ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

By Zoe Oluwabusayo

Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and one of the forerunners of neuroscience who wrote on the importance of emotional intelligence listed five emotional intelligence skills that differentiate a great leader from good ones.  These sets of skills, which we will outline and analyze, are also great tools for entrepreneurs to make use of, in building themselves and making the most out of their relationships with people.

The Emotional Intelligence skill of SELF-AWARENESS, which is a human endowment, is the ability of the entrepreneur to look inward and be fully mindful and clear about who he is, what the purpose of his entrepreneurial venture is about and the value of his product/service to clients. Being self-aware is to constantly think about what you are thinking about and have a full gripe of what your thought processes are which has a direct link to your actions or inactions.
The Emotional intelligence skill of SELF REGULATION is the ability to take charge of your thinking and how it affects your attitude and mood. Self-regulation is the ability of the entrepreneur to know what to say and what not to per time, how to communicate intelligently and professionally. Particularly in our era of social media, the emotionally intelligent entrepreneur must be very conscious of what to put on prints and what not to.

The Emotional Intelligence skill of MOTIVATION is the entrepreneur having the strength of will and personal inspiration to produce quality products and services, first, for the benefits of mankind, before the benefit of financial gains. Motivation is the entrepreneur, being self-aware of himself and what he thinks about and being able to maturely control himself before taking any action.

The Emotional Intelligence skill of EMPATHY is the entrepreneur having the knowledge of people and applying it to how he interacts with them. Having empathy” is the ability to understand another person’s feelings, experiences”. In his contacts with diverse people from all works of life, an entrepreneur with the emotional intelligence skill of empathy will understand moods and attitudes of other people without letting those emotions affect his own behavior and interactions.

The Emotional Intelligence skill of SOCIAL SKILL is the ability of the entrepreneur to know how to manage the individuals who work with him and also his clients. He finds a mutual ground to build interacts and relationships for both personal and business alliances.

The first three emotional intelligence skills of SELF-AWARENESS, SELF-REGULATION and MOTIVATION, according to Daniel Goleman, are skills of personal management while the skills of EMPATHY and SOCIAL SKILL are skills of managing others.

As an entrepreneur, who is building an enterprise of repute and worth, you must know that emotional intelligence is an essential ingredient for personal development as well as for business advancement.

An entrepreneur, who will imprint his marks on the sands of time and build credible relationship must have and consistently upgrade his level of emotional intelligence.

NOTE

Thoughts for this material are derived majorly from Daniel Goleman’s article in Harvard Business Review, On Emotional Intelligence:  From his contributing article on “what makes a leader? Published by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation: Boston, Massachusetts, 2015

ZOE OLUWABUSAYO IS A PRINCIPAL PARTNER AT ZOE & PHIL CONSULTING LTD