Importance of Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Effectiveness

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Abstract

Emotional intelligence (EI) can be easily defining the ability of managing and controlling your emotions as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. According to the Psychology people who are emotionally intelligence are aware of their own emotions; can harness and apply them and can manage it (their own emotions).

Introduced by Dr. Daniel Goleman. it’s a new branch in psychology that focus on emotions and how they are manifested in our lives

According to EI,(emotional intelligence) we can teach ourselves how to control our emotions in order not to ‘loose’ them. As in if you’re angry, you can spot your anger by learning to focus on the adrenaline rush that accompanies it. When you realize you’re getting heated, learn to breath and relax your muscles in order to calm yourself down instead of grabbing something and throwing it on who’s bothering you.

It’s also learning all our emotions and how to vent them out positively in order for us to become more assertive instead of aggressive.

Introduction

The term was first coined in 1990 by researchers John Mayer and Peter Salovey, but was later popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman, and then it was popularized in 1995 written in the research paper of Luara Guillen and Elizabeth Florent-Treacy (Published in Journal of Organization Behavior February 2011) .

Increased empathy: People with high emotional intelligence have a good understanding of their own emotional states, which allows them to more accurately gauge the emotions of others. For business leaders, this empathy places them in their employees’ shoes, thus leading to more thoughtful and deliberate decisions.

Understanding the basic fundamental of EI can help you thrive as a leader. It helps you manage, motivates and inspire. You understand how your emotions affect others and how you can use them to take correct action and solve existing problems. And you understanding and emotion affects to you team as well.

So, EI is about knowing yourself and understanding other people — and you really can not have one without the other.

In this study we framed job performance as leadership effectiveness. Classic dichotomies such as intimacy versus power (McAdams, 1985), social interests versus superiority strivings (Adler, 1939) communion versus agency (Bakan, 1966), and other-oriented versus self-interested values (Purcell, 1967) suggested that there were two factors connected to the effectiveness to the effectiveness of leaders. The first reflects social desirability and the socialization processes at work. And the second reflects personal urgency and the desire to have an impact on other (Digman, 1997). More recently, the socionalytic theory literature picked up this conceptual legacy and applied it to the work context (Hogan & Holland, 2003), by proposing that interactions in work settings can be categorized as attempts to get along with others (feeling liked and supported) and to get ahead of others (by gaining power and control of resources).

Previous empirical research examined the relation between Emotional Intelligence and subsequent leadership performance, but no research examined how specifically emotional intelligence translates into these two broad categories of behaviors at work. This study examines these relationships and evaluates the extent to which getting along behavior in organizational settings mediates the influence of emotional intelligence and getting ahead behavior.

Emotional Intelligence

There are different theoretical approached to emotional intelligence by the academic community (Fernandez-Berrocal and Extremera, 2006) and, subsequently, the high other dimensions they proposed differ. Establishing the validity of emotional intelligence is beyond the scope of this article, but its potential effect on leadership outcomes warrants further research exploration. Via content analysis of four emotional intelligience approaches (Salover $ Mayer, 1997; Bar-On, 2007; Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2002; Petrides and Furnham 2000) we identified three emotional responses that may serve to infer the lever of emotional intelligence at work: awareness of emotion, managing of emotions and psychological well-being and motivation.

Awareness relates to the situation in which the leader is aware of his/her emotion and could control other emotions as well. People who are accomplished at this acknowledge their emotions better than most, are highly sensitive to the emotions of others, and able to predict others emotional responses (Law, Wong and song, 2004) Management of emotions refers to an individual’s capacity to regulate his or her emotions and to create a holding environment in which to direct them towards constructive activities (Law, Wong & Song 2004) Finally.

Most would agree that selfe-awareness is the keystone of emotional intelligence (Shipper & Davy, 2002), Self-awarness serves as the foundation for the emotional and psychological development necessary to achieve success (Goleman, 1995). Individual leaders who are able to regulate their won emotion are better equipped to provide a ‘holding envireonment’ for the prople who work for and with them, creating a culture where people feel at ease. Thus, emotional intelligence servers to create and appropriate, trusting environment for work interaction, which positively affects job performance outcomes (Law, Wong& Song, 2004, Joseph & Newman,2010). For these reasons, emotional intelligence is examined in this study as an importan influence on leadership behavior.

