Please help me to reply to the student below. I agree with what she said, but I would need to explain why:

How does the ability to understand other people help you to become a better leader?

How can a leaderlearn to use EQ to lead?

Student 1: Having the ability to understand others helps you become a better leader for multiple reasons. Being a leader means you have people looking up to you for guidance, advice, and structure. Often times you have to report to a leader in the workplace, and having someone who doesn't possess the qualities of a good leader can cause issues. Understanding others can help you resolve issues when they arise whether they are socially related or work-related. "If they lack emotional intelligence, it could have more far-reaching consequences, resulting in lower employee engagement and a higher turnover rate." (Landry, 2019) It is important to be engaged with your employees and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Leaders can be more effective when distributing different types of work to their employees when they understand them. Recognizing others' emotions and the dynamics in the workplace increases your ability to understand people. Understanding others also increases your communication skills which is one of the most important skills to have.

A leader can learn to use EQ to lead by developing themselves first. In order to lead your subordinates, you have to develop your emotional intelligence first. You can do that by increasing your social awareness, your self-awareness, and your self-management. You must understand your strengths and weaknesses and recognize your emotions and the effect that can have on the performance of your team and yourself. Keeping your emotions under control in tense or stressful situations is also important. It's a quality that an individual would have with heightened emotional intelligence and is important for a leader to possess. Once you have increased your EQ, you can help develop your employees better. Using EQ to lead increases your ability to influence, mentor, and resolve conflicts effectively.

Reference:

Landry, L. (2019, April 3). Emotional intelligence in leadership: Why it's important. Business Insights Blog. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/emotional-intelligence-in-leadershipLinks to an external site.

Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books.