Emotional Leadership - Coursework Example

Leadership Name Institution Due Date Leadership Emotional intelligence refers to the ability of being aware of one’s emotions as well as others emotions and using this knowledge to manage oneself and manage our relationships optimally. Emotional intelligence has two key competencies namely personal management and social management. These two elements form the basis for personal interactions with other people. The organizational success is highly dependent on the employee interactions with other employees, vendors and organizational clients. IQ gets one hired in an organization while emotional skills help one to thrive in his/her career after being hired. IQ divulges the cold, factual brain side while EQ indicates the skills. Emotional intelligence entails things like self-awareness, empathy, persistence alongside social skills (Beecham & Grant, 2003). Successful leadership is more than IQ. IQ is too narrow; there are broader areas of emotional intelligence that dictate and determine how successful and effective leaders are. Goleman, 1995, 35 stated, “IQ offers little to explain the different destinies of people with roughly equal promises, schooling, and opportunity. When ninety-five Harvard students from the classes of the 1940s … were followed into middle age, the men with the highest test scores in college were not particularly successful compared to their lower-scoring peers in terms of salary, productivity, or status in their field. Nor did they have the greatest life satisfaction, nor the most happiness with friendship, family, and romantic relationships”. Basically, there are five pillars of emotional intelligence. One is self-awareness; individuals with a healthy sense of self-awareness are more confident. They comprehend their strengths, weaknesses, emotions and their emotional/behavioral effect on other people. Such people respond positively to constructive criticism. The other pillar is self-regulation; emotionally intelligent individuals understand their emotions and illustrate maturity and restraint in revealing their emotions. They do not squash their emotions but express their emotions in a way that indicates high level of judgment and control (Danehy, 2006). This aspect is very important for leaders when making decisions since they make practical and impartial decisions. Another aspect of emotional intelligence is motivation. Normally, leaders and managers within corporations are ambitious. Nevertheless, emotionally intelligent leaders are motivated by a powerful inner drive, and not the salary or the positions. Such leaders are resilient and positive in case of a disappointment. This means that they are always confident and hence thwarting such leader’s confidence is extremely difficult. In regard to empathy, leaders who empathize are not essentially lenient on the employees. Such leaders however are compassionate and understand the human nature and this enables them to emotionally connect with other people. According to Salovey and Mayer (1990), empathy enables these leaders to offer stellar customer service and respond authentically to a worker’s frustration or concern. The fifth pillar of emotional intelligence is people skills. Managers who are emotionally intelligent are usually respected by their superiors, peers and also by workers. Such leaders like other people and know what makes other people happy. They build rapports and trust with those they are working with or handling very easily and power wars, rumor mongering and fraudulence are not their style (Dulewicz, & Higgs, 2003). Emotional intelligence is not about always “being good” as compared to IQ which always about high IQ. A leader who is always nice can imply that he/she has low confidence and is assertive and this indicates a lack of emotional intelligence. For example, leaders who are “harmony-hungry” can mess a lot issues within the organization. Such leaders want peace so much such that important matters and performance problems are not addressed at all (Danehy, 2006). Such leaders can be having a very high IQ but the lack of EQ makes them ineffective as leaders. A manager who is emotionally intelligent is able to chose his/her battles wisely, is assertive when required, and exhibits the courage to tackle difficult situations with confidence. Strong emotional intelligence assists such leaders to act so without making enemies or injuring others self-esteem. As Goleman, 1997, argues, "Emotional intelligence is not just about being emotional or controlling the emotions; it is both. It is the understanding of when emotional expression is going to be useful and when it is going to be problematic." Strong emotional intelligence in organizational leadership directly has an impact on the retention of high-quality workers and generally productivity. Studies indicate that effective leaders make use of their power in influencing others as much as their position power. The foundation of the position power is the authority from the official position that the given leader holds. On the other hand, personal position is founded on the leader’s relationship with other people. Personal power is created through using the emotional intelligence skills (Goleman, 1998). For example, a Gallup Organization research indicated that most employees prefer having a caring boss as compared to higher payments or fringe benefits. Within interviews with 2,000, 000 workers at seven hundred organizations, Gallup established that the time period workers remain at organizations and their productivity level are directly interrelated with the relationship the workers have with their immediate supervisor; employees join and leave managers and hence this may result into organizations losing extremely effective and productive workers because of faulty leadership (Beecham & Grant, 2003). Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to manage themselves effectively. Self-management comprises six personal competencies namely, emotional self-control, clearness, adaptability, achievement, initiative in addition to optimism. Self-management is an element of emotional intelligent that frees someone from being a jailer of his/her feelings. It allows mental lucidity and concentrated energy that leadership requires and it prevents disruptive emotions from interrupting leadership process. Without efficient self-management, it is hard for a manager to achieve his/her own goals, leave alone steer the organization into achieving its goals. Managing one’s emotions and openness in regard to one’s feelings, belief and actions is important in establishing trust, integrity, and also individual capital. These are key features in the establishment of healthy working relationships as well as a culture and environment that is encouraging to furthering organizational leadership work (Beecham & Grant, 2003). Relationship management is very important in organizational leadership. It engages seven social competencies which include, inspirational leadership, authority; developing others, change catalyst, conflict management, teambuilding and teamwork and group effort. Relationship management originates from the realms of self-awareness, self-management and social awareness and this allows the emotionally intelligent leaders to efficiently manage emotions professed in others. Relationship skills enable the leaders to effectively utilize their emotional intelligence. In the leadership, relationship management is building rapport and fostering the ability in other people to share leadership. Relationship management involves cultivating relationships, establishing common ground and making use of the shared vision to motivate individuals to move forward towards achieving an organizational goal (Ryback, 1998). Emotional leadership is about individual competence. This enables to be aware of who they are and who they aren’t, and what they value. Therefore, efficacy in leadership is not mostly about IQ of the leader but the character of the leader. Character is the heart of a balanced life that is well-lived and this typified by personal integrity is the one that shows a mature emotional competence. Leadership necessitates a blend of intense personal humility with strong professional will. Furthermore, emotional intelligence is about social competence; being aware of other people’s emotions and effective management of the relationships between self and others. Leaders should have a sacred heart, which means they should be compassionate, curious and converse as well (Danehy, 2006). According to Ryback, 1998, emotional intelligence provides leaders a greater understanding of the new work ethic for 21st-century leadership, its business and personal benefits, and how to develop self-managed teams with the right mix and match of personality types. A leader who is socially competent is a resonant one, inspire and motivate, arouses commitment and sustains the commitment, continually improves his/her EI competencies and moves gracefully between diverse leadership styles, flexing to meet the requirements of the situation. Emotional intelligence entails blending of both personal and social competence in leadership; to influence others towards goal accomplishment. Victor & Malcolm, 2003 argue that emotionally intelligent are better than leaders with high IQ because the former understand their emotional responses and change them if need be. They are able to assess situations and people around them and utilize this knowledge in solving the problems and making better decisions. Instead of refuting emotions, during emotional navigation people slow down their reactions giving intellect an opportunity to guide their emotions. In case of an organizational conflict or crisis, the slowing-down process assists the leaders in carefully involving both heart and intellect and therefore such leaders are able to come up with creative and intellectually superior solutions. Effective leaders develop diverse EI competencies, evaluate situations intuitively, make wise choices in regard to what is most required by people and the group within a large number of situations, and then deliver (Victor, & Malcolm, 2003). Emotionally intelligent leaders invest in themselves as leaders; they know their emotions and therefore manage their emotions effectively, they adjust to the emotional situations of the people around them and acknowledge and reward laudable follower behavior and hence motivating the employees greatly. Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to develop emotional intelligence in other people and this provides chances for followers to take part in important, self-directed work. Such leaders promote healthy relationships to solve a conflict that without doubt comes with change and motivate other people toward accomplishing set goals. Effective leaders develop themselves emotionally as well as other people (Lisa & Con, 2002). In conclusion, unlike IQ, which is developed and fixed at an early age, Emotional intelligence can grow if there is motivation and the will to tackle the flaws. Emotional intelligence is a strong element of effective leadership and the critical significance of emotionally intelligent leadership entails; all elements of emotional intelligence become an offshoot. The more branches of emotional intelligence are opened, the stronger the force of their collective flow. At their most powerful point, the emotional intelligence forces align a leader with his/her deepest, natural understanding and hence both the thoughts and actions are integrated with everything the leader knows, all he/she is and all that he/she can become. This is known as confluence and it draws together the leader’s disparate talents, purposes along with abilities/skills into an indivisible whole and therefore developing an extremely effective leader. References Ryback, D. (1998). Putting emotional intelligence to work, Successful leadership is more than IQ. Boston: Butterworth Heinemaan. Salovey, P., & Mayer, J.D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9, 185-211. Kluemper, D.H. (2008) Trait emotional intelligence: The impact of core-self evaluations and social desirability. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(6), 1402-1412. Beecham, S., & Grant, M. (2003). Smart leadership in tough times. SuperVision, Burlington, 64(6), 3-6. Danehy, L. S. (2006). The relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership in NCAA Division III college coaches. Dissertation Abstracts International, 67, 03A. (UMI No. AAT3209627). Dulewicz, V., & Higgs, M. (2003). Leadership at the top: The need for emotional intelligence in organizations. The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 11(3), 193-210. Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Books. Lisa G., & Stough, C. (2002). "Examining the relationship between leadership and emotional intelligence in senior level managers". Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol, 23/ 2, pp.68 – 78. Victor, D., &Malcolm H., (2003) "Leadership at The Top: The Need for Emotional Intelligence in Organizations". International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 11 Iss: 3, pp.193 – 210. Read More