Emotional Intelligence and

Leadership
October 2018

Dr Jochen Menges
j.menges@jbs.cam.ac.uk

100 years of leadership research

Bullet points

Bullet points
 Second level
• Third level

Sources: Bass (2008); Yukl (2013).

1
Bullet points

Bullet points
 Second level
"Leadership is not so much about technique and
• Third level
methods as it is about opening the heart. Leadership
is about inspiration—of oneself and of others. Great
leadership is about human experiences, not
processes. Leadership is not a formula or a program,
it is a human activity that comes from the heart and
considers the hearts of others."

Lance Secretan
former CEO of Manpower Ltd.

EI and leadership

Leadership
effectiveness
Great
leadership
through
emotions, trust,
relationships

Good leadership/management
through numbers,
goals, exchange,
control

Sources: Côté (2014); Goleman (1998, 2000); Kilduff, Chiaburu, & Menges (2010); Menges (2012)

2
Agenda

1. Introduction to Emotional Intelligence

2. Self-Awareness and Self-Management
3. Social Awareness and Social Skills
4. Leading Organizations with Emotional Intelligence

Agenda

1. Introduction to Emotional Intelligence

2. Self-Awareness and Self-Management
3. Social Awareness and Social Skills
4. Leading Organizations with Emotional Intelligence

3
What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to use emotions adaptively.

That means, for example,

…to stay calm when the pressure is on.
…to be able to deal well with, and learn from, set-backs.
…to show your own emotions and to be able to articulate needs.
…to understand others and have empathy.
…to have effective relationships.
…to be able to use and give negative feedback constructively.
…to be able to inspire others and infuse them with emotions.

Sources: Goleman (1995); Mayer & Salovey (1997); Salovey & Mayer (1990); Ybarra, Kross, & Sanchez-Burks (2014)

Emotional Intelligence

4
Why is EI important?

For every 15 point* increase on an Emotional Intelligence

Test, private wealth managers acquire 11 millionen Euro more
New Net Assets, independent of cognitive intelligence.
* Standardized with mean = 100, standard deviation = 15; Source: Menges & Salovey (2010)

Why is EI important?

For every 1 point* increase in average emotional intelligence

in firms, the number of sick days per year drops by 1.34.

* On a scale from 1 to 7, peer-rated; Source: Menges & Bruch (2009)

5
EI dimensions

Self‐Management
Self‐Awareness
(+ Self‐Motivation)

Social Awareness
Social Skills
(Empathy)

Source: Goleman (2000)

How can you learn EI?

The participants of an EI training have one year later subjectively and 
objectively lower stress and better social relationships, compared 
with a control group that did not have training.

Source: Kotsou, Nelis, Gregoire & Mikolajczak (2011)

6
How can you learn EI?

The financial advisers at American Express, whose managers had 
received an EI training, achieved 18.1% growth one year after the 
training. The financial advisers at American Express, whose managers 
had not received an EI training, achieved 16.2% growth one year after 
the training. 
Source: Cherniss (1999)

Agenda

1. Introduction to Emotional Intelligence

2. Self-Awareness and Self-Management
3. Social Awareness and Social Skills
4. Leading Organizations with Emotional Intelligence

7
The impact of emotions at work

• Job performance
• Creativity
• Absence
• Motivation
• Efficient cooperation
• Relationship quality
• Leadership effectiveness
• Customer satisfaction

Source: Barsade & Gibson (2007)

Agenda

1. Introduction to Emotional Intelligence

2. Self-Awareness and Self-Management
3. Social Awareness and Social Skills
4. Leading Organizations with Emotional Intelligence

8
Triggers of emotion at work

Work Environment

Events Emotion Attitude

Personalities Behaviour

Source: Weiss & Cropanzano (1996)

Triggers of emotion at work

Emotions
are contagious!

