What is emotional intelligence, and why does it matter to conservation leaders?
As a new leader or someone entering a professional environment, there's often a strong focus on strategic leadership. Yet, it's increasingly clear that great leadership requires not only strategic thinking but also emotional intelligence. This is crucial across all teams.
So, what exactly is emotional intelligence? It's the ability to understand and manage emotions effectively, which is essential for fostering strong and productive relationships in the workplace. In the conservation and environmental sector, our work depends on people. And people are emotional beings who require support, connection, and relationships. Yet, we often overlook this critical part of our work as leaders and instead focus on what we consider strategic. But here’s the thing - emotional awareness and skills are strategic! They are equally important for working with diverse stakeholders such as local communities, donors, government and partners, and navigating complex situations.
Fundamentals of Emotional Intelligence
Psychologist Daniel Goleman identified these five components that can help leaders or individuals really practice and work towards greater emotional intelligence.
Self-awareness → This involves identifying your emotions and the factors that provoke them. Such awareness enables you to understand better how others might interpret your emotions. For example, in a professional setting, self-awareness assists you in assessing how colleagues, supervisors, or partners perceive you.
Self-regulation → Self-regulation involves managing and adjusting your emotions to achieve a positive outcome, even during moments of heightened emotions. Maintaining this control is crucial in many situations, as your feelings can significantly impact others.
Motivation → Motivation refers to the drive and enthusiasm to accomplish tasks. It's linked to emotional intelligence because your motivations can influence your feelings towards your work.
Empathy → Empathy entails comprehending and acknowledging the emotions of others. This insight helps in navigating workplace scenarios. For example, if a colleague appears distressed, reacting with empathy can help you support them to overcome whatever challenge they may be experiencing.
Social Skills → These are essential for communicating, collaborating and interacting with others. Strong social skills enable you to listen, communicate, and resolve conflicts more efficiently.
Here are some real-life scenarios that call upon us to use these five components of emotional intelligence
1. Self Awareness →
A conservation leader is receiving feedback from elders of a particular community on a recent gathering that brought different villages together to discuss human-wildlife conflict. During the discussion, the elders felt that the leader was dismissive of their concerns, which were particularly related to crop destruction, and would often interrupt or talk over them. They perceived that the leader was more attentive to individuals who had experienced injuries or livestock loss. The elders felt their concerns weren’t being heard or taken seriously. However, the leader knows that he cares equally about different types of human-wildlife conflict, and is really passionate about promoting coexistence.
Application: Instead of being immediately defensive, the leader uses self-awareness to reflect on their communication style, how they spoke during the meeting, their body language, recognizing their biases and how their behavior might be perceived by the communities. They should seek further feedback, engage in self-reflection, and adjust their future approach to be more open, attentive, and approachable when discussing issues critical to local communities, ensuring that all present are seen and heard.
Tip: Put yourself in someone else's shoes. How are you being perceived? How would you want to be treated? People will always have differing opinions and experiences, and it's important to understand where we're coming from while also considering the perspectives of others.
2. Self Regulation →
A team leader is frustrated and stressed due to challenges and delays in getting a project started, leading to impatience and negativity in interactions with team members responsible and donors who have funded the project.
Application: Many of us have been in this situation! While it's normal to want to react immediately (and perhaps sternly) to those involved, the team leader must practice self-regulation by acknowledging and managing their emotions. They recognize that it's best to take a step back, calm down, refocus, and reframe their perspective. From a calmer frame of mind, they can see that there is information or obstacles they were unaware of that slowed the team down. This allows them to approach the issue with a clearer mindset and overcome the challenges to find a suitable way forward. Managing emotions at this critical time and communicating effectively and professionally fosters resilience and helps avoid damaging relationships with all involved, including donors.
Tip: It's okay to step away and take time to regulate your emotions. A walk, deep breaths, getting into nature - all of these things can help calm the mind. Experiment and discover what works for you.
3. Empathy →
A Fisheries Monitoring Officer has been looking rather disengaged and distressed recently, but he comes from a patriarchal culture where men rarely talk about their personal problems. His fisheries data has reduced in quality, he is making basic mistakes, and is getting defensive about his performance without offering an explanation.
Application: Recognizing that the performance issue could be stemming from personal problems, the team leader, who comes from a different culture, decides to approach this carefully. Rather than confronting the Fisheries Monitoring Officer, he sends a friendly colleague from a similar culture to express concern and offer support. The colleague listens attentively to the situation while providing reassurance that they will find a solution together. He acts as a bridge and helps the team leader and Fisheries Monitoring Officer to understand the core issues, show empathy, and come up with a plan of support.
Tip: As a leader, you don't have to solve all the problems. Sometimes, the most empathetic approach is to find the right person who can help you. Recognizing your limitations is a strength.
4. Motivation →
A conservation organization is facing challenges in securing funding for its projects due to various factors, including an economic downturn and a few key donors pulling out. The team is feeling demotivated and uncertain about the future of their conservation efforts, which they've worked hard to build. The leader recognizes the importance of maintaining team morale and motivation during these difficult times to ensure continued dedication and productivity.
Application: The leader acknowledges the team's hard work and dedication, emphasizing the importance of their contributions to conservation efforts. While taking care not to pretend or dismiss the gravity of the situation, they bring the team together to acknowledge and celebrate the small wins, boosting morale and instilling a sense of accomplishment and unity. The leader also collaborates with the team to adjust their goals and establish clear, achievable objectives based on the available funding, providing the team with renewed direction and purpose.
Additionally, the leader maintains open and transparent communication, sharing updates about the organization's financial situation and new strategies to secure funding. By involving the team in decision-making processes and addressing organizational concerns, the leader builds trust and helps to alleviate fears.
Tip: Don't wait until you have to address a problem - always look for opportunities to celebrate wins, connect with your team, and provide encouraging feedback. Motivation is core to your role as a leader.
5. Social Skills →
The Executive Director of a network organization is leading collaboration with diverse stakeholders, including local communities, rangeland ecologists, government agencies, other NGOs etc, to develop and implement a large-scale rangeland rehabilitation project. This is a long-term, multi-year project that needs not only a lot of internal coordination but great external collaboration.
Application: The leader uses social skills to build and nurture relationships, fostering collaboration and cooperation. They set up regular communication channels with all stakeholders that go beyond programmatic reporting; they ensure that the mutual purpose, shared goals and values are established and front and centre during these conversations. They make space for open dialogue and effectively role model how to surface conflict, work collaboratively, and act as a mediator when necessary. The leader also helps to adapt communication and approaches to meet each stakeholder group's unique needs and expectations, promoting teamwork and trust.
Tip: Collaborations are integral to achieving conservation success. Focusing on your social skills will help to give you a great foundation to form lasting, beneficial partnerships.
Like any other personal and professional development aspect, it takes time to consistently and continuously improve emotional intelligence practice. Leaders should embrace it, learn and adjust to build stronger relationships, and create more inclusive, empathetic and productive work environments.