WEDNESDAY DEBRIEF 8.5.20
Happy Wednesday! Today we debrief our Tuesday Checkpoint prompt.
Tuesday’s prompt: How am I feeling right now?
Key takeaway from this prompt: Presence
Presence is a foundational component of emotional intelligence and leadership.
Presence is a necessary condition for active listening; when we can hear not only what is being said, and discern the huge amounts of non-verbal communication as well.
Active listening affords us the opportunity for full understanding and effective, efficient processing of information, which in turn creates awareness and space for new learning.
There are 5 core elements of EI / Leadership:
- Self-awareness
- Self-regulation
- Motivation
- Empathy
- Social skills
Can you fit presence into all of these categories? Of course! But presence is critical for the development of our self-awareness and self-regulation abilities. At the risk of oversimplification, if you’re unaware of the impact that your energy (mindset, attitude) and your actions have, you won’t be able to regulate that impact or channel it toward the pursuit of your goals.
Going further, motivation and empathy both require that you’re capable of bringing a high level of presence to a given situation. Presence allows us to ignore distractions and stay on task (motivated). Presence allows us to practice genuine empathy – allowing people to be fully seen, heard, and understood.
This all leads to better decision-making, better leadership, and better results. When leaders work to enhance their presence, the benefits accrue to the entire organization. Leadership capacity increases, perspective widens, and new learning and growth contribute positively across the organization, and creates positive inertia as well.
Like anything else you can enhance your presence through practice. As you pursue your own organizational growth and leadership development, be sure to include presence as a key foundational element to these pursuits.
Doing this exercise regularly is one way to build awareness around your executive / leadership presence and spot areas for improvement.