Following are the leadership competencies that Eduardo lacks.

I’ll explain how he lacks them

and what should he do about it in detail. I’ll also discuss why I think they are important for him

(or any other leader for that matter) to develop.

Cooperation:

Eduardo is too overly obsessed with himself. He is, undeniably, intelligent. But that’s not all

that makes a person a great leader. A leader needs more than just intelligence in order to lead

people. I will look at the case of Eduardo first from a psychological perspective and point out

what exactly is wrong with him (the way he tries to deal with situation) and why is it not good

for the company (and even him). Jean Piaget (1962), the great Swiss developmental

psychologist, was among the pioneers who worked on play in children. Piaget points out that the

basic premise upon which any play is predicated is the collective establishment of a shared goal.

So, play is not about one person winning vs another or the others losing. That’s not the point of

play and that’s not how it works. He argued that children learn how to operate effectively in the

world with the help of play. They learn to cooperate and compete in relationship to a specific

goal. A play cannot continue to go on if there is no collective relationship or cooperation and

competition among the people who are involved in it. I think, that’s exactly the problem with

Eduardo. He wants to win and he doesn’t care about other. He doesn’t care whether others lose

or win. All he wants to do is to pursue and reach the goal that he wants to pursue and reach at. A

good leader is essentially a good player (in Piaget’s terms). Part of the reason why someone

becomes a good player is that he/she can help his/her teammates. A good player is never ego-

centric. He has to improve the performance of his teammates because he believes that they [the

entire team] has to win and achieve the goals. Therefore, he doesn’t not only focuses on himself
and his own abilities but also on the performance of his/her teammates. That’s what a good

leader is like too. A good leader makes sure that everyone catches up with him. He looks at other

people and helps them. He improves their performance. The problem with Eduardo, as far as I

can see it, is that he blames his co-workers for not doing great but he doesn’t do anything about

it. He wants to win but he doesn’t make sure that he improves the performance of other people.

He wants them to become as good [in terms of performance] as him but he doesn’t help them

become so. In order to become a good leader, he must cooperate with others and help them

improve their performance. He has to learn how to play as a team!

Participative Leadership (instead of dictatorial leadership)

There is another thing that lacks in Eduardo’s leadership. I’ll, again, explain it from the

Piagetian perspective. Piaget (1962) points out that games must be undertaken voluntarily. What

Piaget means by that is that you cannot force a game on someone and expect better results. If you

do so you’ll lose and waste all your energy on enforcement and you won’t get any significant

results out of the person. In fact, that’s true about animals (De, 1997). That’s another issue with

Eduardo. His leadership style is dictatorial. Dictatorial leadership doesn’t work. He dictates

orders. He tells people what to do and doesn’t care whether or not they like it or are capable of

doing it. And when they don’t do it, or don’t do it according to his expectations, he just does it

himself. That’s not how leaders lead and companies work. Eduardo must make sure that

whatever tasks he assigns to people that they are voluntarily willing to do them. If he stays

arrogant he won’t be able to do so. And if he fails and achieving this, the company will die. The

reason for that is that employees will leave because nobody wants to work in a place where they

have to do things involuntarily. Now, I don’t mean that he shouldn’t be giving orders or
instructions to people. Of course, that’s his job. But he must make sure that he doesn’t force

things on people. If he wants people to do better, he must help them become better and then let

them do whatever he wants them to do voluntarily. What Eduardo needs to develop is the

Participative style of leadership. He must respect and truly consider everyone’s input. He must

remain a leader nonetheless but try to remain more of a team facilitator. He should be open to

ideas and suggestions from other people. He should stimulate their creativity. This will help him

create a culture of innovation.

Motivation:

In terms of motivation, it thinks Eduardo is motivated towards the right thing, but it’s just

that the manner in which is executing his motivation and trying to achieve the goals is not right.

His behavior manifests the flywheel effect, which means that believes he can make the company

great all on his own. He is motivated towards making progress and lifting the company’s

standard up. And that’s great. But what he needs to understand is that he alone cannot do that. He

is thinking in terms of personal achievement. What he needs to do instead is collective

achievement of the goals. He should make sure that he and his coworkers together achieve the

goals.

Emotional Intelligence:

One of the major issues with how Eduardo operates in the company is his failure to properly

regulate his emotions and motivations. That’s highly necessary and is, in fact, the universal rule

of fair play. If someone can’t regulate their emotions and motivations they cannot play, not at

least for longer. That’s true of leaders too. Leaders must also be able to control and regulate their
emotions and motivations according to the situation. They must be emotionally intelligent, as

pointed out by Donelson Forsyth in his book Group Dynamics. Leadership is a very emotion-

laden process. Eduardo must keep his mood positive. That’s necessary for making sure his group

members or coworkers also experience positive mood. His mood will affect others and that’s

according to what is known as emotional contagion (Sy, Cote and Saavedra, 2005). The reason I

am emphasizing on this is that the research on emotional regulation is solid. A good leader must

keep positive mood in order to generate positive group affective tone (Sy, Cote and Saavedra,

2005). It is also true that Eduardo’s mood and emotions will affect the performance, coordination

and effort expenditure of the people who work for him. That’s why it is necessary for him to

work on his emotions and become a little more positive and a little less arrogant.

Communication Skills:

I think this is one of the most important skills that Eduardo needs to work on. He is neither

good at convincing other people neither is he willing to listen to their input. That’s exactly why

he does not wait for others to catch up with him and just does things himself. He believes people

don’t understand him but that’s not the case. The problem is that he is incapable of

communicating with them properly. He should maintain a two-way communication with his

members, listen to their input and suggestions and express his own point of view to them. And

then, as it is part of a good communication, he must sit with them and decide (while taking in

their input) what to do in a certain situation. This is necessary, because with proper

communication will he be able to see exactly what his members want and he’ll be able to do

something about it.

References:

 F. de Waal, Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other
Animals (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997).
 J. Piaget, Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood (New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, 1962).
 Forsyth, Donelson (2010). Group Dynamics. Belmont, California: Wadsworth.
 Sy, T.; Cote, S.; Saavedra, R. (2005). "The contagious leader: Impact of the leader's
mood on the mood of group members, group affective tone, and group
processes" (PDF). Journal of Applied Psychology. 90 (2): 295–305. doi:10.1037/0021-
9010.90.2.295. PMID 15769239.