"While employing the self-awareness tools we described in the last newsletter is important, the ability of leaders to read other people is equally invaluable to the building of a cohesive, effective and united organization," says Karla Leavelle, co-founder of Human Capital Advisors.

Maturity, experience and self-awareness can go a long way in the business world, but Leavelle, currently on leave from HCA working at a client site, argues that the ability to read other people and understand what motivates them make a leader's job much easier. And there are tools that can help managers gain that insight. Let's look at three that offer different perspectives.

A successful leadership team needs a clear understanding of their board's agenda, objectives and style. But those can change. Good leaders stay in touch with the pulse of the board to ensure they are always both aligned with members' thinking and understand how individual board members operate and process information.

HCA conducts formal assessments of the board itself and its alignment with senior leadership to identify challenges, clarify expectations, modify goals when necessary, and ensure achievement.

"Any such board/C-level assessment must have two qualities: It must be anonymous and it must be qualitative," Leavelle says. "The feedback must be unfiltered. Anonymity can help ensure that."

The Organizational Perspective

We have all experienced the perception gap - that moment when we realize that our actions or communications were misinterpreted and resulted in unintended actions. It happens to even the best of leaders. Understanding how others see and react to you is essential and can be achieved by soliciting honest, anonymous feedback from subordinates, peers, supervisors (and sometimes customers!). A tool that offers this is the 360 degree assessment - it solicits feedback from all constituency groups of an executive to gain a broad and unified perspective.

There are numerous such tools on the market; we find Checkpoint 360^® developed by Profiles International particularly useful. Cathy Lange, an HCA business advisor uses Checkpoint 360 in HCA's organizational development engagements. "A 360 view helps assess leadership attributes and challenges," Lange says. "Perception is reality, so if the perception isn't helpful to achieving your goals, you'll need to see what changes must be made, whether they be personal or organizational.  Employed properly, it can really open an executive's eyes to valuable information."

The Interpersonal Perspective

"We work well together" or "We don't really click." We hear these sentiments from clients about their co-workers often reflecting a difference in communication style, judgment and tactical approach to problems. People have personal preferences and it's impossible to always be aligned with others. But if we understand their approach, we can often have fruitful collaborations.

Often derided as "pop psychology," the MBTI^® (or simply "Myers-Briggs"), is one of the best tools for helping leaders build their interpersonal perspective. "It's been around a long time with good reason," says Leavelle. "It's helpful!" As the Myers & Briggs Foundation puts it, "The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment." The MBTI tells you how you see yourself, but its greatest value is revealed when others you interact with also take the MBTI. "You may have wonderful insight and understanding of your own behaviors and motivations" Leavelle says, "but others may see you differently."  Understanding that difference, savvy leaders learn to adapt strategies that complement the different personality types. The MBTI is often employed when new people are added to the organization.

 In Summary

In wrapping up our discussion of emotional intelligence we hope you have built a greater awareness of, and appreciation for, the importance of knowing yourself and others and what tools might be available to you to support your journey to becoming a more effective leader.

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