[c]

THE IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Emotional intelligence is an important subject when considering leadership as it includes self-awareness, impulse control, persistence, zeal and motivation, empathy and social deftness. The concept emerged during the 1980s as a result of research done by, amongst others, Howard Gardner, a well-known psychologist. However, it is Professor Daniel Goleman ¹ who has published most of what we know about the subject, most notably in his book ‘Emotional Intelligence’ ².

At its simplest, we can define emotional intelligence as the ability to manage ourselves and our relationships effectively. According to Goleman it consists of four fundamental capabilities each of which comprises specific sets of competencies. These are summarised below.

Six Leadership Styles

Research by consultants Hay McBer ³ on 3,871 executives worldwide found six distinct leadership styles, each originating from different components of emotional intelligence. 

Self Awareness	Self Management	Social Awareness	Social Skills
• Emotional self-  awareness  • Accurate self-assessment  • Self-confidence	• Self control  • Trustworthiness  • Conscientiousness  • Adaptability  • Achievement orientation  • Initiative	• Empathy  • Organisational awareness  • Service orientation	• Visionary leadership  • Influence  • Developing others  • Communication  • Change catalyst  • Conflict management  • Building bonds  • Teamwork & collaboration

 

The six leadership styles are:

1. The Coercive Leader
2. The Authoritative Leader
3. The Affiliative Leader
4. The Democratic Leader
5. The Pace-Setting Leader
6. The Coaching Leader

Conclusion

The study also came up with the following conclusions:

• Leaders who have mastered four or more styles, especially authoritative, democratic, affiliative and coaching, have both the best work environment and outstanding business performance.
• The most effective leaders switch flexibly among the leadership styles as needed. 
• Leaders who used styles that positively affected the work environment had better financial results than those who did not. The authoritative style had the most positive overall impact on the work environment, followed by affiliative, democratic and coaching. Pace-setting and coercive styles have a negative impact.

From the Knowledge Bank, an on-line resource developed for the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.  The permission of the Leadership Foundation to reproduce this material is gratefully acknowledged

References

1. Daniel Goleman, ‘Leadership That Gets Results’, Harvard Business Review (Mar/Apr 2000).
2. Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, (Bloomsbury, 1996).
3.  The Hay Group website.