CONNECTICUT LIBRARIES
February 2003, Vol. 45, No. 2
There is always hope for managers who did not do well in school. You know who you are! You are the ones who make a quick exit when the topic of SAT scores or IQ tests come up. For years you have comforted yourself with the knowledge that, although you were not at the top of your class, you always had, and still have, "street smarts." Well, now you may be able to claim another type of "smarts," emotional intelligence. For, intelligence is more than I.Q. It is not just our academic and intellectual processing power. It is more complex. It includes the hand/eye coordination that we associate with gifted athletes and the technical skills demonstrated by artists and craftspeople. It also includes our ability to read people and situations, and even to empathize with those who are in those situations.Daniel Goleman, who wrote the bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, and his collaborators believe that the "primal" role of a leader is to serve as the group's emotional guide. Leaders with emotional intelligence create "resonance" in their organizations. Their presence stirs enthusiasm for the tasks at hand and for the organization or team that carries them out. In contrast, leaders with low EI may rely on negative emotions to get jobs done in the short run. However, long-term dissonance will be the final result, a work force too anxious, fearful, and dispirited to do its best work. Leaders demonstrate their EI through four domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
Self-awareness is vital to leaders. Without self-awareness, leaders cannot understand their emotions and the impact these have on the decisions they make or the effect they have on the people around them. It also means understanding one's strengths and weaknesses and having a realistic appreciation of, and confidence in, one's abilities.
Self-management involves controlling one's disruptive or negative impulses. It means displaying honesty and trustworthiness to those with whom one interacts, being adaptable to changing situations, and having a readiness to take action when the opportunity arises. Displaying an optimistic outlook and possessing internal standards of excellence are key elements of self-management, too.
The most important aspect of social awareness is empathy, that ability to sense the emotions of others, understand their point of view, and take a genuine interest in their concerns. For leaders, social awareness requires the ability to read the politics and emotional climate of the organization as a whole.
Finally, relationship management is comprised of the leader's ability to provide the group with a compelling vision, to influence and persuade, and to provide feedback and guidance to others. Good relationship management is demonstrated in a leader's capacity to initiate and manage change, resolve disagreements, and build effective work teams.
Drawing on research that involved almost 4,000 executives, the authors sought to determine how leaders created resonance within their organizations through their varying leadership styles. On the practical side, they investigated how leadership styles affected the financial success of organizations. The authors identified six major leadership styles and found that the most successful leaders practiced more than one style. They discovered that these successful leaders tended to rely more on styles that provided employees with positive emotional support.
The Visionary Style builds resonance by moving people toward a shared dream. It is most appropriate in situations when changes call for a new vision. Resonance can be created through the Coaching Style, i.e., connecting employee goals with organizational objectives. Leaders use the Affiliative Style to heal differences among employees or to motivate workers during a difficult period. The Affiliative Style seeks to create harmony by connecting employees to each other. A leader seeking consensus or needing valuable input may employ the Democratic Style. By demonstrating how much worker input is valued, the leader gains employee commitment. The Pacesetting and Commanding Styles are not emotionally positive in most situations, so the authors advise selective employment of these two styles. Pacesetting can help competent and motivated work groups achieve challenging and exciting goals. However, it can have a very negative impact on the work environment when it is poorly executed or used inappropriately. Similarly, the Commanding Style can work well in a crisis because it eases fear and sets clear direction. Unfortunately, when it is used in the wrong situation, which happens all too frequently, it has a negative long-term effect.
The authors bolster their theory with examples from the business world and provide some clues for boosting your EI. We can all raise our EI by trying to understand our own emotions and how they tend to affect us, and then using that insight to empathize with others. Managers must take additional steps. They must broaden those skills to include their whole organization. They must take positive action to help others develop their own EI in the workplace.
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