Sources: Barsade (2002); Goleman & Boyatzis (2008)

9
Striking an emotional balance

Negative
emotion
Positive
emotion

Source: Dasborough (2006); Huy (2002)

Continuously evoke events

Source: Frijda (1988) and Frijda (2007)

10
Agenda

1. Introduction to Emotional Intelligence

2. Self-Awareness and Self-Management
3. Social Awareness and Social Skills
4. Leading Organizations with Emotional Intelligence

Energy in organizations
“We are the fastest. By the time that our
competitors present their products, we
deliver ours to customers.”

Valentin Chapero, CEO Sonova

“There is an enormous fighting

spirit. Everybody is fully
engaged and devoted to over-
coming the crisis we are in.”
Jürgen Dormann, CEO ABB

Sources: Bruch & Vogel (2011); Menges & Kilduff (2015)

11
Energy in organizations

Change tiredness

Inertia

Cynicism

Organizational burnout

Lack of innovation

Sources: Buchanan et al. (1999), Dean et al. (1998), Greenwood & Greenwood (1979), Greve (1999), Sull (2003)

Energy in organizations

Corrosive 
Productive 
High Energy and
Energy
Aggression

ENERGY

Resignation 
Low Comfort
and Inertia

Negative Positive
EMOTIONS

Sources: Bruch & Vogel (2011); Bruch & Menges (2010); Menges & Kilduff (2015)

12
Energy in organizations

Companies with high levels of productive energy...

...compared to companies with low levels of productive energy

Study of I.FPM, University of St. Gallen, based on survey results from more than 500
companies (2007-2009)

Energy in organizations

Corrosive 
Productive 
High Energy and
Energy
Aggression

ENERGY

Resignation 
Low Comfort
and Inertia

Negative Positive
EMOTIONS

Sources: Bruch & Vogel (2011); Bruch & Menges (2010); Menges & Kilduff (2015)

13
Bullet points

 Bullet points
 Second level
• Third level

Your organization‘s profile

Prof. Dr. Jochen Menges 27

Chair of HRM and Leadership
Sources: Bruch & Vogel (2011)

Energizing leadership

Corrosive 
Productive 
High Energy and
Energy
Aggression

ENERGY

Resignation 
Low Leading with a vision
Comfort
and Inertia

Negative Positive
EMOTIONS

Source: Bruch & Goshal (2003)

14
 Two types of energizing visions

Winning Killing
the Princess the Dragon

Prof. Dr. Jochen Menges 29

Chair of HRM and Leadership

Winning the princess

• Development, delimitation,
and definition of the vision

• Inspiring communication of
the opportunities

• Strengthening trust in
collective competence

Source: Bruch & Goshal (2003)

15
 Killing the dragon

• Definition and interpretation

of a threat

• Realistic communication of
the threat

• Strengthening the trust in

collective competence

Source: Bruch & Goshal (2003)

Killing the dragon

Focusing on a threat

Prof. Dr. Jochen Menges 32

Chair of HRM and Leadership

16
Appeasing leadership

Corrosive 
Healing Productive 
High Energy and
the wounds Energy
Aggression

INTENSITY

Resignation 
Low Comfort
and Inertia

Negative Positive
VALENCE

Sources: Bruch & Vogel (2011); Bruch & Menges (2010); Menges & Kilduff (2015)

Energy in organizations

Corrosive 
Productive 
High Energy and
Energy
Aggression

INTENSITY

Resignation 
Low Comfort
and Inertia

Negative Positive
VALENCE

Sources: Bruch & Vogel (2011); Bruch & Menges (2010); Menges & Kilduff (2015)

17
Energy traps

Corrosive 
Turf War Productive 
High Energy and
Trap
Aggression
Energy

INTENSITY

Resignation 
Acceleration Inertia
Low Comfort
and Inertia
Trap Trap

Negative Positive
VALENCE

Sources: Bruch & Vogel (2011); Bruch & Menges (2010); Menges & Kilduff (2015)

Inside the Acceleration Trap

18
Some data Employees not in accelerated
companies
Employees in accelerated

60% 2%
companies

“We lack sufficient resources to get the work done.”

