empathizing with the emotions displayed by others. This comprises interpreting emotions and comprehending facial expressions through body language.

• Social skills

It is an integral skill that entails professionals developing social relationships with their peers in the leadership and their working associates.

• Motivation

It is the driving impulse to accomplish the set goals and meet the expectations by outperforming them. Individuals considered as born leaders have high emotional intelligence that fuels their goals instead of external stimuli.

• Interpersonal relationship management

It is an aptitude that HR leaders must develop to forge lasting first impressions amongst associates and stakeholders to address conflicting matters and streamline business operations.

How Does Emotional Intelligence in HR Leadership Impact the Workplace

Emotional intelligence is the deciding factor that differentiates a mediocre HR leader from a great HR leader. HR leaders are expected to have affluent collaborative abilities to lift the team spirit for the smooth functioning of the organisation.

The HR leadership must encourage competitiveness, emotional toughness and have inspiration to encourage their peers & associates. This cements resilience into the upcoming talents as well as the resources of the organisation.

Here’s a list of a few significant impacts that are witnessed:

• HR leaders dominant on emotional intelligence are influential in operating with multiple stakeholders across the organisation for intercommunication purposes.
• They lead by example for hard work and passion for excellence by creating a happy work environment and fostering team building.
• With their composure, these HR professionals can rip apart any developing complications and mutual disagreements in the team to resolve conflict in the workplace.
• They reinforce growth amongst their associates and teammates to meet their business target metrics.
• By providing adequate space for individuals to be heard, the HR leaders, with their emotional intelligence, are effectively cracking down on strenuous business matters rapidly.

Let us thoroughly understand the importance of emotional intelligence in HR leadership. Furthermore, stay tuned for ways to develop emotional intelligence (EI) in HR leaderships & professionals:

Importance of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in HR Leadership

Emotional intelligence in HR leaders is the in-built or developed trait that assists them in facilitating healthy inter-departmental collaborations, de-escalating ongoing disagreements, and nurturing team bonding.

HR leaders who are dominant with their emotional intelligence are often skilled orators driving inspiring traits in their operating style.

• 75% of Fortune 500 companies have implemented emotional intelligence training and testing.

This motivates the team of associates, develops adaptability to upcoming changes, rectifies internal hurdles and mutual disagreements. Emotional intelligence (EI) guides the HR leadership to progress in the following ways.

Developing effective relationships

The primary responsibility of the HR leadership is to develop a friendly rapport with the existing teams across different corporate roles. Professionals superior with emotional intelligence attributes often personalise their approach with the stakeholders and their peers by empathising with their sentiments to obtain their trust and belief.

This eventually bridges the emotional barrier amongst the employees and leads to the formation of an ecstatic work environment; better encouragement should be considered for acknowledging the contributions & existence of the workforce accordingly. Based on the feasible alternatives available, this can stimulate quality work efficiency, lead to higher job satisfaction, and more, which is a win-win situation for the growth of the business.

Conflict management

Conflict at the workplace is inescapable by any means, leaving the HR professionals at gunpoint to become the frontline defence for the management. HR leaders oozing on high emotional intelligence (EI) strategically identify a standard solution to encourage positive morale for fostering interpersonal collaboration. Leaders from the HR department who are proactive in their emotional intelligence are steadily composed and collected to handle an aroused disputing matter.

This eventually strengthens them to empathise with the team members and discover mutually harmonious grounds that favour all the parties involved in the conflicting crisis. Thus, eliminating the negative stimulus can further boost the development of long-lasting communications among the interpersonal operations team and others for the growth of the business organisations.

Better stress management

The HR professionals in the organisation’s leadership role are loaded with high business-impacting decisions and stressful events. This includes mutual disagreement amongst the working team, layoffs, allocation of salary hikes for its employees, and more. HR leaders displaying high-yielding emotional intelligence can optimally regulate their industry expertise in scenarios with self-calm and exposure against ongoing duress.

Commitment towards their responsibility acts as an external motivation stimulus that employees can observe and demonstrate. This can be the highest level of integrity in their performance to meet the business goals and align with cultural values that the leadership team sets themselves to become a front runner.

Thoughtful decision-making

Executing precise decisions in the correct situation based on internal readings and reports sets HR leadership apart from mediocrity. HR professionals from the leadership with exceptional emotional intelligence can set the tone of their business by executing rational business calls, leaving aside their personal opinions and impulses. Professionals from the leadership team can exhibit flexibility and create a sense of belonging by commiserating with the teams and associates for feedback and inputs before making the business shots. A simple move like this can draw in the sense of being associated with the other teams in the organisation.

