When we speak about successful business leaders, the image that the mind conjures is that of a sharp minded, analytical, and hard task master. Someone who has built his career and reputation by taking astute and tough decisions. Someone who doesn’t flinch in the face of adversity. While this is accurate, it may not be a complete picture of the person. Emotional sensitivity and resilience are an integral part of their persona which have played a substantial part in the making of the leader.
The journey of building a career is not one of a few years – it is one that spans decades. It is more a marathon than a sprint. And, running a marathon is a test of will as one is tested at several occasions when the mind wants to quit, when it wants to question the pain and the purpose of it all. During the course of one’s career, one is faced with such moments. And what plays a part in differentiating winners from the rest, is emotional sensitivity and resilience.
When one talks about emotional sensitivity, one immediately draws an association with Emotional Quotient (EQ) which is related to how we assess the emotional state of others and empathize with them. I would make a distinction here – emotional sensitivity, for me, starts with oneself. Are we aware of how we are feeling, in this moment? What signals is our body giving us? What is our emotional state? This is the state from where we sense the world around us. Our response to the same external stimulus varies completely depending on our emotional state. To be aware of our emotional state, hence, is the absolutely essential to be able to respond in the appropriate manner to the challenge confronting us.
Emotional Resilience: Attributes of a Leader
Emotional resilience is an attribute that some people are born with but everyone can build on. All top performers have this in abundance. For Tiger Woods to win a Major after a debilitating accident, Sachin Tendulkar to reach the exalted status that he did after painful surgeries and Amitabh Bachchan to resurrect his near defunct career all are testimony to their immense emotional fortitude. As Roger Federer says, "Champions know more about losing which makes them winners." Throughout our careers, we will need this resilience more than anything.
How does one go about building this sensitivity and resilience? A tool that has worked for effectively is the Reality Scale. Sometimes, when failure stares at us in the face, it often feels as if our world is collapsing around us. It is always worthwhile to calibrate this on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 is losing a dear one and maybe 50 is losing a job. When we plot our current failure on this, it quickly gives us a sense of how bad the situation really is and helps us to focus on the silver lining rather than the dark cloud behind.
Creating mind space is essential for awareness about our emotional state and that of the others. What is the impact others are having on us and vice versa is essential to temper and rationalize our responses internally and externally. Self-blame can be debilitating and here, a diligent practice of meditation works wonders.
Finally, fellow leaders, we should not take ourselves too seriously. We are all human and are prone to all the follies and foibles of every human being. We are not special; we are just human beings who happen to possess skills that the business needs at this time. So, laughing at our mistakes lightens the weight on our shoulders and puts us in a positive state of mind.
Emotions are what makes us human and guide our decisions. We must pay as much attention to these as we do to gaining the next degree or doctorate. This would go a long way in making us complete leaders.
An engineer with a Post Graduate Degree in Management Studies, Ashish has close to 30 years of experience in the Packaging industry. Ashish has completed Executive Education from Harvard and INSEAD, France. He also holds a Diploma in International Trade, from the Indian Institute of Materials Management and a Diploma in Packaging from the Institute of Packaging, UK. Ashish took over as CEO Siegwerk India in 2016 and has assumed the role of President Asia for Siegwerk in 2021, which includes the Southeast Asia business, along with India and Greater China. Before joining Siegwerk in 2015, Ashish served in senior positions with companies such as Huhtamaki, Henkel and International Paper.