Getting along behaviors at work

A critical attribute of leaders their ability to act as team players (i.e Conger& Laler, 2009). Getting along at work is reflected in the ability to work well in terams, and empowering others (Alvesson & Wilmott, 1992; Conger & Kanungo, 1992; Burke, Stagle, Klein, Goodwin, Salas & Halpin, 2006). When successful in showing these behaviors, individuals build their reputation for being good team players, organizational citizens, and series providers (Moon 2001; Mount, Barrick, & Steward, 1998). Teamwork and empowerment facilitate the behavioral interactions and attitudes needed for effective outcomes related to the team’s objectives. Therefore , in this study, we examined getting along behaviors in order to first determine how emotional intelligence contributes to their formation and second to determine if such getting along behavior subsequently lead to getting ahead leadership behaviors.

Getting ahead behaviors

The second block of leadership behaviors that is considered in this study is related to the directive and inspirational side of leadership, whereby to accomplish their organizational endeavors, leaders communicate and implement their vision, effectively, control task processes, and rewarded people, accordingly (Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1996). When successful in displaying these behaviors at work, individuals are described as achieving results, providing leadership, communicating a vision, and motivating and influencing others (Conway, 1999; Borman & Brush, 1993; Conway, 2000; Bartram, 2005, Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee, 2002; McCauley et al 1998).

You and Emotional intelligence

Some people are certainly emotionally intelligent; other people need to develop their EI.

Have you ever understood you emotion and how they affect you normal and professional life? Can you take a step back and recognize when your feelings are distorting your judgment? EI isn’t about tamping down or ignoring those feelings, but acknowledging that your emotions do affect you and your work — whether you like it or not.

It is also important to note that EI is not the same thing as agreeableness, optimism, happiness, calmness, or motivation, according to Psychology.

Your Emotional intelligence and your employees

When it comes to your professional life, one of the most important claims of EI is listening to and communicating with your employees. If you have EI, it’s easier for you to understand their feelings and the implications of those feelings.

For example, if one of your employees is dealing with a family member who has a serious illness, the stress they’re feeling in their personal life might spill over into their work. Understanding this, you might talk to them about how you can adjust their duties and perhaps reassign important, time-sensitive projects until they’re ready to come back fully engaged.

Also, if your employees are dealing with serious mental health issues like grief, depression, and anxiety, you can better recognize when they need support and professional help.

Beyond the serious issues, EI is also valuable when it comes to general leadership and everyday interactions. When you understand your employees’ personalities and their feelings about each other, you can anticipate conflict and better group people for programs/ projects since you know who will work well together. You can also adjust your management style to get the best performance out of your employees.

Emotional intelligence is also incredibly important when it comes to hiring, because you need to gauge how well each applicant will interact with the rest of your employees (especially if you have a small team).

It’s also a good idea to involve your employees in the interview process if they are going to be working directly with the new hire. That way, they will feel that you value them enough to get their help in building the team. (And that shows a lot of emotional intelligence, too.)

Reasons Emotional Intelligence is Important to be an Effective Leader?

1. Self-Awareness

A leader with self-awareness can easily understand their emotional intelligence see what emotions are driving their behavior and how such emotions are affecting others in their environment. Many experts now believe that a person’s emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) may be more important than their IQ and is certainly a better predictor of success, quality of relationships, and overall happiness.

A leader that is leading with self-awareness is intentionally aware of his/her emotions and how he/she is affecting their team and uses this knowledge to inspire and motivate, creating calm instead of chaos.

2. Self-Management

A leader who can understand and recognize self-regulation they can recognize and rechanneling emotions such as anger or rage.

As instance:

It inspires them to do what they fear the most, whether public speaking or rock climbing.

3. Self- Motivation

Leaders who are internal motivated goes toward their goals and don not need others persuasion and push up to drive them.

4. Empathy

The people who wish to succeed to their leadership role, empathy is the most important component in EI.

A leader with empathy creates loyal and engaged team members. And always being aware of employees by their body languages and can know who (Employee) is under pressure or having issues in their lives.

5. Social Skills

This is another important component in EI, this skill includes team building, persuasiveness, building networks and building rapport.

Emotional Intelligence as a valuable skill that helps improves communication, management, problem-solving, and relationship within the workplace.

Researchers believe that Emotional Intelligence can be improving by practice and training. Also EI affects in life, move from current challenge adeptly and prevent future challenges and EI people successfully manage difficult situation.

