Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Emotional Intelligence - Literature review Example

Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Emotional Intelligence Your Name Class Name Name of University Introduction Effective performance in organizations requires leaders to exhibit a great deal visionary, inspirational, empathetic and confident leadership behaviour. They are expected to demonstrate genuine understanding of their followers based on reflection, perception and emotional intelligence. Transformational leadership is considered as the most effective leadership style since the leaders are able to act upon their values and evoke motivational responses from their followers as well as modifying their behaviour in meeting organizational objectives. In addition, transformational leaders with high emotional intelligence demonstrate better results than those with less emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to manage one’s own emotions and those of others. This paper examines how transformational leadership is related to emotional intelligence for effective leadership. In showing this relationship, the paper describes how the components of transformational leadership (individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and idealized influence) relate to the abilities of emotional intelligence that include self awareness, social awareness, self management and social skills. Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership was introduced by Burns (1978) who identified leadership as the act of persuading, inspiring and motivating followers towards the achievement of certain goals that represent the needs, values, expectations and aspirations of both leaders and followers. According to Burns (1978), effectiveness of leaders lies on how they act upon their values and evoke motivational responses from their followers as well as modifying their behaviour in meeting responsiveness or resistance in the organization. Lindebaum & Cartwright (2010) note that transformational leadership should not be confused with transactional leadership because in the latter, followers are only motivated to accomplish tasks through the exchange of specific rewards. Burns (1978) further contends the need by transformational leaders to develop their followers into leaders, which in turn affects real change in the organization. Bass (1985) refined the scope and constructs of transformational leadership and described these leaders as motivating their followers to perform beyond their expectations by inspiring and intellectually stimulating them to surpass their self interest for a higher collective interest. He further argues that transformational leaders empower and elevates their followers in attempts to activate their motivation as well as commitment towards the organization. Bass & Riggio (2006) describe four dimensions of transformational leadership: individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and idealized influence (attributed and behavioural). The first characteristic of transformational leadership, individualized consideration, involves the recognition of the individual needs of the followers rather than treating all of them as having similar needs. Through effective communication, mentoring and coaching, leaders develop their followers, giving them the ability to promote their self interests as well as those of the organization. Bass & Riggio (2006) argue that leaders remove, through individualized consideration, the roadblocks within the organization and thus empowering the followers to make a difference in the organization. The second characteristic (inspirational motivation) focuses on the potential of leaders to inspire and motivate their followers to accomplish the established goals through the use of certain behaviours that communicate a sound and shared vision. Through inspirational motivation, leaders remain optimistic in stimulating and arousing team spirit as well as searching for means they can use in order to improve the work environment (Corona, 2010). Intellectual stimulation is the third characteristic and it refers to the leader’s ability to foster creativity and innovation among the followers by challenging their common beliefs and perspectives (Bass & Riggio, 2006). Followers are urged to take a new look in solving issues and difficulty situations by re-examining their assumptions concerning these issues. In this manner, they are able to conceptualize, comprehend and create their own strategies in generating solutions that lead to satisfaction and increased productivity (Corona, 2010; Bass, 1985). The fourth characteristic is idealized influence through behaviour. Transformational leaders should serve as role models by showing respect while building trust and confidence among their followers. In return, the followers are expected to demonstrate their respect in the belief that their leaders set standards of behaviour which they can aspire to emulate. This is referred to as idealized influence-attributed. Generally, idealized influence incorporates the leader’s high levels of ethical behaviour as well as a clear and consistent sense of direction. Transformational leaders help their followers to become leaders by showing them how to accomplish the organizational goals. According to Corona (2010), it is evident that transformational leadership has a positive impact on the organizational factors such as strategic planning, trust, organizational citizenship, efficacy beliefs and sales performance. In addition, these leaders have a positive influence on the team’s solidarity, level of cohesiveness and conflict management and their shared vision. Similarly, Chang & Lee (2007) demonstrate how transformational leadership enhances employee job satisfaction which, ultimately, influences their performance. In their investigation, they realized that transformational leadership strategies help in fostering innovations within the organization by addressing the intrinsic needs and motivations of the followers. Leaders and followers have a sense of shared interdependence and besides, they share mutual interests. According to Barling et al. (2000), organizational commitment aroused by transformational leadership increases the followers’ self motivation towards the improvement of organizational performance. Emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence was formulated by Gardner (1993) to include a set of multiple intelligences characterized by interpersonal and intrapersonal aptitudes. He describes the interpersonal intelligence as the ability to understand others, while intrapersonal intelligences as the capability to understand one’s own emotions. These two concepts enable an individual to manage his or her own emotions, as well as of others in order to influence decisions. Salovey and Mayer (1993) conceptualized emotional intelligence as an individual’s capacity to use his or her emotions in solving organizational problems under the ability models. On the other hand, the trait models describe emotional intelligence by focusing on personality attributes. Bar-On (2002) suggests that individuals with higher emotional intelligence tend to be more open to internal experience and in a better position to communicate and label those experiences. Adept leaders are characterized by high levels of emotional intelligence. They are aware of their follower’s emotional problems and interpersonal issues. Corona (2010) argues that the possession of emotional awareness allows one to manage other people’s behaviour in a more productive way. Goleman (1998) identified a model that describes the four abilities: self awareness, social awareness, self management, and social skills. Self awareness