Marius Kloppers Leadership Demonstrates Emotional Intelligence - Case Study Example

Marius Klopper’s Leadership Demonstrates Emotional Intelligence Name: Professor: Institution: Date of Submission: Introduction. Emotional intelligence is one of the major factors which have been considered to contribute to effective leadership and success of various business organizations. Emotional intelligence is attributed to the manager’s ability to understand their employees’ feelings and come up with interventions which contribute to the creation of environments which promotes development (Murphy & Pirozzolo, 2009). Emotional intelligence has enabled various organizations to increase their operational effectiveness through the integration of different operations. Emotional intelligence is important tool for the managers as it enables them enhance their projects effectiveness and interface with both the external and internal stakeholders in an organization(Quinn & Wilemon, 2006). Therefore, this essay will analyze whether Marius Klopper’s leadership as the head operations manager demonstrated emotional intelligence. Additionally, it will identify the basis of my arguments whether his leadership demonstrates emotional intelligence. This essay will also justify the relationship occurring between Klopper’s leadership and transformational leadership. Finally, it will identify some of the ways in which Klopper’s leadership has contributed to the success of his organization. Marius Klopper is one of the world’s known successful businessmen. Born in South Africa in the year 1962, Klopper was the former CEO of the BHP Biliton Company, one of the world’s largest mining organizations. Additionally, he is the Chairman and the executive director of the Group management committee in this organization. Klopper retired from BHP Biliton as a CEO in the year 1st Oct. 2013. His leadership success is attributed to his past careers which include working as a researcher at Sasol petrochemicals and as a management consultant at McKinsey Company (MTD, 2010). Therefore, the analysis in the parts that follow will show his leadership skills which contributed to his company’s excellent performance. Case Analysis From the above case, it is evidently clear that emotional intelligence greatly contributed to Klopper’s leadership success. He effectively adopts the use of team work as a method of achieving the organization’s objectives. This is in line with the concept of emotional intelligence which helps the leaders employ the use of teamwork to achieve specific project goals. This involves selecting individuals with different experiences to work in specific areas to achieve a specific goal. Through this, managers including Klopper are able to appreciate the importance of interpersonal competencies and effective management as vital requirements of projects success (Trabun, 2002). In the above case, Klopper is shown to have high emotional intelligence. High emotional intelligence managers have high technical expertise with aptitudes which enable them recognize their team issues and the ability to empathize with other employees. This enables them adopt leadership styles and management skills needed to deal with their employees and the customer’s needs (Srivsastava & Bharamanaikar, 2004). Klopper is an emotional intelligent leader since he respects his employees, customers and other relevant stakeholders in his past organizations. Emotional intelligent leaders understand the need for the creation of an environment which promotes healthy communication and cooperation. These emotional components are vital since they contribute to the attainment of the organization’s goals and objectives (Murphy & Pirozzolo, 2009). Klopper uses participative leadership. Participative leadership is one of the characteristics displayed by leaders with high emotional intelligence. Consequently, such leaders practice transformational leadership where employees’ motivation, innovation and teamwork are highly fostered. Through this, the managers are able to recognize their employees’ needs and come up with interventions which can be employed to meet them (Reily, 2008). The success of every leader including Klopper is highly linked to their high emotional intelligence which enables them select the most appropriate employees with both the technical proficiency and high abilities. These abilities enable the employees to integrate their logic and emotions in their daily workplace activities and decision making (Steinberg, 2002). Klopper understands the feelings of his employees and other stakeholders involved in the organization. Therefore, Emotional intelligent leaders such as Klopper provide their employees with environment that allows them have control over their emotions and relate effectively with the other team members. This increases the levels of performance and participation which contribute to the overall success of their organizations (Ruderman et al. 2001). Klopper is an effective team developer. Emotional intelligence enables managers and other leaders such as Klopper uncover the different issues holding their employees from undertaking specific tasks. This enables them to establish lines of communication which promote team openness thereby promoting employee honesty in admitting tension and expressing their feelings (Taft, 2012). Klopper is an emotional intelligent leader since he employs various techniques to build trust between him, employees and relevant stakeholders in the organization. This includes coaching employees, guiding and providing motivation which assists them in achieving their desired goals. Additionally, emotional intelligent leaders like Klopper creates environment that fosters collaboration and creativity through the provision of managerial and technical guidance to their employees. This builds trust which enhances teamwork and productivity. Klopper is a good listener. He employs his emotional intelligence and active listening to show his appreciation to the employees and understand their feelings (Allen, 2012). Like all other emotional intelligent leaders, Klopper is committed to achieving the set organization’s goals and objectives. This involves utilizing interventions such as active involvement and participation of all the employees in undertaking various activities and decision making. Emotional intelligent leaders respect every employee’s concerns and contribution in achieving the set goals (MTD, 2010). Emotional intelligence enables the leaders and the employees control their emotions and engage in positive discussions, debates and decision making improving commitment and improvement in the organizational performance (Martin, 2009). From the above case, it is evidently clear that Klopper has vast ways of managing conflicts within the organization. Emotional intelligent leaders guide their employees during the hard times to come up with interventions to overcome their differences. These include embracing communication, understanding the emotional differences and creating awareness on the needs for conflict resolution. Conflict resolution which is highly determined by manager’s emotional intelligence contributes, to the high organizational performance (Trabun, 2002). Like all the other emotionally intelligent leaders, Klopper is empathetic with his employees. This enables him understand the factors that might contribute to project failures, identify difficulties experienced by the employees and come up with ways of overcoming the identified