In our first article on Emotional Intelligence (EQ), we talked about how high EQ can be a game-changer for building a successful career. The core components of EQ are self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, and building strong relationships. These skills are especially important for a successful career in a healthcare field.
Your IQ may help you open doors, but it’s your EQ that will determine how far you can go – especially in a leadership role. This is because your emotional intelligence – and not your IQ – is what enables you to connect, inspire, and lead effectively.
Based on research, high EQ accounts for about 90% of what sets high-performing leaders apart from their technically skilled peers.
Individuals with low EQ, on the other hand, tend to get stressed easily, often feel misunderstood, resist change, become defensive when receiving feedback, and find it difficult to communicate or express their ideas clearly. These challenges can significantly hinder their leadership effectiveness.
What is expected of healthcare leaders today is to interact constructively with teams, administrators, patients, colleagues, and the community. That’s part of their everyday work environment, which is why developing high EQ is especially important for them.
Healthcare leaders face constant pressure to find practical solutions to provide the best possible care for patients while promoting growth, research, and innovation and keeping costs down.
Often, our healthcare system is viewed as a complex machine, with many moving parts that people try to improve using strategies borrowed from manufacturing. In reality, healthcare behaves more like a complex adaptive system that heavily relies on interpersonal relationships to achieve success.
In the 21st century, healthcare leadership has become more challenging due to globalization, various health emergencies, technological innovations, staff shortages, evolving regulations, and rising patient expectations, to name a few. Many healthcare systems are under financial strain, which forces leaders to make tough decisions.
In the past, emotions have often been ignored in the healthcare environment. Emotions were seen as obstacles to making clear and rational decisions. Because of that, emotions were often dismissed. However, it becomes clearer now that emotions can’t be ignored. Studies show that suppressing emotions only amplifies them.
Today’s effective leaders understand this and choose to address emotions rather that supress them, and your EQ will help you do that mindfully and constructively.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, use, and manage our own emotions, and to understand and respond to the emotions of others.
In the healthcare field, high Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is especially critical because it directly impacts the leaders’ ability to provide quality care and maintain professional relationships.
Patient Care: High EQ professionals recognize and properly respond to patients’ emotional needs.
Stress Management: In a high-pressure environment such as healthcare, EQ is crucial in managing emotions, avoiding burnout, and maintaining composure under stress.
Conflict Resolution: High EQ helps resolve workplace conflicts constructively, while building a collaborative and respectful environment.
Effective Communication: Leaders with high EQ communicate clearly and empathetically with patients, families, and colleagues, promoting trust and understanding.
Decision-Making: When professionals can manage emotions effectively, they can make sound, patient-centered decisions and avoid being overly influenced by bias or stress.
Teamwork: Leaders with high EQ know how to inspire and motivate others and build collaborative teams, which is critical in multi-disciplinary healthcare settings.
The key point is that in a healthcare environment, every human interaction can significantly impact outcomes. This is why high EQ is a must for effective leadership. High EQ allows professionals provide both the technical expertise and the care that patients and their families need. Professionals with high EQ can offer both the technical expertise and the empathetic care that patients and their families need.
EQ is not innate. Unlike IQ, which is typically fixed, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a skill that you can, and should, develop and refine over time.
The foundation of high EQ is self-awareness. Without a clear understanding of who you are and what drives your behaviors, achieving true emotional intelligence is nearly impossible.
However, studies show that while 95% of people think they are self-aware, only about 10-15% actually meet the criteria for self-awareness. For tips on gaining true self-awareness through 360-degree feedback and additional steps for mastering your EQ, please read our article “Mastering Emotional Intelligence (EQ) for Leadership Success“.
