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Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Effectiveness

BY ABHIJEET WAKLE

1. Introduction
Researchers in recent era (post Industrial Revolution) have been trying to unravel the factors that are important for success in life. For long it was believed that traditional intelligence, which could be measured as Intelligence Quotient (IQ), was responsible for success in life. Based on this assumption a number of intelligence scales have been developed. These scales predict the technical expertise of an individual that helps him/her in performing the job and therefore, acts as a facilitating factor in achieving success. However, these scales fail to predict, why some people are better in interpersonal relationships, more acceptable to people, and better manager of their lives, career and stress. So, this leads to the question What qualities of mind or spirit determine who would succeed? Researchers revealed that adaptability, leadership, self-confidence and interpersonal skills are distinguishing factors possessed by the top performers. And these are related with effective and intelligent management of emotions. The concept of Emotional Intelligence is largely due to David Goleman, who has been a pioneer of this concept in recent times. Though the term emotional intelligence is a recent coinage by modern academicians, a concept of Stitha-Pradnya (emotional stability), is rooted deeply in all spiritual and meta-physical literature of Ancient India, across all streams of philosophy, the more recent Bhagavad-Gita. In the battle of Mahabharat, when Arjun was deluded by indecisiveness, Lord Krishna advised Arjun to become Stitha-Pradnya, and explained that an individual achieved his/her goal only when the mind became steady, poised and balanced. However, in modern times, the same concept is presented using a different prism more applicable to the Business Organizations of today, through Emotional Intelligence

2. Components of Emotional Intelligence


Emotional Intelligence consists of two components: emotions and intelligence

Emotions
Basic emotions are Anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. Secondary and Tertiary emotions are derived from these basic emotions, according some theorists. The secondary emotions are Envy, Sympathy, Disappointment etc and tertiary emotions are Pride, embarrassment, hysteria etc. Fundamentally emotions consist of (a) physiological changes within bodies, (b) subjective cognitive states and (c) expressive behaviors.

Intelligence
Simply put, Intelligence is the ability to acquire and retain knowledge. Possession of Intelligence implies use of reason or intellect in solving problems and directing conduct. There

are two major theories of intelligence namely (1) Factor Theory and (2) Process Oriented Theory.

Emotional Intelligence
Extending the above background, this section looks at some of the definitions of Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is a set of abilities to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge and ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth. (Mayer and Salovery) Emotional Intelligence is an array of emotional and social knowledge and abilities that influence ourability to effectively cope with environmental demands. (Bar-On) Emotional Intelligence is a skill of self-control, zeal and persistence and the ability to motivate oneself. (Goleman) Emotional Intelligence is an aggregate of individuals cognition of own and others emotions, feeling, interpretation and action as per environmental demand to manipulate the consequence, which in turn results in superior performance and better human relationships. (Battacharya) Emotional Quotient or EQ is a measure of Emotional Intelligence as IQ is that of Intelligence.

3. Golemans Emotional Intelligence Model


The most popular and accepted mixed model of emotional intelligence is the one proposed by Goleman. He viewed emotional intelligence as a total of personal and social competences. Personal competence determines how we manage ourselves, whereas social competence determines how we handle our inter-personal relationships Figure 1: Emotional Intelligence Model Emotional Intelligence

Personal Competence

Social Competence

1. Self Awareness 2. Self-Regulation 3. Motivation

1. Empathy 2. Social Skills

Personal Competence
It comprises of three dimensions of emotional intelligence, such as, self-awareness, selfregulation and motivation. Self-awareness is the ability of individual to recognize a feeling as it happens. The hallmarks of this ability are self-confidence, self-assessment and openness to positive criticism. Self-regulation is the ability to control emotions and to redirect those emotions that can have negative impact. Trustworthiness, integrity, tolerance of ambiguity and attitude to accept change are some of the characteristics of this ability. Motivation is the ability to channelize emotion to achieve a goal through self-control and by moderating impulses as per the requirement of the situation. The people who have this ability are optimistic and committed towards organizational as well as individual goals

Social Competence
It comprises of two dimensions namely, empathy and social skills. Empathy is the ability to feel to get concerned for others, take their perspective and to treat people according to their emotional reactions. People with this ability are experts in generating and motivating others. Social Skills are the ability to build rapport and to manage relationships with people. People having this skill are very effective in persuasiveness and team management.

