Self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and personal conviction.
Prior to COVID, the hallmarks of great leadership didn’t always shine through in day-to-day business operations. But corporate culture has seismically shifted over the past two years.
During the pandemic, organizations pivoted to address challenges through transparency, authenticity, creativity, inspiration, and aspiration. Business leaders were given the opportunity to fully exercise empathy and seek to truly understand the personal situations of their employees — managing children’s remote learning, caring for elder parents, balancing work-from-home realities with household responsibilities, illness and loss of loved ones.
Everyone was facing the same daunting uncertainty at the same time, and emotional intelligence (EQ) became a critical leadership requirement which has forever changed organizational culture.
Emotional Intelligence in Corporate Culture
Company culture improves when leaders are engaged, transparent, and aware of their impact on others. Emotionally intelligent leaders are both cognitively and emotionally empathetic. They understand what others are experiencing and feeling. They can read non-verbal communication such as eye contact, body posture and hand gestures, as well as synthesize information by “reading between the lines” of what is actually verbalized.
Emotionally intelligent leaders understand their role in maintaining a positive climate. Through positive authentic self-expression, they encourage balanced decision-making among teams, help improve people management and performance, and increase healthy and open communication at all levels of the organization.
And they are heavily invested in developing leadership qualities in others.
Offsites to Build EQ
Many companies are actively working to reestablish culture and reengage employees through empathy and shared leadership.
More and more employees, especially millennials, are seeking stronger connections with their organizations and want to understand how they can make a difference. Planning an EQ-focused offsite provides dedicated time and space to develop your organization’s next generation of empathetic leaders.
Time away from the office provides mental white-space, opening the door for the authenticity and vulnerability required to develop the whole self, where your leadership team can gain clear insight on individual leadership styles, as well as a better understanding of how to perceive, process, and manage emotions and feelings.
At CREATiON Companies, we provide the space and place for immersive EQ training and experiential learning with our executive education team. Surrounded by tranquil nature, fueled by organic, locally sourced foods, and centered with holistic wellness practices, teams are well-positioned to collectively develop the qualities of empathetic leadership to nurture an organization-wide emotionally intelligent corporate culture.