Shaken. Not stirred.

Let’s talk about emotional intelligence and leadership.

I have written before about horizontal, empowered teams, but have not specifically discussed the relevance in our changing workplace.  As organizations try to do more with less; as they ‘flatten’ their structures and ask more of management, it is important to note that, in order to be effective, leaders must be able to build and leverage horizontal teams.  In order to lead a horizontal team, one must possess emotional intelligence.

I will even go one step further and submit to you that one must possess emotional intelligence in order to become a leader – beyond a “manager”.

To lead a horizontal, empowered team is to put the team above yourself; to have enough humility to share what your weaknesses are; to have trust in your teams and to get out of their way; to commit to their growth and development; to follow through and represent them unwaveringly as you build faith, trust, and credibility.

Think of the monolithic managers you know.  I’ll wait.

They wield organizational power, but have no personal power.  Their teams are set up so that all decisions have to come through them.  They spend untold energy monitoring your comings and goings,  the hours you’ve reported on your projects, or some other procedural aspect of your work life.

But, they can’t tell you the last time they devoted just an hour of their time to supporting you – to growing and learning from you.  Rather, your monolithic manager will use that hour to comb through those oh-so-worthy status reports you have to submit week after week, or talk about how you are managing vacation schedules, or how some other administrative item is past due.

It seems the monolithic manager is hell-bent on spending 80%+ of their energy on the <20% return  items.  These are not the attributes of leaders.

When your teams want autonomy and empowerment; when your teams want to participate and contribute; when your teams look to your for opportunities, for growth and development, for feedback and support, for encouragement and reward; when your teams want all of this, how can you ever hope to be successful as simply a “manager”?

If you have the power or influence, and your organization is lacking leadership, then do something about it.  Shake it up.  Things will not change if you lack leadership.  Innovation will not improve; and moving your organization forward can not happen.

It all starts with leadership…leadership and emotional intelligence.