Emotional Intelligence Development for Leaders

Sometimes the problem isn’t someone’s ability to do their job.

They may be highly experienced, technically excellent and capable of delivering results. They may even have been promoted because of those qualities.

Yet something isn’t working.

Relationships are becoming difficult. People are reluctant to speak openly around them. Conversations aren’t being handled well. They become defensive when challenged, struggle to understand why others don’t respond as expected or simply don’t recognise the impact their behaviour is having on the people around them.

These can appear to be very different leadership problems.

Often, however, they have something in common.

Emotional intelligence.

The Australasian Leadership Institute works with organisations throughout New Zealand to help leaders develop the self-awareness, emotional regulation and interpersonal skills required to lead people more effectively.

We don’t start by assuming you need a workshop.

We start by understanding the problem you are trying to solve.

Does This Sound Familiar?

You have a manager who is technically excellent but struggles with people.

Someone who doesn’t seem to recognise how their communication affects others.

A leader who becomes defensive when receiving feedback or being challenged.

A manager who avoids difficult conversations until relatively small problems become much bigger ones.

Someone whose emotional reactions can influence the atmosphere of an entire team.

A leader who communicates effectively with certain personalities but continually clashes with others.

A manager who believes they are being clear and direct while others experience them as abrupt or intimidating.

A leader whose team has gradually stopped challenging them or raising concerns.

Or perhaps there isn’t one obvious problem. You simply know that a capable person isn’t having the impact as a leader that either you or they expected.

These behaviours don’t necessarily mean you have a bad leader.

They may mean you have someone who needs help developing a different set of skills.

Being Good at Your Job Doesn’t Automatically Make You Good at Leading People

One of the most common mistakes organisations make is assuming that because someone is technically good at their job, they will naturally know how to lead other people.

They won’t.

The qualities that establish someone’s technical credibility are not necessarily the same qualities required to lead a team.

Leadership requires people to understand how their behaviour affects others. They need to recognise their own emotional responses, remain effective under pressure, understand what motivates different individuals and adapt the way they communicate depending on the person and situation in front of them.

They also need to recognise something that can be particularly difficult for successful people:

Other people don’t necessarily think the way they do.

Developing these capabilities is at the heart of emotional intelligence.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is essentially the ability to understand yourself, understand other people and use that understanding to manage relationships more effectively.

For leaders, this means developing four interconnected capabilities.

Self-awareness

Understanding your own emotions, behaviours, strengths, blind spots and the impact you have on other people.

Self-management

Being able to manage your emotional responses, particularly during pressure, disagreement, uncertainty and difficult conversations.

Social awareness

Recognising what other people may be experiencing and understanding that different individuals can interpret the same situation very differently.

Relationship management

Using that understanding to communicate, influence, motivate, resolve conflict and build productive working relationships.

Emotional intelligence isn’t about becoming less demanding, avoiding difficult conversations or trying to keep everybody happy.

In fact, emotionally intelligent leaders are often able to have more challenging conversations because they understand how to combine clarity with empathy and accountability with respect.

The Person Who Needs Development May Not Believe They Need It

This is one of the particular challenges organisations face with emotional intelligence.

A lack of self-awareness can mean the person experiencing the problem doesn’t see the problem.

They may believe other people are too sensitive.

They may attribute relationship difficulties entirely to somebody else’s behaviour.

They may point towards their results as evidence that their leadership style is working.

Or they may genuinely have no idea that people experience their behaviour differently from how they intend it.

Simply telling somebody that they “need more emotional intelligence” is unlikely to help.

Our approach is different.

We don’t begin by labelling someone or telling them what is wrong with them.

We help leaders examine what is happening, understand the impact their current approach is having and identify alternative behaviours that are more likely to produce the results they want.

The objective isn’t to change someone’s personality.

It’s to increase their range as a leader.

What Would You Like to Be Different?

Before recommending any development, we want to understand what you are seeing.

Perhaps you want a leader to communicate more effectively.

Maybe they need to become less defensive when challenged.

Perhaps they need to develop confidence having difficult conversations.

They may need to understand why particular relationships continually become difficult.

Maybe their team needs greater psychological safety.

Or perhaps you have a group of managers who have been promoted because of their technical capability and now need to develop the people skills required for leadership.

Different problems require different solutions.