difficulties. Klopper success is attributed to his facilitative leadership in the organization. His leadership allows the employees have sense of freedom and ownership which increases bonding between the employees. Additionally, high emotional intelligent leaders like Klopper use coaching as their leadership style. This involves encouraging the employees to improve their performance and motivate the employees (Howells et al. 2007). Klopper is an optimistic leader. Leaders with high emotional intelligence are high optimistic. This contributes to their abilities to handle varied setbacks in an organization. They are able to view challenges as temporary unlike the low emotionally intelligent managers who view challenge as permanent in the organization (Rahim & Psenicka, 2005). High emotional intelligent leaders including Klopper have high level of competencies. This is attributed to their happiness with their work, assertiveness, empathy and self-awareness. Additionally, they are the best performers hence, cost effective since they reduce operational costs needed in the organization (Quinn & Wilemon, 2006). According to the above case scenario, it is evidently clear that Klopper possess a wide range of emotional competencies which contributes to his leadership competencies. One of these competencies is the strong drive for the achievement of the organization’s goals and objectives. To achieve this, emotionally intelligent managers utilize interventions such as teamwork, collaborative decision making and facilitative leadership. Secondly, Klopper is self-confident of himself and his employees. Like other high emotional intelligent leaders, he trusts in his employees’ performance and encourages them to improve their performance (Murphy & Pirozzolo, 2009). Klopper is aware of himself and the other employees’ feelings, one of the components of the emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligent leaders including Klopper have the abilities to understand their employees’ emotions, drives needs and weaknesses (Srivsastava & Bharamanaikar, 2004). Additionally, they have deep understanding on different ways in which their employees’ emotions can affect the overall performance in their organizations. These leaders are realistic in their actions, decision making, performing of self-assessment, humorous at their places of work and are confident of their employees and actions (Steinberg, 2002). Klopper is able to regulate his impulses and moods which might affect his decision making in the organization. Self-regulation, a component of emotional intelligence promotes leaders’ integrity, trustworthiness, and readiness to change and ambiguity to comfort (Reily, 2008). Additionally, Klopper’s self-awareness enables him to think before deciding when held in situations which require universal decision making. Klopper is highly motivated to achieve his organization’s stated goals. Emotional intelligent leaders are motivated to work for their organizations beyond status or money. Such leaders have strong desires to achieve and realize organization growth, optimistic in their actions and committed to their organizations success (Taft, 2012). Klopper possesses positive social skills. This is evidenced by his abilities to establish common ground of understanding in his organization, establishing rapport with his employees and the ability to persuade various stakeholders and the employees to act with the core aims of achieving the stated organization’s goals and objectives. Emotional intelligent leaders have effective strategies of leading change in their organizations. This involves expertise in establishing and leading teams within their organizations. Additionally, like other emotional intelligent leaders, Klopper has effective leadership skills including leading by example and enhancing transformational change in his organization (Ruderman et al. 2001). Furthermore, the case shows Klopper as a leader with high emotional intelligence since he is able to manage himself i.e. self-management. Emotional intelligent leaders such as Klopper have the ability to adapt to different environmental demands such as changes in product demand, initiating change, promoting transparency and striving to achieve success in their organizations (Allen, 2012). Therefore, these leaders are aware of their feelings and able to employ effectively different skills to manage them. Emotional intelligent leaders are dedicated to service provision (Martin, 2009).This is evidenced by his ability to initiate actions geared towards meeting consumer demands. Klopper is an inspiring leader in his organization. Inspiring leaders orient their decisions basing on their organization’s core values, mission and vision (MTD, 2010). They are both authentic and intentional alongside leading other employees by example. Like other high emotional intelligent leaders, Klopper is a change agent in his organization. EI leaders plan and initiate actions that must be executed to bring the desired change in their organizations. These leaders also come up with interventions which must be undertaken to manage resistance to change in their organizations (Trabun, 2002). Like all other high emotional intelligent leaders, Klopper is able to establish a balance between his personal life and his work. EI leaders have high capabilities of managing the challenges associated with both their daily family and workplace demands (Howells et al. 2007). Klopper’s personality traits as identified in the components of emotional intelligence have greatly contributed to his excellent performance in the organization. These include interpersonal, intrapersonal, adaptability, general mood; stress management and stable mental abilities including effective control of self-emotions. These personality traits contribute to the overall performance of an EI leader (Quinn & Wilemon, 2006). Discussion and the contributions of Klopper’s leadership to the organization From the above arguments, it is evidently clear that Klopper’s leadership demonstrate emotional intelligence. This is due to his ability to incorporate various components of emotional intelligence including self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills in his leadership. Additionally, as an emotional intelligent leader, he incorporates various components of transformational leadership with the components of emotional intelligence. These include collaborative decision making, leading by example, and promoting leadership transparency among other components. Therefore, Klopper’s leadership demonstrates emotional intelligence. Klopper’s emotional intelligent leadership has greatly benefited the organization. The employees have been able to employ teamwork in performing tasks which enhances bonding between the employees. The company has been able to achieve its desired goals as a result of its workers working with a common goal. The organization has been able to maintain its competitiveness in the highly competitive business market. The employees have been motivated due to the provision of a supportive environment which promote innovation among the employees. Conclusion From the above argument, it is apparent that emotional intelligence plays a great role in influencing managers’ and employees performance. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every manager to promote the creation of an environment which supports the recognition and enhancement of the varied employees’ intelligence. 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