Empathy As A Leadership Competency Of Social Awareness

According to Bradberry and Greaves (pg. 136), social-awareness is “looking outward to learn about and appreciate others, instead of looking inward to learn and understand yourself”. Thus, social-awareness is “centered on your ability to recognize and understand the emotions of others”, hence, the importance of observing and interacting with others to understand and pick up on emotional cues. During the video Dr. Daniel Goldman discusses how social and emotional intelligence affect organizations and leaders. According to Dr. Goldman, “outstanding leaders, first listen and get other people to say what they think and what they know and then put that all together for a higher order integration, that’s real leadership”. Additionally, he states,

Hence, empathy is a leadership competency of social-awareness. Empathic leaders (pg. 255), “listen attentively and can grasp the other person’s perspective”, thus, are able to communicate more effectively. Dr. Goldman mentions, outstanding individual performers are successful because of their own individual abilities and efforts such as motivation, discipline, and drive (emotional intelligence-self-mastery). Whereas, social abilities such as influencing, developing, and inspiring others entails empathy and skilled interaction (social-awareness), creating a good leader. I recall from week one discussing how emotional intelligence contributes to one’s success more so than IQ. As we continue to read and view the assigned material I agree with the previous statement and I have discovered my shortcoming in

Needless to say, I will continue to implement more strategies as I progress. I selected social-awareness strategies 7 (clear away the clutter) and 8 (live in the moment). It wasn’t until I read strategy 7 that I realized how much disservice I have done to others and multitasking is not a strength. Throughout my career I have always been told to multitask and I took pride in my abilities to do such. Looking back on it now, I realize it created stress and wasn’t effective. I’m excited about “toggling”. Although, I’m getting better at living in the moment, I have a long road ahead of me to not live in the past and not dwell on the future. As I age and learn more about myself (self-awareness), I’ve noticed I avoid situations and do not like tough conversations. Hence, relationship-management strategies 9 (don’t avoid the inevitable) and 17 (tackle a tough conversation). Change is inevitable, yet I avoid it just as I avoid touch conversation. I plan to use the six steps on pages 220-223 to tackle touch