80% 4%
“I work under constantly elevated time pressure.”

75% 1% “My company’s priorities frequently change.”

“I regularly get a chance to regenerate.”

N=92 companies, data collected in 2009

14% 94%

Patterns of Acceleration
Overloading
Multiloading
Perpetual loading

19
Overloading
Too much to do

Multiloading
Too many different things to do

20
Perpetual loading
No end in sight

Breaking Free
Stop the action
Be clear about strategy
Run A-B-C analysis
Use inverse suggestion schemes
Use simplification surveys
Declare the turmoil over

21
Stop the action
Get rid of unnecessary projects

Be clear about strategy

Decide what’s important

22
Run A-B-C analysis
Force employees to prioritise projects

Use inverse suggestion schemes

Ask employees about activities that could be stopped

23
Use simplification
surveys
Ask employees how to
simplify products and
processes

Declare the turmoil over

Avoid constant change

24
 Preventing Future Entrapment
Institute “spring cleaning”
Cap annual goals
Filter new projects
Bury projects

Institute spring cleaning

Check activities on regular basis

25
 Cap annual goals
Reduce to 3 must-win battles

Filter new projects

Adapt project management system

26
 Bury projects
It’s okay to stop a project

Changing the Acceleration Culture

Focus
Take time-outs
Slow down to speed up
Use feedback systems
Model Behaviour
Celebrate

27
Focus
Do one thing at a time

Time-outs
Pause to think and reflect

28
 Slow down
to speed up
Alternate high and low energy phases

Use feedback systems

Encourage learning

29
 Model behaviour
Combine work and regeneration

Celebrate
Indulge in successes

30
 What’s next?
Process model

Process model
An idea for how to get started

Analysis of Avoiding Energizing

Stop Doing
Acceleration Acceleration Leadership

Institute ABC Define and

analyses communicate
vision / threat
Adapt project
management Run time-outs
Detect
Run ABC system
acceleration
analyses Create business
patterns
Change rhythms
appraisal
systems to limit Monitor energy
number of goals levels and
give feedback

31
 Bullet points
• Bullet points

Second level
• Third level

Sources: Menges (2012), Yale University – Center for Emotional Intelligence (2016)

Agenda

1. Introduction to Emotional Intelligence

2. Self-Awareness and Self-Management
3. Social Awareness and Social Skills
4. Leading Organizations with Emotional Intelligence

32
EI and leadership

“Your first and foremost task as a leader is to take

charge of your own energy and then to orchestrate the
energy of others.“
Peter Drucker

Thank you!

Dr Jochen Menges

University of Cambridge Judge Business School

Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1AG
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 766447 – Fax: +44 (0) 1223 339701
E-Mail: j.menges@jbs.cam.ac.uk
Web: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/faculty-a-z/jochen-menges/

33
References
• Barsade, S. G. 2002. The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(4): 644-675.
• Barsade, S. G., & Gibson, D. E. 2007. Why does affect matter in organizations? Academy of
Management Perspectives, 21(1): 36-59.
• Bruch, H., & Ghoshal, S. 2003. Unleashing organizational energy. MIT Sloan Management Review,
45(1): 45-51.
• Bruch, H. & Menges, J. I. 2010. The acceleration trap. Harvard Business Review, April: 80-86.
• Bruch, H., & Vogel, B. 2011. Fully charged: How great leaders boost their organization's energy and
ignite high performance. Harvard Business Press.
• Carton, A. M. 2018. “I’m not mopping the floors, I’m putting a man on the moon”: How NASA leaders
enhanced the meaningfulness of work by changing the meaning of work. Administrative Science
Quarterly 63 (2), 323-369
• Carton, A.M., Murphy, C., & Clark, J.R. 2014. A (blurry) vision of the future: How leader rhetoric about
ultimate goals influences performance. Academy of Management Journal 57 (6), 1544-1570
• Côté, S. 2014. Emotional intelligence in organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology
and Organizational Behavior, 1(1): 459-488.
• Dasborough, M. T. 2006. Cognitive asymmetry in employee emotional reactions to leadership
behaviors. Leadership Quarterly, 17(2): 163-178.
• Goleman, D. 1995. Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books Inc.
• Goleman, D. 1998. What makes a leader. Harvard Business Review. Reprint R0401H.
• Goleman, D. 2000. Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review. Reprint R00204.

