The Implications of Emotional Intelligence for Leaders - Coursework Example

Ethics and Leadership al Affiliation Do you believe understanding your preferences according to the whole brain model can help you be a better leader? Discuss and explain your answer. Personal and organisational thinking has preferences. William "Ned" Herrmann described a model of thinking in which people have different preferences for thinking. In the whole brain model, the scientist identifies four distinct areas of choices in which human thinking revolves (Herrmann, 1996). These areas include the analytical, sequential, interpersonal and imaginative thinking. Thinking should revolve around these models. However, there is a great tendency among human beings including leaders to prefer one or more kinds of thinking over the others. This implies that the leader will always use one model of thinking, say, analytical in the leadership. This may cause unhealthy conflict among the team members who may not be comfortable with the scrutiny and strictness that results from this kind of thinking. Understanding ones preferences as a leader are important in helping establish healthy leader-subjects relationship. It is a part of the self-awareness that is known to create a bridge between people with different personalities. Diversity being an expected aspect of teams and organization, understanding and being able to control ones thinking preferences makes one an engaging and respecting the leader (Marcic & Daft, 2013). When, for instance, a leader knows that he or she prefers imaginative thinking, they will be able to control it in such a way that it does not affect their focus on reality. 2. What are the implications of emotional intelligence for leaders? Explain your answer by using personal examples. In emotional intelligence, a leader can focus attention on the most important aspect of leader-subject relationship this is the emotional congruence and relationship. Any leadership process involves interacting with people at various levels. These interactions create emotions on the side of the leader as well as on the side of the subjects. According to Hughes et al. (2011), emotional intelligence does not only entail knowing or learning about the emotions of other peoples but self-awareness is an important principle. With self-awareness, the leader is able to focus on the personal emotions and feelings and hence align directly with the expectations of the subjects while still maintaining a cordial but professional relationship (Hughes et al., 2011). With self-regulation, an attribute of emotional intelligence, the leaders can successfully identify their personal values and those of their subjects. This develops within the relationship the notion of being accountable and knowing the limits of one another. The importance of this is that there is self-restraint from within the leadership structure and between the leaders and the subjects. The result of this is a smooth running or organisational businesses with no compromises. Emotional intelligence further enhances empathy. The leaders can recognize and feel with the subordinates. The implication of this according to Pahl & Technische Fachhochschule Berlin (2008), is that the leaders are inherently restrained from doing something that would hurt the emotions of the subordinates (Pahl & Technische Fachhochschule Berlin, 2008). 3. Describe Equity Theory. Use examples from your own experience. According to Adams in the Equity theory, a balance must be struck between what the subordinates and employees are giving into their duties and what they get as returns. The inputs of the employees into the job are in the form of skills, enthusiasm, knowledge, time and other abstract attributes that make the work doable and productivity achievable. These should be aligned in such a way that they are in balance with the salaries that the employees receive, their recognition, the improvement of the working environments and the comfort that arise from the basic fact that they are performing (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor, 2012). This can be elaborated to mean that for employees’ performance to be maintained, they have to be motivated. The motivation arises from the fulfillment of their economic, social, political and physical expectations of the job. During recruitment and selection, leaders and employers must be aware that the employees on-boarding the organisations have expectations. In as much as they are prepared to give all they have for the success of the organization in terms of skills, loyalty, commitment, flexibility and other qualities, they expect returns from their contribution. Striking the equity balance should, therefore, be the focus of human resource management (Msoroka, 2013). Recognition, reputation and proper remuneration are just a few methods to ensure this balance. 4. Does the Johari Window seem like a good framework for leaders who want to create better communications among team members? Can you think of potential problems a leader might encounter when applying the Johari Window? Leadership without communication is a failure. Any leader expecting to succeed must be able to establish, maintain and sustain productive communication between him or her and the rest of the members of the team. A communication process involves information from a sender passing through a channel and feedback from the recipient (Griffin & Moorhead, 2010). Since the communication involves providing information about self and others, the Johari Window framework of team communication has been extensively used in managing team communication. The framework divides the communication into four distinct categories of information that communication should share. Focusing on self, the first category (arena) has information that he leader knows and the rest of the group do not. For this information to be useful in the group, the leader must share the information. The second category (Blind spot) represents the information that the rest of the group knows about the leader while he or she does not. The third category (Facade) represents the information that the leader wishes to conceal from the group. The fourth category is the unknown category. It represents information that neither the leader nor the subordinates are aware of. The framework adequately controls the sharing of information and reception of feedback in an organization (West & Turner, 2011). Leaders applying this framework may be faced with a challenge in categorizing the information into the four groups. They, therefore, find that they cannot adequately share the information that is supposed to be shared or at times disclose sensitive information. The employees and subordinates too may not embrace the same format of categorization, and this brings about incongruence in communication (West & Turner, 2011). References Griffin, R. W., & Moorhead, G. (2010). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations. Australia: South-Western/Cengage Learning. Herrmann, N. (1996). The whole brain business book. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hughes, M., Patterson, L. B., Terrell, J. B., & Bar-On, R. (2011). Emotional Intelligence In Action: Training and Coaching Activities for Leaders and Managers. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Marcic, D., & Daft, R. L. (2013). Practical management skills. Mason, Ohio: South-Western. Msoroka, M. (2013). Motivating workers in educational institutions: Adams equity and maslows need hierarchy. S.l.: Grin Verlag. Pahl, N., & Technische Fachhochschule Berlin. (2008). The role of emotional intelligence in leadership. Norderstedt: GRIN. Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J., & Kapoor, J. R. (2012). Business. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. West, R. L., & Turner, L. H. (2011). Understanding interpersonal communication: Making choices in changing times. Boston: Wadsworth. Read More