4. Leadership
Leadership is described as the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.

Leadership Traits or Qualities that are inherent to the Leader, include 1. Authenticity 2. Vision 3. Character 4. Will and 5. Wisdom. The Trait Theories which claim that Leaders exhibiting these qualities will be effective in their leadership has limitations. Research indicates that the Leadership Skills for effectiveness include the following: 1. Recognizing and Managing Change 2. Adaptation 3. Team Building

4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Continuous Learning Accommodating Diversity and Heresy Reconciling Self-Interest and Community Needs Dynamic accountability Communicate Effectively

An effective leader is the one who gets his/her job done through people, requiring their satisfaction and commitment. Transformational Leadership occurs when the leaders and the followers come together and mutually help each other to raise their motivation and morale at higher levels. Transformational Leaders achieve superior results by 1. 2. 3. 4. Idealized Influence Inspirational Motivation Intellectual stimulation Individualized Consideration

The next section discusses the main driving force behind the effective and transformational Leadership, namely Emotional Intelligence

5. Emotional Intelligence the force behind Effective Leadership


Leadership can be perceived as a heavily emotion-laden process, with emotions entwined with the social influence process. Organization is a social structure. In an organization, the leader's emotional state has some effects on his/her group. These effects can be described in 3 levels: 1. The emotional state of individual group members. The leaders transmit their moods to other group members through the mechanism of emotional contagion. Mood contagion may be one of the psychological mechanisms by which charismatic leaders influence followers. 2. The affective tone of the group. Group Affective Tone represents the consistent or homogeneous affective reactions within a group. Group affective tone is an aggregate of the moods of the individual members of the group and refers to mood at the group level of analysis. Groups with high EQ leaders in a positive mood have a more positive affective tone than do groups with leaders in a negative mood. 3. Group processes like coordination, effort expenditure, and task strategy. Public expressions of mood impact how group members think and act. Leaders signal their goals, intentions, and attitudes through their expressions of emotions. For example, expressions of positive moods by leaders signal that leaders deem progress toward goals

to be good. The group members respond to those signals cognitively and behaviorally in ways that are reflected in the group processes. In research about client service, it was found that expressions of positive mood by the Leader improve the performance of the group. Since employee behavior and productivity are directly affected by their emotional states, it is imperative to consider employee emotional responses to organizational leaders. Thus Emotional Intelligence, the ability to understand and manage moods and emotions in the self and others, contributes to effective leadership in organizations. Leadership is about being responsible.

Emotionally Intelligence Leader A Model


We have seen that emotionally intelligent leadership becomes a reality when leaders take transformational approach to create bonding with the followers, to further establish trust and mutuality based on common interest for achieving personal and organizations goals. The model in Figure 2, depicts emotionally intelligent leadership needed to bring about a transformational change in organization Figure 2: Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

Personal Side of Leadership

Social Side of Leadership

Organizational Side of Relationship

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

Transformation of organization for managing change and innovation

The three dimensions of the above model are explained below: Personal Side of Leadership It consists of self-awareness, which is the basic foundation on which emotionally intelligent leadership germinates. A sound sense of self-awareness leads to positive evaluation of ones self worth and capabilities or building up of self confidence, vital for leadership. This helps in management of self by the leader, which translates into the following: Emotional self control, Adaptability, Transparency, Initiative and Optimism.

Social Side of Leadership It involves understanding leadership in interpersonal context, where leadership refers to connectivity and building bridges with others for attaining and maximizing common goals. Empathy, service and organizational awareness are corner stones of social connectivity.

Organizational Side of Leadership In this stage, the act of doing things together in the organizational context becomes a reality. The leader and the subordinate jointly attempt to build bonds to cultivate and maintain a web of relationships to produce more mutually reinforcing and organizationally productive outcomes. For a developmental or EI leader, the following steps are necessary to create an environment in which leadership and teamwork can grow: Focus on development should be well-communicated. Leaders should be responsible to enable their development by providing resources, opportunities and support. Coaching, mentoring and counseling should be included into leaders regular activities Coaching should be concentrated on motivating the associates to keep working towards their objectives. Leaders should encourage, recognize and reward followers efforts.

The other ways in which Emotional Intelligence aids effective leaders is in the following two main roles of the leader, namely Service Orientation Conflict Management

6. Contagion or Cultivation of emotional intelligence to Group


Developing a norm of teamwork against tendencies of individualism is a key role of EI Leader. A belief in cooperation and collaboration, rather than competitiveness as a strategy for building teamwork is referred to as cooperation theory. Leaders can make progress towards establishing a teamwork norm by: Encourage team members to treat one another as customers. Explicitly articulate desirability of teamwork regularly.

The leaders role in developing teamwork can also be described as helping the group develop emotional intelligence. The leader contributes to groups emotional intelligence by creating norms that establish mutual trust among members. The leader also promotes group emotional intelligence by bringing emotions to the surface in both group and one-to-one meetings.

7. Conclusion
This paper outlines the relation between emotions and organizations performance. It further discussed the role of the leader to maximize influence and organizational performance by attaining emotional stability or emotional intelligence.

8. References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Andrew J. Dubrin. Leadership, Research Findings, Practice and Skills Harvard Business Review, Leadership Fred Luthans. Organizational behavior, 8e. Robert J. Allio. Leadership, Myths and Realities. Daniel Goleman. Emotional Intelligence Hughes, Ginnet, Curphy. Leadership, 8e. Robbins, Judge and Sanghi. Organizational Behavior, 12e. Trevor Waldock. The 18 challenges of Leadership.

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