References
• Goleman, D. & Boyatzis, R. 2008. Social Intelligence and the biology of leadership. Harvard Business
Review. Reprint R0809E.
• Huy, Q. N. 2002. Emotional balancing of organizational continuity and radical change: The
contribution of middle managers. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(1): 31-69.
• Kilduff, M., Chiaburu, D.S., & Menges, J. I. 2010. Strategic use of emotional intelligence in
organizational settings: Exploring the dark side. Research in Organizational Behavior, 30: 129-152.
• Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. 1997. What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey, & D. J. Sluyter
(Eds.), Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications: 3-34. New York,
NY: Basic Books.
• Menges, J. I. 2012. Organizational emotional intelligence: Theoretical foundations and practical
implications. In C.E.J. Härtel, W.J. Zerbe, & N.M. Ashkanasy (Eds.), Research on Emotions in
Organizations, Volume 8: 355-373. Bingley: Emerald.
• Menges, J. I., & Bruch, H. 2009. Organizational emotional intelligence and performance: An empirical
study. In C.E.J. Härtel, W.J. Zerbe, & N.M. Ashkanasy (Eds.), Research on Emotions in
Organizations, Volume 5: 181-209. Bingley: Emerald.
• Menges, J. I. & Kilduff, M. 2015. Group emotions: Cutting the Gordian knots concerning terms, levels-
of-analysis, and mechanisms. Academy of Management Annals, 9(1): 845-928.
• Menges, J.I., & Salovey, P. 2010. Emotionally intelligent people get what they want: The relationship
between understanding emotions, persuasiveness, and sales performance. EMONET, Seventh
International Conference on Emotions and Organisational Life in Montreal, Canada.

34
References
• Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. 1990. Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3):
185-211.
• Weiss, H. M., & Cropanzano, R. 1996. Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the
structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. Research in Organizational
Behavior, 18: 1-74.
• Ybarra, Oscar, Ethan Kross, and Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks. "The “big idea” that is yet to be: Toward a
more motivated, contextual, and dynamic model of emotional intelligence." Academy of Management
Perspectives, 28(2): 93-107.

Additional Slides for Further Information

35
Leading with a vision

What does not work:

• Linear or logical plans
• Analytical, numbers-based visions
• Visions of fierce competition for the sake of being the best
• Visions of cutting costs that are emotionally depressing and create
anxiety
• Creating bold visions that employees do not believe in

• “to become the world‘s leading seller of luxury goods“

• “to overcome racial segregation“
• “to limit immigration to the tens of thousands”

Source: Carton (2018); Carton, Murphy & Clark (2014); Menges, Horn & Kabath (2011)

Leading with a vision

What does work:

• Easy to “see”
• Short
• Specific
• Future-oriented
• Stable
• Attainable

• “to see customers smiling as they leave the store“

• “that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together“
• “I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have
Mexico pay for that wall.”

Source: Bruch & Goshal (2003)

36
 Coping with negative emotions

Event Evaluation Emotion Control Reaction

• Selection  • Attention • Suppression

• Modification • Reappraisal

Source: Gross (1998)

Healing the wounds

• Listening to all parties

• Finding outlets for negative emotions

• Using toxic handlers

• Identifying overarching goals

• Emphasizing common identity

• Highlighting interdependencies

• Tipping the emotional balance

• Addressing concerns immediately

Source: Bruch & Goshal (2003)

37
38