Pay Attention, Please: Developing Social Awareness

  Up until now, all the domains of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) we’ve been learning about have revolved around you and you alone. While being an excellent leader has a lot to do with the way we carry ourselves, it also has a lot to do with the way we relate to and respond to the needs of others. First, it’s important to know who we are and how to manage what we’re feeling. But after that, we have to recognize how other people operate as well. That’s where our third domain, social awareness, comes in. According to Daniel Goleman — remember him? He’s the guy who made EQ popular — social awareness “refers to how people handle relationships and awareness of others’ feelings, needs, and concerns.” The Social Awareness domain contains three competencies:

1. Empathy

   An ability to understand other people’s feelings and perspectives; unlike the common definition of empathy, Goleman says it also includes “taking active interest in their concerns” in terms of EQ.

2. Organizational awareness

    Being able to read the “emotional currents” and identify the relationships of a group (or in some cases, a staff).

3. Service orientation

    Anticipating, recognizing, and meeting the needs of others (specifically clients and customers).

Bringing it down to a human level — social awareness means taking other people’s needs, opinions, and/or emotions into consideration before acting or speaking. Even if their needs, opinions, or emotions are different from yours. Leaders aren’t mind readers. But they can develop good social awareness, which will allow them to read people, and maybe even notice things other people don’t. So how can you improve your social awareness? It starts with paying attention. Sure, it sounds simplistic. But what would happen if you made an intentional effort to observe your surroundings today? To listen carefully to the people around you before speaking. Now that you’re aware of how crucial social awareness is to your EQ, you can start being more conscious about the way you relate to the people around you. [bctt tweet="What would happen if you made an intentional effort to observe your surroundings today?" username="dukematlock"] Goleman writes out some things to ask yourself in social circumstances in order to start developing social awareness. You can read the article here.  Next week we’ll be pairing social awareness with the fourth and final domain, relationship management.  

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