At its core, leadership is an emotional process. To lead others, you must first develop self-awareness regarding your own emotional responses to situations and then the self-management skills to control those emotional responses in real time. After that, sharpen your senses so you can understand and manage the emotional responses of your followers. In order to strengthen people's ability to lead, help them develop greater capacity to understand and manage their own emotions, and then to understand and manage the emotional responses of those around them. Building these emotional capacities allows them to be proactive rather than reactive, to respond to emotional challenges with strategic choices, and to most effectively serve the needs of their team members.

Once you have mastered the emotional landscape of leadership, engage in specific behaviors and skills in order to achieve the desired outcomes. To be credible, model the way by understanding your fundamental values and setting the example for others. Envision an exciting future and inspire your followers to adopt this vision as their own. Challenge the process by seeking out opportunities for improvement and taking risks, regarding failures as learning moments. Foster collaboration among your team members and empower them to be their best. In addition, develop strong communication and collaboration skills, learn how to support and motivate others, direct the efforts of your team members without micromanaging them, manage difficult conversations and conflicts, recognize the achievements of your team members, and celebrate their success.

As a leader, understand that there are different approaches to leadership, and that the leadership style you choose to adopt can have great consequences as to the morale of the team and the results the team achieves. Different circumstances call for different leadership styles, and it is important that you be able to adapt your style to the needs of the moment. In addition, understand that different team members, at different levels of development in relation to the tasks they have before them, need varying degrees of direction or support from you. Being able to diagnose their needs and engage with them through supporting and directive behaviors that meet those needs is essential if you are to develop your team and lead them to successful achievements. As people grow into their roles, empower them to greater levels of responsibility and foster collaboration among them.

[For more from the author on this topic, see "Negotiating Effectively in an Emotional World."]