Structure:

• Qualities of a leader or Define what is emotional intelligence
• Why leaders have to be emotionally intelligent- in relation to good governance, welfare government & proactive government. Or Why is it relevant today.
• Give examples.
• Conclusion- How to improve EI

Supporting points:

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the capability of a person to assess, manage and control one’s own emotions as well as emotions of others. It is critical to manage our behaviour and decision making. It has 5 components- self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. These 5 components are key in leadership.

Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

1. Realistic Goal setting: Self-awareness ability allow a leader to not only know his/her strengths and weaknesses, but also strength and weaknesses of his team members. This help a leader in setting realistic achievable goals and in managing team through using his/her strengths. This also help in delegation of work based on strengths of team. Emotional intelligence enable a leader to work upon his/her and his/her teammates weaknesses while using strengths optimally toward achieving a goal.
2. Develop Empathy: Having empathy is critical to manage a successful team or organisation. Ability to recognize others’ emotions help leaders to practice empathy. It help them to understand the problems of people and help them.
3. Management of stressful situations: Emotional Intelligence help leaders to manage their and their teammate’s emotions, particularly in stressful situations, and maintain a positive outlook despite setbacks. Leaders who lack emotional intelligence tend to react and have a harder time in keeping their impulses in check. Civil servants face several internal and external pressure- social, political and economical; pressure from seniors, politicians and the public. These can be better managed by EI.
4. Conflict resolution: Emotional Intelligence help leaders to influence and mentor others and help in resolving conflict effectively. It also helps in coordinating with different departments and ensure better coordination.
5. Motivation:Emotionally Intelligent leaders work consistently toward their goals, and establish extremely high standards for the quality of their work. This drive and motivate other teammates to achieve these standards and goals.
6. Effective Communication: Emotionally intelligent leaders are great communicators. They know what to say and when to say. An effective communication in a team help them to develop better strategies and increase their efficiency by synchronising their efforts.
7. Emotional intelligence helps leaders to adapt:Leaders should be able to adapt to changing circumstances- Socialism, capitalism, LPG reforms etc . E.g if a teammate leaves, an emotionally intelligent leader will try to find a suitable replacement and know how to keep his team motivated. Ability to understand and manage their emotions and of those around them help emotionally intelligent leaders to navigate through difficult circumstances.
8. Better team performance:Emotionally Intelligent leader focus on collaboration between team members, which creates synergy and a better experience for employees. They support others and always celebrate the successes of their employees and encourage them to learn more and develop their skills. This lead to confidence building and better team performance.
9. Decision making: Emotionally Intelligent leaders make objective decisions based on accumulated wisdom and understanding with time. A leader who manages his or her emotions will take quick and strong decisions without emotions being involved after proper cost-benefit analysis.
10. Ability to Bounce Back from Adversity: Emotional Intelligence helpleaders to bounce back quickly after a setback. It help them to manage their and their teammates’ emotions motivating them to the next goal.
11. For Targeting Policies better:Bureaucrats need to know emotions, moods and drives of persons at whom public policy is targeted for better acquaintance with the nature of problems in society and their possible solutions.
12. For change:An Emotionally Intelligent person is more likely to try new things, take risks and face new challenges without fear. This will help in finding innovative solutions to different problems.
13. For maintaining balance in life:EI helps a civil servant in managing his/her personal life as well as professional life.
14. On personal front,EI makes one more flexible, empathetic and clear in expression.

Relevance of EI in Civil Services

Civil Servants today face numerous problems in the work environment such as:

• Increasing regional, economic and digital divide.
• Widespread application of IT.
• Demand for improved governance.
• Issues getting politicized easily.
• Political Pressure and Rampant Corruption.
• Decentralisation of governance to grassroot levels thereby increasing responsibilities.
• Issues of globalisation, migration, terrorism, cybercrimes, information technology etc.

Improving Emotional Intelligence

• By self-evaluating oneself, one can know one’s emotions and reactions to different situations.
• By observing others, one can comprehend feelings of others.
• By improving one’s expression, one can communicate better.
• By analyzing the impact of one’s action over others, one can fine tune the actions.