The power of emotional intelligence

How emotional intelligence strengthens leadership and collaboration

What is emotional intelligence? How do you develop it? And why does emotional intelligence contribute to good leadership and better cooperation in teams? In the latest episode of the Anders Denken Podcast, Wicher Schols, chief lecturer at The School of Life in Amsterdam, shares his insights on the power of emotional intelligence and how this skill helps both leaders and teams work together more effectively and harmoniously.

Emotional intelligence: what is it?

"Emotional intelligence is the degree to which you know yourself," says Wicher Schols. "We need emotional intelligence to increase our self-awareness. If you know yourself well, you can better connect with others and know what you trigger in them. To know yourself better, you also need to understand your origins. Gaining self-insight does not have to take long, but the changes that come from it do take time and attention." Emotional intelligence is often seen as the key to success - both in personal development and within organizations. Wicher emphasizes the importance of self-insight: "If you know yourself well, you can also connect better with others. And when you do, you can achieve much more, both as an individual and within a team." By recognizing patterns established in the early years of your life, we can change our behavior and interact more effectively with colleagues, friends and family.

Becoming consciously competent

In his classes, Wicher challenges participants to move from unconsciously incompetent to consciously incompetent. "This process is not easy, but it is necessary to eventually grow to consciously competent, and that is the big goal." This requires a lot of reflection and perseverance from anyone who wants to work on this. "If you want to change something, you need time to figure it out." Change doesn't just come through physical meetings; the whole process takes longer. "The awareness people develop is the learning goal. They discover that they are stuck in patterns that often started in childhood. In the beginning it is difficult, but during the trajectory they discover more and more and everything becomes clearer."

• Wondering exactly what emotional intelligence means and how it affects personal development and collaboration? Then listen to the latest episode of the Anders Denken Podcast.

The effect of feedback

A key factor in a successful team is the ability to give and receive feedback. Feedback is essential for growth, but it starts with a willingness to ask for it - and not wait for it to be offered. Wicher works with many different groups, from learning groups to teams, and his goal is always the same: to increase connection so that people can perform better through stronger collaboration. His classes begin with becoming aware of one's own patterns and collectively reflecting on behaviors that can lead to major changes within teams. According to Wicher, this only works if you really stop and consciously reflect. "When you stand still and reflect, you only see the small interactions that you don't normally notice. This slowing down can help organizations move forward."

"I'm standing still for a while, and that's already a lot of progress."

In practice, Wicher sees that many organizations do not spend enough time on reflection and that mutual conversations are often only substantive. "We can talk at different levels: about content, processes and relationships. Often teams talk too much about content, too little about processes, and not enough at all about interpersonal relationships. Too little time is spent in reflection to improve interrelationships. This is often because there are too few opportunities to improve together. What helps is to occasionally pause with each other and take a closer look at the situation. 'I pause for a moment, and that's already a lot of progress,' is a great quote that fits with that."