A personal experience of Emotional Intelligence as a Leader...

I recently took Voluntary Redundancy at an extremely well known 'Blue Chip' UK based company where I was fortunate enough to have had a very interesting career with many rewarding experiences. This company is currently headline news, sadly for problematic ongoing Industrial Relations.

As a Leader in this company I was responsible for a team of twenty people. I knew the significance of choosing to lead from Personal Power rather than Positional Power, knowing and understanding what 'drives' me and others to do well. I am also aware of how my thoughts and feelings impact upon me which in turn would impact upon my team in every situation!

As an Emotionally Intelligent Leader, I was able to run a checklist through my thoughts and feelings when presented with a Performance Management issue for example, ensuring that I would not project onto the issue anything other than objectivity with the goal of improving the performance in question remembering also, that the person and the behaviour are two separate issues.

As a Role Model I could be 'counted upon' for consistency within my role on a day to day and being 'transparent' my team felt that they were able to build up loyalty, honesty and trust. This consistency is also a key ingredient of being an Emotionally Intelligent leader.

It was rewarding to create and lead a team of such committed and motivated people knowing that they had a genuine desire to be a part of my team and continually deliver great results.

I chose to take the offer of Voluntary Redundancy so that I was able to pursue a new and exciting career as a Leadership Training Consultant and Business Coach with Different Dynamics and develop my skills within this field of work whilst having the opportunity to draw upon my many experiences from this company.


Simon Hill, Leadership Trainer and Coach with Different Dynamics