Day 2 Lecturer Notes

Certificate in Smart Leadership – The 360° Leader: Emotional Intelligence, Achieving Strategy & Innovation.
Lecturer Notes: Emotional Intelligence for Relationship Building
Day 2 Highlights:
- Focus: Enhancing leadership through emotional intelligence, growth areas, strengths, feedback, and team
dynamics.

Session 1: Growth Areas as Perceived by Others

- Definition: Identified skills or behaviors needing improvement for leadership effectiveness.

- Example Story: A manager frequently misses deadlines due to poor time management. After feedback
from their team, they adopt project management tools and improve delivery times.

- Sources of Insight:

- Team Feedback: Daily interactions highlight blind spots.

- Example: A team reports feeling micromanaged, prompting a leader to delegate more responsibilities.

- Performance Reviews: Supervisors identify areas for improvement during evaluations.

- Example: A supervisor suggests improving presentation skills. The leader enrolls in public speaking
workshops.

- Self-Reflection: Comparing external feedback with self-perception.

- Example: A leader recognizes their tendency to interrupt during meetings and works on active listening.

- Common Growth Areas:

- Communication: Clarity, active listening, adaptability.

- Example: A leader miscommunicates a deadline, causing confusion. They start using tools like Slack for
clearer updates.

- Emotional Regulation: Managing stress under pressure.

- Example: During a crisis, a leader practices breathing techniques to stay calm and guide the team.

- Decision-Making: Balancing analytical and intuitive approaches.

- Example: A leader uses a pros-and-cons list to make quicker, more confident decisions.

- Research Highlights:

- Leaders addressing growth areas improve team performance (Korn Ferry).

- Story: A company sees a 15% boost in sales after its leaders adopt feedback strategies.

- Self-aware leaders are twice as likely to excel (Harvard Business Review)

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Session 2: Leadership Strengths

- Importance:

- Recognizing strengths validates a leader’s impact and provides tools for leveraging these traits.

- Example Story: A leader known for empathy helps mediate a team conflict, strengthening morale.

- Identifying Strengths:

- Tools like StrengthsFinder help assess leadership traits.

- Example: A leader discovers their top strength is “strategic thinking” and begins mentoring others on
planning.

- Feedback from team observations:

- Example: A team consistently praises a leader’s ability to resolve conflicts, prompting them to teach
conflict-resolution workshops.

- Patterns from past successes:

- Example: A leader’s adaptability during an organizational restructure wins trust and increases
engagement.

- Common Leadership Strengths:

- Empathy: Building strong relationships.

- Example: A leader actively listens to a struggling employee, offering a flexible schedule as support.

- Strategic Thinking: Planning effectively.

- Example: A leader creates a roadmap that helps their team meet a critical product launch.

- Leveraging Strengths:

- Amplify impact and influence.

- Example Story: A leader skilled in motivational speaking uses it to rally the team during challenging
times.

- Partner with complementary team members:

- Example: A strategic thinker partners with a detail-oriented executor to complete a complex project
successfully.
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Session 3: Feedback and Handling Change

Receiving 360° Feedback:

- Purpose:

- Align self-perception with external expectations.

- Example: A leader receives feedback about being overly critical and adopts a constructive feedback style.

- Interpreting Feedback:

- Look for patterns and actionable insights.

- Example: A leader notices repeated feedback about poor delegation and creates a plan to share
responsibilities more effectively.

- Using Feedback for Development:

- Create SMART goals.

- Example: After feedback about weak presentation skills, a leader sets monthly goals for practicing public
speaking.

- Common Pitfalls:

- Defensiveness:

- Example: A leader initially resists feedback about their temper but later implements mindfulness
techniques to improve.

- Failing to act:

- Example: Ignoring feedback leads to low morale among team members.

Handling Change:
- Traits of Positive Leadership During Change:

- Transparency: Reduces uncertainty.

- Example: A leader updates employees weekly during a departmental reorganization, easing anxiety.

- Empathy: Addresses team concerns.

- Example Story: A leader listens to employees’ fears during a merger and provides workshops to help
them adapt.

- Research Highlights:

- Transparent leaders boost change acceptance (Gallup).

- Example: A leader’s openness about challenges increases trust and collaboration during a major product
recall.
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Session 4: Emotional Relationships and Team Synergy

Emotionally Healthy Relationships:

- Traits:

- Trust: Open communication and mutual respect.

- Example: A manager supports a team member’s career growth by advocating for their promotion.

- Empathy: Valuing others’ emotions.

- Example Story: A leader provides emotional support to an employee dealing with personal loss.

- Strategies:

- Practice active listening:

- Example: A leader actively listens during a tense meeting, helping resolve a conflict amicably.

- Show appreciation:

- Example: A team celebrates their manager for recognizing individual contributions during a project.

Fostering Synergy:
- Key Elements:

- Clear goals and aligned objectives.

- Example: A project team successfully launches a product by clearly dividing roles and objectives.

- Skill diversity and mutual respect.

- Example Story: A tech team blends the creativity of designers and the precision of engineers to deliver an
innovative app.

- Barriers to Synergy:

- Poor communication and unresolved conflicts.

- Example: A team misses deadlines due to unclear roles and frequent misunderstandings.

- Strategies:

- Facilitate regular communication:

- Example: Weekly team meetings ensure alignment and reduce confusion on a cross-departmental
project.

- Celebrate team achievements:

- Example: A team receives recognition for exceeding their sales target, boosting morale and collaboration.
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