That’s why we offer several ways of working with organisations.

Individual Leadership Coaching

When the issue involves a particular leader

If you have one manager or executive who would benefit from developing greater self-awareness and interpersonal effectiveness, individual coaching may be the most appropriate option.

Coaching creates a confidential environment where the leader can explore situations they are experiencing, challenge some of their assumptions and understand how their behaviour may be contributing to the results they are getting.

We can work on areas such as:

● self-awareness and leadership blind spots

● communication style

● defensiveness and receiving feedback

● emotional regulation

● difficult conversations

● conflict

● understanding different personalities

● building trust

● influencing others

● confidence

● motivation and engagement

● relationships with colleagues, employees or senior leaders.

The purpose isn’t simply to make someone aware of a problem.

Awareness only becomes valuable when it leads to different behaviour.

Emotional Intelligence for Leaders Workshop

When you want to develop a group of leaders

Where emotional intelligence development would benefit a wider management or leadership group, we can design an in-house workshop around the particular needs of your organisation.

Rather than delivering an academic introduction to emotional intelligence, we focus on how it applies to situations leaders actually encounter.

Participants learn how to recognise their own emotional responses, understand their impact on others, communicate with different personalities, handle challenging situations and create stronger working relationships.

Workshops can include areas such as self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, communication, difficult conversations, psychological safety, motivation, conflict and relationship management.

Every workshop is tailored following a conversation about your organisation, your leaders and what you would like to achieve.

And the development doesn’t have to finish when the workshop ends.

Participants can receive an individual coaching session following the workshop, giving them an opportunity to discuss their own leadership challenges privately and explore how they can apply what they have learned.

Leadership Development Programmes

When the challenge is bigger than one person or one workshop

Sometimes individual coaching or a single workshop isn’t enough.

An organisation may have talented managers who have never received meaningful leadership development.

There may be inconsistent expectations about what good leadership looks like.

Or the organisation may be trying to create a wider change in leadership culture.

In these situations, the Australasian Leadership Institute can develop a customised programme combining workshops, individual coaching and ongoing development.

The programme begins with the same question:

What would you like to be different?

We then work backwards from that objective to design development that fits your organisation rather than asking your organisation to fit an existing programme.

A Developmental Approach — Not a Label

We understand that these situations can be sensitive.

Nobody wants to be told that HR has sent them to a course because they “lack emotional intelligence.”

And that’s not how we approach development.

Our starting assumption is that most ineffective leadership behaviours aren’t deliberate.

People develop ways of communicating, responding and leading that have worked for them in the past. As their responsibilities increase, however, those same behaviours may become less effective.

Our role isn’t to judge people.

It’s to help them recognise what’s happening, understand the impact they’re having and develop more effective ways of achieving the results they want.

That approach allows development to be challenging without becoming confrontational.

Practical. Evidence-Based. Personal.

The Australasian Leadership Institute is led by Chief Leadership Coach Mark Wager, who brings more than three decades of leadership experience to his work with managers, executives and organisations.

Our approach combines established research in leadership, psychology, emotional intelligence and human behaviour with the realities of leading people in the workplace.

Mark has worked with leaders from organisations including the New Zealand Defence Force, Ministry of Justice, Department of Internal Affairs, ACC, Fisher & Paykel, St John, Red Cross, Barnardos, Weta Workshop, UNICEF and Amnesty International.

We don’t believe leadership development should simply give people interesting things to think about.

It should change what happens when they return to work.

Emotional Intelligence Development Throughout New Zealand

The Australasian Leadership Institute provides emotional intelligence coaching, workshops and customised leadership development throughout New Zealand.

We regularly work with organisations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and regional centres, with programmes available both in person and online.

Whether you are dealing with one particular leadership challenge or looking to develop emotional intelligence across an entire management team, we can design an approach around what your organisation actually needs.

Not Sure What You Need?

You don’t need to diagnose the problem before contacting us.

And you don’t need to decide whether you need coaching, a workshop or a leadership programme.

Tell us what’s happening.

Tell us what you’re seeing, why it concerns you and what you would like to be different.

We can talk the situation through confidentially and help you determine what kind of development — if any — would be most appropriate.

There is no obligation and no need to have all the answers before getting in touch.

Sometimes the best place to start is simply a conversation.

Talk to the Australasian Leadership Institute

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