Summarize Leadership Chapter 6 : Developing Emotional Intelligence & Cultural Literacy to Strengthen Leadership Communication

This chapter focuses on developing emotional intelligence and cultural literacy to strengthen leadership communication. Leaders need strong interpersonal skills and an understanding of and appreciation for culture diversity. Without these skills, leaders cannot communicate with and manage others effectively. Interpersonal skills have gained recent recognition among business leaders under the name of “Emotional Intelligence”. First, you should know Emotional Intelligence (EI)’s meaning. EI is the capacity to understand your own emotions and those of other people. Emotional intelligence and cultural literacy are necessary skills that allow you to interact with and lead others effectively, and the key to interacting with others and managing relationship successfully is communications: “The basic of any relationship is communication”. Self-awareness is the first step toward emotional intelligence. We can use MBTI develop concepts of personality. The MBTI consists of four dichotomies - Introvert (I) vs. Extravert (E), Sensing (S) vs. iNtuitive (N), Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F), and Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P) - in 16 combinations. If we know the others’ type, we can effectively lead and motivate them to the way we want. There are many types of nonverbal communication which are important for anyone wanting to improve his or her communication skills. We also need to be a good listener. Thereafter, mentoring other and providing feedback are the last step to develop the Emotional Intelligence. This chapter focused on the Cultural Literacy as well. If we understand and appreciate cultural diversity, we will know how best to communicate with all of the different audiences. First, we should know the importance of cultural literacy and then define the culture. We use the framework to understand differences. There are many factors to understand such as context (what is going around us), information flow (how message flow between people and levels in organization), time (polychornic time and monochromic), language (central influence on culture and one of the most highly charged symbols of a culture or a nation), and power (the differences of power perception).