Meta: Emotionally intelligent leaders are best equipped to guide their team toward positive outcomes. Practice these 9 habits to become a more emotionally intelligent leader.

Work relationships can be among the hardest to maintain. Leaders who have developed a high level of emotional intelligence (EI) are best equipped to guide their team toward positive outcomes. "Perhaps the biggest surprise for me has been the impact of EI in the world of business, particularly in the areas of leadership and employee development," writes Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, Why It Can Matter More than IQ. "The Harvard Business Review has hailed emotional intelligence as 'a ground-breaking, paradigm-shattering idea,' one of the most influential business ideas of the decade."

Emotional intelligence includes a specific set of habits that can be learned and honed to improve leadership skills. Practicing the 9 habits listed below will help you become a more emotionally intelligent leader:

Look at sent email messages to see how you communicate.
Personal competence is one of the main domains of emotional intelligence. In being self-aware about the way you communicate, you can gently shift into more useful behaviors. Are you using positive and clear language? Is the content of your email respectful and helpful?
Keep a journal at the office.
Journaling on a personal level is wonderful for tapping into your emotions. At work, you can use this form of self-care to watch for healthy patterns that are worth repeating and negative patterns to cut from your behaviors.
Use shadow coaching with your staff.
Observe your team in real-time and give feedback on their individual work and the way they work as a group. Are they collaborative or closed? Is there an incentive to show initiative?
Use breathing exercises or other techniques to present a calm self.
Self-regulation and motivation are important in a leader. As the captain goes, so goes the ship. Your team will feel you are more approachable when you remain calm even in tense situations.
In each interaction with a member of your team, work on listening.
Make sure that your employee feels heard. You can practice specific F of paraphrasing to demonstrate your empathy with each member of your staff.
Foster clear and open communication within your team.
Encourage peers to give one another constructive feedback and model what constructive criticism should look like. Ask for input on areas where your staff are encountering problems or pushback.
Build strong bonds between members of your team.
Encourage teamwork and collaboration by facilitating a healthy work environment that rewards positive interactions.
Observe the emotional landscape of your organization.
Watch your team and see how they react in times of stress. As big deadlines approach are staff members calling out sick? They may be experiencing feelings of burnout. Replicate past success by taking note of when your team has the best productivity.
Listen to audio recordings of phone and in-person meetings.
Identify barriers to listening, including jumping to conclusions, misdirected questions, and not paying attention. When you review the meetings and model healthier behavior, your staff will also become more attentive.

Remember that building emotional intelligence in yourself and in your team is not only good for fostering teamwork and collaboration; it also increases profitability and productivity in the office. Employee retention rates are higher in companies where the leadership demonstrates increased levels of EI.

Which habits can you implement today?