CRITICAL

REVIEW- WHAT
MAKES A
LEADER?
SUBMITTED BY- AAKASH RAISINGHANI

The following document contains a critical review of one of the most popular articles
ever written on leadership in 1998 (HBR article) by Daniel Goleman linking Emotional
Intelligence to leadership.
 CRITICAL REVIEW- WHAT MAKES A LEADER?

CRITICAL REVIEW-
WHAT MAKES A EI &
LEADER? Leadership

The notion of emotional

SUBMITTED BY- AAKASH RAISINGHANI
intelligence and its
Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman first brought the relevance to business has
term emotional intelligence to a wide audience with his continued to spark

1995 book of the same name, and Goleman first applied the debate over the past six
years, but Golemans
concept to business with this 1998 classic HBR article. In his
article remains the
research at nearly 200 large, global companies, Goleman
definitive reference on
found that truly effective leaders are distinguished by a high
the subject, with a
degree of emotional intelligence. Without it, a person can have detailed discussion of
first-class training, an incisive mind, and an endless supply of each component of
good ideas, but he still wont be a great leader. emotional intelligence,
how to recognize it in
The chief components of emotional intelligenceself- potential leaders, how
awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social and why it connects to
skillcan sound unbusinesslike, but Goleman, co-chair of the performance, and how it
Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in can be learned.
Organizations, based at Rutgers University, found direct ties between emotional intelligence
and measurable business results.1

CRITICAL REVIEW
1) Defining Emotional Intelligence (EI) - multiple definitions exist and each definition of
EI is constantly changing; Most EI definitions are so all-inclusive as to make the concept
unintelligible; One definition in particular (reasoning with emotion) involves an
inherent contradiction; and. There is no such thing as actual EI the term itself is

1 https://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader&ab=Article-Links-End_of_Page_Recirculation

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 CRITICAL REVIEW- WHAT MAKES A LEADER?

oxymoronic since the very definition of intelligence involves rational, dispassionate

thought.
2) EI is not a novel concept according to Locke, who remains a staunch critique of the
concept of Emotional Intelligence and its relation to leadership by extension. Locke does
at least concede the possibility that intelligence can be applied to emotions (emphasis
added) as well as to other life domains. He describes the highest possible definition of
EI as the idea that individuals may be more or less intelligent about (emphasis by
author) emotions. However, this is not a new form of intelligence, Emotional intelligence
and leadership but rather it is intelligence applied to a particular domain, in this case
emotions. There is already a term for mastering intelligence of a specific domain and
that term is skill. Therefore, EI is a mislabeled skill (p. 427). Ultimately, Locke calls for
the replacement of EI with the concept of introspective skills or to be redefined, as a
personality trait although, he admits that it is not completely clear what that trait would
entail or what it should be called.2

3) The dark side of EI - Most references to leadership in the literature seem to depict the
leader as a paragon of virtue and to focus on the leaders positive characteristics,
however a darker side of leadership does exist. Currently, research is being done to
further clarify the possible correlations between certain high EI traits and dark
leadership behaviors (Austin et al., 2007). Judge et al. (2009) described some of the
negative effects of dark side leader traits including: narcissism, hubris, dominance,
and Machiavellianism. Cote et al. (2011, p. 1073) note that although EI has typically
been associated with prosocial outcomes, EI relates to both prosocial and antisocial
behaviors. Lindebaum and Cartwright (2011) draw attention to the possibility that
employing highly emotionally intelligent individuals may not yield positive outcomes
for organizations because of a lack of ethical behavior. EI may give the unethical
advantage in carrying out negative behaviors within the organization. This area of
dark side EI is largely overlooked.3

4) The measurement of Emotional Intelligence - In a published series of interchanges

between Antonakis on one side of the debate and Antonakis et al. (2009) on the other,
Antonakis writes, It is now close to 20 years since Salovey and Mayer (1990) wrote their
groundbreaking piece and based on the data we now have and the correct statistical
analysis conducted on that data, either EI researchers are using the wrong measures or

2 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00176.x/pdf

3 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/IJOA-03-2012-0568

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 CRITICAL REVIEW- WHAT MAKES A LEADER?

the wrong methodology, or EI does not matter for leadership. (Antonakis et al., 2009, p.
248). Landy (2005), as part of a point-counterpoint series of articles by the Journal of
Organizational Behavior, suggested that EI researchers do a better job of defining their
terms and picking their independent variables of interest. These criticisms of the
construct of EI by Locke (2005), Antonakis et al. (2009) and Landy (2005) are biting.
Since the measurement of EI is under a lot of debate and the methods still lack
credibility, its application to leadership effective and overall organizational effectiveness
also comes under question. Majority of the methods also point to only one form of
leadership Transformational Leadership, which reduces the scope of the concept of
Emotional Intelligence again attacking its foundation.

THE DEFENCE
In order to try to silence the critics of EI, Mayer et al. (2008, p. 516) make five
recommendations.4

(1) Researchers should stick to the established research definitions and not continue to add
new ones to the construct.
(2) The term EI should apply only to the ability model.
(3) Researchers should limit their EI studies to the facets, emotional knowledge, emotional
facial recognition ability, levels of emotional awareness, and emerging research on
emotional self-regulation.
(4) Researchers should leave personality traits and skills where they are and avoid
lumping them into EI.
(5) Finally researchers should follow concise terminology and conduct good theory
building and research in EI.

Moreover, Daniel Goleman also has tried to answer the critics at various occasions citing
the following points. 5

(1) There are many competing constructs of IQ, and always have been. This simply
indicates the concept is robust.
4 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/IJOA-03-2012-0568

5 http://www.danielgoleman.info/cluing-in-the-critics/

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 CRITICAL REVIEW- WHAT MAKES A LEADER?

(2) The preponderance of published studies indicates that EI represents abilities that are
distinct from the Big Five personality traits.

(3) Mounting evidence in a range of work settings shot a strong link between EI and
performance outcomes.

(4) The neural substrates of EI dimensions set them apart from those for IQ.

The debate has continued since 1995 when Daniel Goleman first came out with the concept of
Emotional Intelligence with his book of the same name and it seems likely that it will continue
in the future as well. Nobody knows the amount of research data that would be sufficient
enough to declare either side as the winner, but all being said and done, Daniel Goleman has
definitely made a name for himself in management literature, famous or infamous would be
for the future to decide.

THE DEFENCE 4