Leaders with High Emotional Intelligence Tend to work in Start -Ups

Many companies are looking to hire leaders with high emotional intelligence (EQ). This is often defined as the ability to control your own feelings and the ability to be able to understand and manage others’s feelings. Leaders with high emotional intelligence are not the typical “do it because I said so” leaders, but tend to be more self aware, collaborative, and have a genuine interest in seeing their employees succeed. They tend to be great coaches and their employees love working with them.

Why is it that so few leaders have high EQ who work in large corporations?

It is because large corporations tend to value employee loyalty and tenure, and not results. Because of this, most leaders who have worked for the same organization for a majority of their careers have not had good leader role models. Many long tenured leaders who work in big corporations are also scared to death of losing their jobs because they know they do not have the skills set to make the same salary elsewhere. They will often do anything and say anything to protect their jobs and have little interest in hiring leaders who might be smarter and more talented than they are.

You may recognize these common traits in leaders with low EQ.

Gives you a bad annual review but never told you anything that you need to work on

Leaders who want you to be successful will give you constructive feedback on things you need to work on which you can most likely easily correct before your annual review. They will also constantly provide you feedback on things you do well.

Never takes accountability for anything that goes wrong in their team

Leaders with high EQ will take the blame when things go wrong in their teams

Tells you negative things about your peers

These leaders are also telling your peers negative things about you

I have worked in five major large corporations in my career and most of my leaders have been nice people, but have had very low EQ. I worked on one start -up where everyone on the team was treated as an equal and I had a strong leader with a high EQ.

Leaders with high EQ tend to work in start-up businesses because most people who work for these types of organizations take on several roles and their leaders know how it is important to help all their employees be successful in order for the business to survive. These leaders do not have the same financial cushion that large corporation leaders have and would never be satisfied taking up space in a corporation that values tenure and loyalty and not results. These leaders also tend to be very smart, confident, and know they can pretty much get a job anywhere they want. They are often more vested in you and the business, and are less concerned about their own job security.

If you want to work for a leader with a high EQ that is vested in helping you be successful, consider working for a start -up.