Communicative interactions

The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have. – Sheryl Sandberg

Every working HR professional in a leadership role is demanded to be a charismatic communicator for a specific reason for tackling conflicts of emotions amongst the teams. The leaders must carve a personalised approach to cultivate the business goals required within the set time frame. Professionals ascending enormous emotional intelligence can get acquainted with a specific tone of communication well suited to the team.

They deploy their active listening skill and bespoken empathising nature for enhanced understanding of the ongoing challenges amongst the existing team members. Their strong will infused with emotional intelligence (EI) assists them in revamping their interpersonal interactive approach that appeals to stakeholders and team members to control negative emotional business concerns across the organisation.

Techniques to Develop Emotional Intelligence in HR Leadership for Team Development

The Development of emotional intelligence (EI) is not a short-duration course that can be taken up and acquired. It requires years of dedication and industry expertise to handle the stress gracefully and achieve the business deliverables.

• 71% of employers prioritise emotional intelligence over IQ.

Here are a few practical techniques that can sharpen your existing emotional intelligence:

Self-realisation

Self-realisation is the piston that runs the engine of emotional intelligence. This process requires professionals from leadership roles to introspect about their internal emotions and psychological stimuli. This entails cultivated values, emotional reactions, trust, and beliefs.

The process begins by assessing and contemplating your sentiments about situations and the type of emotion elicited along with others’ working performance at the workplace. Analysing the depth of difficulties can mould HR leaders to form excellent supervisory skills to tackle diverse circumstances that might impact the other team members.

Regulation on responses

Professionals from HR leadership roles are obligated to regulate and respond against their emotions in stressful situations. Below are a few steps to consider to have seamless communication under pressure:

• Analyse the situation before engaging.
• Respond and not react.
• Moderate the aroused emotions from an incredible developed wit.
• Be accountable for response based on the reaction.
• Reciprocate to giving feedback from teams.

Positive attitude & mindfulness

“Those who have learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

–Charles Darwin

A positive mind with a constructive attitude can be contagious in drawing motivation in the team members. HR leaders must stay positive even during a negative situation to resist the breakage of the team cluster in the organisation.

Mind-bending leaders often seek challenges to find solutions to improve their emotional intelligence (EI) constantly and to expand the learning experience. This damages low morale and boosts team spirit when the leaders perform at their optimum right from the top.

Incorporate empathy and humility

The best way to understand and connect with the team as a leader is through empathising with team members by comprehending their viewpoints and challenges.

Acknowledging the efforts of the team members will cultivate a sense of belongingness.

Forging two-way communication and assessing the received feedback is the real deal that depicts learning and growth in the HR leadership based on the team’s requirements.

Empathetic leaders can deliver better results by up to 40% in decision-making and employee engagement.

Develop interpersonal social Traits

HR leaders with emotional intelligence have developed the highly desirable social skills that make them appear confident, approachable, and effective orators. Developing interpersonal social skills will ensure the allocated team’s growth in safe hands and simultaneously impress the stakeholders and the other teams to build trust and reliability in the professionals from the leadership roles.

Here is a simple list of methods that can fix your social skills and take it to the level-A game as an HR leader:

• Have a heart-warming smile while greeting peers and associates.
• Accept your mistakes and apologise if needed.
• Evaluate the impact of your words before delivering them.
• Value your team members’ time as much as your own.
• Remain faithful to your given word and deliver the set expectations.

In Summary

Emotional intelligence (EI) is one of the bone-bearing hallmarks that strengthens the HR leadership for tackling unprecedented high-pressure workplace scenarios. HR professionals can defuse ongoing and forthcoming situations to de-escalate interpersonal team members’ conflicts. This results in developing a healthy, work-friendly environment that values the contribution made by the workforce. It also encourages HR leaders to collaborate with the operation managers in developing plans for rewarding employees’ performance.

Sheer resilience can guide professionals in leadership roles to attain empathy and sharpened active listening skills, which benefits the employees’ mental health and delivers business growth to the stakeholders. Business ventures and HR recruiting agencies aiming to hire professionals for their clients must emphasise and evaluate candidates on the following parameters. Additionally, businesses can market to HR professionals using result-oriented marketing strategies that can derive the desired growth results.

Author Bio

My name is Robert Jordan, a seasoned marketing professional with over 13 years of experience, currently working as Media Relations Manager at InfoClutch Inc, Have expertise in setting up the lead flow for budding startups and take it to the next level. Have a deep interest in Marketing, B2B & technology-related discussions. Always open to new ideas & discussions.