refers to the ability for accurate self-assessment and understanding personal emotions, strengths and weaknesses. Social awareness is the ability to assess individuals and groups accurately. Self management refers to the ability to manage internal emotions, impulses, resources, maintain trustworthiness, and be responsible over one’s own actions. Lastly, social skills include the ability to prompt desirable responses in individuals through relationship management. This can also be enhanced through persuasion (influence), listening and use of convincing signals (communication), psyching and guiding individuals and crowds (leadership), working towards a common goal (cooperation and collaboration) and maintaining good relationships (building bonds). Relationship between Transformational leadership and emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence is regarded as the most popular means of not only identifying potentially effective leaders, but also as a tool for nurturing effective leadership skills (Palmer, Walls, Burgess & Stough, 2001). Their findings indicate that emotional intelligence is an underlying competency of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership involves the stimulation of activities among individuals by changing the way in which they look into things in the world and their relationship with one another. This is influenced by one’s ability to manage and monitor his or her emotions, as well as those of others. “Emotional intelligence highly correlates with all the components of transformational leadership, with the components of emotional management and understanding of emotions being strong predictors of this type of leadership style” (Gardner & Stough, 2002, p.72). Transformational leaders are actually able to identify their feelings and express them to others and utilize their emotional knowledge in solving various organizational problems. Besides, they can understand and manage other individuals’ emotions and effectively control their emotional states. Transformational leadership with high emotional intelligence Individuals with high emotional intelligence are considered to be more effective and transformational. Barling et al. (2000) asserts that emotional intelligence is empirically linked to transformational leadership behaviour. It is linked with three aspects of transformational leadership: inspirational motivation, idealized influence, and individualized consideration. Leaders who are able to identify and manage their own emotions and display delayed gratification and self-control, serve as role models to their followers and thus earning them trust and respect. This is actually consistent with the principle of idealized influence. According to Modassir &Singh (2008), leaders with high emotional intelligence component to understand emotions have the ability to accurately perceive the extent to which followers need to be raised. This relate to inspirational motivation, a component of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership components of idealized behaviours and attributes are correlated with the leader’s ability to monitor his emotions and those of others. The leader’s capacity to understand the needs of the followers and interact with them accordingly is the major component of individualized consideration. Leaders with emotional intelligence are most likely to manifest individualized consideration by emphasizing their empathy and ability to effectively manage their relationship with the followers. Maccoby’s analysis of narcissistic leaders can clearly demonstrate examples of this category of leaders. Positive narcissists are gifted to attract followers since they are skilful orators with inspiring speeches. Indeed, they are able to stir enthusiasm and show personal magnetism to performance. Winston Churchill is an example of a transformational leader with high emotional intelligence. His JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you” inaugural address demonstrates how his speeches bolstered the conviction and self confidence of speakers (Maccoby, 2002). CEOs such as Andy Grove, George Soros, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and Jack Welch also have high emotional intelligence. They have the confidence and the energy that inspires the followers and try to persuade those who disagree with them. In addition, these leaders are gifted and creative strategists who are able to change the world by creating a big picture and meaning in bringing transitions to the organization. Transformational leadership with low emotional intelligence Transformational leaders with low emotional intelligence are not as effective as those with high emotional intelligence since they cannot be able to react to their needs effectively. According to Burns (1978), a transformational leader is the one who raises the needs and motivations of the followers and consequently promoting a dramatic change in them as well as the entire organization. In order to arouse the interests and awareness among the followers and increase their confidence, leaders need to have high levels of emotional intelligence. This allows the use of their ability to manage and monitor his or her emotions, as well as those of others in attempts to orient the followers towards performance that is beyond the established goals and standards. Therefore, leaders with low emotional intelligence may not be in a good position to accurately perceive, appraise and express their emotions and they may not be able to generate feelings that facilitate thought (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). In addition they may not be effective in understanding and regulating their own emotions and those of their followers in promoting intellectual and emotional growth. Individuals with low emotional intelligence are less open to internal experience and may not be able to communicate and label those experiences freely. Maccoby (2002) argues that narcissistic leaders are not always successful leaders. Having less or no emotional intelligence is a big challenge to effective leadership. A leader such as Pehr Gyllenhammar of Volvo is a good example of a transformational leadership with less emotional intelligence. Although he had a good vision of revolutionizing their industrial workplace by caricaturing team based craftsmanship, the success of pushing these changes led to his downfall. Lack of the abilities of social intelligence: self awareness, social awareness, self management, and social skills did not allow Gyllenhammar to effectively demonstrate his transformational leadership. For instance, he was not able to identify and manage his own emotions as well as those of his followers so that he could effectively transform them. Lack of self-knowledge may lead to unrealistic dreams that block the success of organization. Conclusion Leadership studies have supported a positive relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence. Various aspects of emotional intelligence such as interpersonal skills show a positive correlation with most components of transformational leadership. Scholars suggest that emotionally intelligent leaders have the ability of understanding the expectations of their followers and thus being able to react to their individual needs. Transformational leaders with high levels of emotional intelligence are expressive, visionary, influential and inspirational can greatly improve organizational performance. Self management is linked with individualized consideration and inspirational motivation while emotional management and empathy are correlated with idealized influence of transformational leadership. References Barling et al. (2000). 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