People high in this skill of emotional leadership typically …
- Know emotions are an important resource for decision-making and problem solving, especially about their relationships.
- Have an excellent ability to capture emotional data in language and can label emotions accurately and separate them into different intensities of emotion.
- Can verbally navigate emotional blends; know how emotions combine, and how to analyze these feelings into their parts.
- Are able to analyze a person’s emotion state – the different feelings that combine to make their mood and can communicate that to others.
The ability to know emotion will help you to…
UNDERSTAND: What people are feeling and how to communicate your emotional awareness to others, including how simple emotions combine as emotion blends.
DO:
- Know emotions as a resource – Everything is about how you feel
- Verbally navigate emotional blends – Emotional language is important for sense making
- Know how emotions combine – how emotions assemble/disassemble into parts
DO NOT:
- Dismiss emotional data – It is as important as technical, functional, medical data
- Bring verbal IQ to your EI score – If you do, you are struggling with emotion complexity
- Give in to alexithymia – 50% of people struggle with the language of emotion
MEASURE SUCCESS:
You have been successful knowing emotion when you:
- Know what others are feeling, can label their emotion, and know its cause
- Verbally succeed in making sense of the emotional landscape
- Communicate your appreciation of how emotions assemble/combine over time
UNDERSTAND:
Emotions are a resource; a source of data. Emotions direct our attention to a real issue or a problem that exists. The continual internal feedback that emotions provide about your body’s state of physiological arousal helps you interpret situations and build relationships.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS:
EMOTIONS CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION
