Soft Skills, Hard Results, Management : iPedia

Leadership deals with the world of emotions and feelings. It is more of an art than a

Of course, there are some people who remain unconvinced of the value of these "soft skills." They're typically managers with minimal leadership qualities, who prefer to focus on being bottom-line driven, strategists,

These managers often talk about the importance of personal effectiveness and development. They pledge undying allegiance to values, mission, and vision. They go on about people issues, like

Well, maybe they should think again. Now there is hard evidence that those "soft" leadership principles are the major factor in what makes a high-performance team or organization. The exciting and rapidly expanding research on emotional intelligence shows that a leader's personal characteristics and leadership competencies have a direct bearing on his or her personal performance – as well as on that of their team and organization.

For example, studies show that even a leader's mood is highly contagious. Depending on whether he or she is upbeat and supportive, or cranky and disapproving, the team will either be charged with high achievement or poisoned with deadly toxins.

Cary Cherniss, at Rutger's University has found "there now is a considerable body of research suggesting that a person's ability to perceive, identify, and manage emotion provides the basis for the kinds of social and emotional competencies that are important for success in almost any job. Furthermore, as the pace of change increases and the world of work makes ever greater demands on a person's cognitive, emotional, and physical resources, this particular set of abilities will become increasingly important."

There's not a lot we can do about the processing power between our ears. For the most part, we're stuck with whatever intelligence quotient (IQ) we've got. The good news for many of us is that our IQ is dramatically less important to success and happiness than our emotional intelligence (EQ). What's even better is that EQ, unlike IQ, can be improved. It's not easy (nothing worth doing ever is), but it can be done.

As University of Toronto psychology professors Steven Stein and Howard Book (what better name for an author?) write in their book, The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Future, "We know that emotional intelligence can be enhanced because we've seen it happen over and over again as we've worked with corporate CEOs and other executives, school teachers, military personnel, counselors and consultants, mental

Improving our emotional intelligence starts with a clear picture of our ideal self. This is at the hub of our Leadership Wheel: Where am I going (or what is the picture of my preferred future)? The next step is a "gap analysis," or assessment of my current strengths and weaknesses, followed by a plan for bridging those gaps (building on my strengths and strengthening my weaknesses). Then the real improvement work begins – experimenting with new behaviors, reframing my thinking, developing skills, and mastering feelings. This can often be reinforced by forming new relationships or by changing the dynamic of existing ones. These steps are generally difficult to sustain on our own. That's why personal coaches, counselors, and consultants have become so popular. They help us step back from the movie of our life to review and reset our thinking and actions.

Excerpted from Jim's bestseller, The Leader's Digest: Timeless Principles for Team and Organization Success. View the book's unique format and content, Introduction and Chapter One, and feedback at http://www.theleadersdigest.com. This book is a companion book to Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success. Jim Clemmer is an internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop/retreat leader, and

Health is a term that refers to a combination of the absence of illness, the ability to cope with everyday activities, physical fitness, and high quality of life. In any organism, health can be said to be a "state of balance," or analogous to homeostasis, and it also implies good prospects for continued survival. Wellness is a term sometimes used to describe the psychological state of being healthy, but is most often used in the field of alternative medicine to describe one's state of being.
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management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus, culture, teams, and personal growth. His

"Management" (from Old French ménagement "the art of conducting, directing", from Latin manu agere "to lead by the hand") characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organisation, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). Early twentieth-century management writer Mary Parker Follett defined management as "the art of getting things done through people."
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web site is http://www.clemmer.net/articles.

A website (or Web site, according to Associated Press guidelines) is a collection of Web pages, typically common to a particular domain name or subdomain on the World Wide Web on the Internet.
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