KEY for Success: Integrity and Emotional Intelligence
I’ve been thinking about emotional intelligence and integrity again recently since the news is full of questions regarding certain people’s integrity. Integrity is needed for REAL success, in my opinion.
When you add Emotional Intelligence to Integrity you come up with a winning combination whether it comes to a new hire, to a new start-up team member, or also, when meeting new people. These are the people, even if they are of the introvert style, that your potential clients and partners are drawn to.
One of the best ways to look at the picture is the three circles below: where it meets in what we do, how we do it and why we do it is our emotional intelligence. Our integrity is going in that direction with our whole hearts and keeping our trustworthiness and conscientiousness foremost in our actions.
Remember that our direction is lost when we do something that is not in congruence with our character and goals. When we try to take short cuts by hurting others and climbing over their backs, we are actually hurting ourselves. Thus, being transparent about decisions when you are a manager or in any kind of leadership will keep you true to yourself and to your goals. It will keep you accountable and on track for success.
So, keep your eyes on the goal and remember what Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “To thine own (and to others, I might add) self be true”.
Emotional intelligence is how we apply our personal and social emotional skills in our life.
Our personal emotional skills are listed under two sub categories: self-awareness and self-regulation. Both are important in helping us to be a whole and integrated person: self-awareness is about whether we know what we are feeling, if we are able to clearly assess ourselves and if we are healthily self-confident whereas self regulation is about self-control, being trustworthy, being conscientious, being adaptable, and being innovative (creative). All these qualities and skills makes you a healthy (and successful) human when it comes to yourself. But we don’t live in vacuums, so the social aspect of EQ is also very important.
Our social emotional skills focus on our reactions to others (from within- empathy) and our inter-actions (working with the others - social). The empathetic skills are: understanding others, developing others, serving others, leveraging diversity, and political (systemic) awareness. The social skills are influencing, effective communication, conflict management, leadership, change catalyst, building bonds, collaboration and cooperation, and team capabilities (both as a member and leader).
Have a great weekend!
Patricia Jehle
NOTES:
For another look on transparency and success: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276671 Integrity
Definition: noun
1. the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. "a gentleman of complete integrity"
synonyms:
honesty, uprightness, probity, rectitude, honour, honourableness, upstanding-ness, good character, principle(s), ethics, morals, righteousness, morality, nobility, high-mindedness, right-mindedness,
noble-mindedness, virtue, decency, fairness, scrupulousness, sincerity, truthfulness, trustworthiness
"I never doubted his integrity"
antonyms:
dishonesty
2. the state of being whole and undivided. "upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty"
synonyms:
unity, unification, wholeness, coherence, cohesion, undividedness, togetherness, solidarity, coalition
"internal racial unrest threatened the integrity of the federation"
From Wikipedia: “In ethics, integrityis regarded by many people as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions.“- reflected in transparent honesty and complete harmony in what one thinks, says, and does (my thoughts).
