This article was first published in the Chuck Sink Link Newsletter.
Leadership skills include the ability to recognize how emotions are primal drivers of human decision and action. Great leaders do indeed have the ability to move people with conviction. The business world still has it’s share of fine leaders. They run companies with ethical values and defined cultures.
What a leader does is vital to a successful organization. Just as important is how he does it. The manner, style and mood in which a leader approaches an issue or opportunity makes all the difference in how successfully it’s dealt with by the team.
Scientists have discovered the “open-loop” nature of the limbic system – the emotional centers of the brain. A closed-loop system operates independently of outside entities – your own circulatory system, for example. An open loop system is interdependent upon outside influences and catalysts. Our emotional systems are open-loop. This basically means that 
people rely on the emotions of other people for their own emotional stability and sense of self. This is true whenever there are two or more people engaged in communication. As you begin to master the art and science of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), you’ll find leadership ability inside you to inspire, motivate and direct people to action, even buying action.
Think of any selling situation as an open-loop process. The attitudes and moods of the buyer and seller are interdependently directing where the dialog is going and what the end result will be. As a leader, you can recognize your own emotive state and direct it toward positive or negative influence of others in the room. I think we’ve all experienced the contagion of the emotional states of people in our presence – particularly the leader. We’re hard wired that way. What’s great about this fact is that sales and marketing leaders can learn to summon their own emotional leadership ability to set the mood and tone for winning new customers.
A deep dive into the study of Emotional Intelligence is worthwhile if you’re serious about being a good sales leader and growing your business. The fact is, people make decisions emotionally and subsequently justify those decisions with logic. What they feel about something is more powerful a driver than what they think about it.
Dealing effectively with emotions, in addition to the logical reasons for making a purchase, separates winners and losers in both sales and marketing.
Marketing messages that really sell include authentically stirring the emotions of your target audience to where they feel they want to take action. Any call to action requires making people want something in their heart.
Emotions are the most direct path to winning hearts. The study of EQ in leadership helps you master a fundamental element for truly differentiating your brand while winning over hearts and minds of target consumers. EQ is about a lot more than learning to keep your cool when things get touchy. Understanding human emotion drivers can help you create more powerful value propositions and calls to action. Leadership of employees can extend all the way to down to leadership in a target market, or even of a whole industry.
