Leadership Competencies for Stage 1 Companies

Stage 1 Companies have 1-10 employees

Did you know if you simply increased the level of satisfaction in your company, you could increase revenues? A study done by Lyle Spencer for the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations found that ‘for every 1 percent improvement in the service climate, there is a 2 percent increase in revenue.’ For those of you familiar with the term Emotional Intelligence, this is probably not new news. But embracing the concept of Emotional Intelligence as a leader, requires a leader who has a high dose of self-awareness.

In the book Primal Leadership, Daniel Goleman highlight’s self-awareness as the most important of the four domains of Emotional Intelligence and goes on to say “…self-awareness facilitates both empathy and self-management, and these two, in combination, allow effective relationship management. EI leadership, then builds up from a foundation of self-awareness.” The other three domains include self-management, social awareness and relationship management. All four of these domains play a key role in leadership development.

A self-aware leader is a better leader. By understanding how the application of 18 key competencies affect your leadership in each current stage of growth, will provide you with more insight into the workings of your company.

These 5 Competencies will enable you to address critical Stage 1 issues more than others:

Emotional Self Awareness

Leaders high in emotional self-awareness are attuned to their inner signals, recognizing how their feelings affect them and their own job performance. They are attuned to their guiding values and can often intuit the best course of action, seeing the bigger picture in a complex situation. Emotionally self-aware leaders are candid and authentic, not hesitant to speak openly about their emotions.

Self Confidence

Knowing your abilities with accuracy allows leaders to play to their strengths. Self-confident leaders can welcome a difficult assignment. Such leaders often have a sense of presence, a self-assurance that lets them stand out in a group.

Empathy

Leaders with empathy are able to tune into a wide range of emotional signals, letting them sense the felt, but unspoken, emotions in a person or group. Such leaders can listen attentively and can grasp the other person’s perspective. Empathy makes a leader able to get along well with people of diverse backgrounds or from other cultures.

Inspirational Leadership

Leaders who inspire both create resonance and move people with a compelling vision or shared mission. Such leaders embody what they ask of others and are able to articulate a shared mission in a way that inspires others to follow. They offer a sense of common purpose beyond the day-to-day tasks, making work exciting.

Developing Others

Leaders who are adept at cultivating people’s abilities show a genuine interest in those they are helping along, understanding their goals, strengths, and weaknesses. Such leaders can give timely and constructive feedback and are natural mentors or coaches.

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Descriptions of Leadership Competencies from the book by Daniel Goleman, Primal Leadership.