Emotional Intelligence

In my search for other leadership theories, I came across a theory called Emotional Intelligence.  It was created by a man named Daniel Goleman and the goal of his leadership theory was to answer the question what are the elements that characterize a leader? Goleman wanted to understand what made people effective leaders. Besides leader’s intelligence level,  Goleman believed there was something that separated leaders from pure intellectuals. It was their emotional intelligence because he felt that intelligence was not enough to define a leader.  After looking at different leaders and examining their behaviors, intelligence and characteristics, Goleman developed five components to make up is Emotional Intelligence theory. The first component is Self Awareness and it is defined as the ability to understand your personal strengths and weaknesses. Next comes Social Skills, which is how a leader is able to relate to others and build a relationship. Third is Self Regulation, which is the leader’s ability to look at consequences of a decision before reacting to the situation. Leader’s need Motivation, their strong will and drive to succeed. Lastly leader’s must possess Empathy, the capability to understand another person’s point of view. Goleman takes it a step further breaking down his own Emotional Intelligence model into to two areas, Self-Mastery and Social Intelligence.  Self-Mastery takes the areas of self-awareness, self- control and self confidence. These three areas of Self- Mastery enable the drive to improve performance, staying calm under pressure, and have  a positive outlook. Goleman recognizes that the areas of Self-Mastery only look at the individual. Those who can master those specific areas are the ones that will be promoted to leadership positions but with their lack of Social Intelligence these leaders will not fully succeed. They will not be able to build relationship with others around them and be a true leader.

 The Emotional Intelligence concept took on the business world swiftly and became the way to measure leaders. The Harvard Business Review has hailed emotional intelligence as “a ground-breaking, paradigm-shattering idea,” one of the most influential business ideas used.  The Rutgers University-based Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations which led the way in ground breaking scientific work and collaborating with organizations to measure  the levels on Emotional Intelligence of their employees. Today companies worldwide routinely look through the lens of Emotional Intelligence in hiring, promoting, and developing their employees. Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations continues to produce research, which has offer evidence-based guidelines for organizations seeking to enhance their ability to achieve their business goals or accomplish a mission.

This theory is a way to also self-assess your Emotional Intelligence and see if you encompass those five main concepts. Looking at all of the leadership theories, this one follows my own personal leadership beliefs closely. I feel leadership is an individual act but how well you work with your followers can either make or break a  leader. Trust is a huge part of leadership and it can be built with the recognition of these concepts.

http://danielgoleman.info/topics/emotional-intelligence/

http://danielgoleman.info/2008/02/28/leadership-social-intelligent-is-essential/

http://www.money-zine.com/career-development/leadership-skill/leadership-theories/