How do you increase your Emotion Intelligence?

Utilize assertive style of Communication
Respond instead of re-act
Utilize active listening skills
Be motivated
Practice self-awareness
Empathize with others

Leaders are using Emotional Intelligence by leading their self, leading others and leading organization.

Hypotheses Development

Emotional Intelligence and getting along behavior at work

Several studies have shown that emotional intelligence affects teamwork and interpersonal relationships at work (Barsade, 2002; McGregor, 1960, Perez et al, 2004; Fafaeli & Sutton, 1987; Wolff, Pescosolido & Druskat, 2002). Understanding and regulating one’s emotions as well as those of others enable one to work cooperatively (Levasseur, 1991) and share positive feelings with work colleagues ( Sosik, 2001), thus promoting a bond between individuals at work. People with high emotional intelligence are socially perceptive at recognizing and understanding the feelings and emotions in their tema (i.e, Steiner, 1972), and induce positive emotions and attitudes in others (Bono & Illies, 2006). If emotional intelligence facilitates effective interpersonal exchanges at work (i.e, Blau), it may be considered a prerequisite for group task coordination and leadership emergence (Wolff et al, 2002). Thuse, it is reasonable to hypothesize that emotional intelligence will be associated with leaders’ getting along behaviors in organizational settings. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis.

Getting along and getting ahead behaviors at work

Empirical research on team work and collaboration indicates a strong and consistent link between the effectiveness of interpersonal processes and subsequent job outcomes (i.e, Johnson 2008; Tasi et al, 2007; Burke, Stagl, Salas, Pierce and Kendall, in press). For example, Christakis and Fowler (2009) showed that network contagion is a powerful tool of influence at work. Other studies showed that follower’ perceptions of empowerment and Tema cohesion are related to work performance (i.e, Gutty, Devine & Whimey, 1995; Jung & Sosik, 2002; Mullen & Cooper, 1995). More concretely, the positive impact of getting along behaviors on inspirational leadership (referred to in this study as getting ahead leadership behaviors) has been documented by previous studies (i.e, Wolff et al, 2002). Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2: Getting along behaviors at work has a positive effect on getting ahead leadership behaviors.

Emotional Intelligence, Getting along behaviors and getting ahead behaviors

Emotional intelligence allows individuals to create and maintain positive affective states which have been suggested to benefit work behavior (George 1991) by broadening behavioral repertoires at work (Fredrickson, 2001). Thus, emotional intelligence is an individual characteristic (Salovey & Mayer, 1990) and it impacts job and life outcomes mainly due to an individual’s capacity to transform this internal ability into an effective use of emotions in interactions with others. A person with high emotional intelligence is able to interpret his or her own mood as well as others’ moods, correctly, and therefore has a higher chance of forming good relationships and getting social; support in general (Law, Wong & Song, 2004). Because interpersonal interactions are a basic component of managerial jobs, we can hypothesize that emotional intelligence needs to crystalize into beeping and collaborative behaviors at work that can be perceived by others and that these types of behaviors will moderate that emotional intelligence inspiration leadership link as assessed by observer ratings of leaders performance in work settings.

Hypothesis 3: getting along behaviors at work mediate the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and getting ahead leadership behaviors.

The relationships proposed in the hypotheses were tested using structural equations models. We first assessed the reliability of the measures to take measurement error into account in further steps of our analyses. Then, we followed Anderson and Gerbing’s (1998) two-stage process: the measurement model was examined as a first step, and then, structural verification of the variable relationships was conducted.

Conclusion:

I think I’ll go about a description of EI another way. The best thing you can do to enhance your emotional intelligence is the place a name on the emotion you are feeling.

If you’re mad you’re not usually just angry. Anger in my day to day life is generally caused by frustration.

Knowing that I am frustrated allows me to inspect my current situation and decide if whatever I’m doing is hopeless, my method is too difficult, or it is just taking longer than I expected. And act accordingly.

Emotional intelligence understands how emotions affect oneself and other people in various situations. This helps you to respond accordingly. Having emotional intelligence would make you understand what you shouldn’t say to someone because it might hurt their feelings. For example if a woman says, ‘Do you like my new dress?’ but you think it’s the most hideous thing you’ve ever seen, your emotional intelligence would keep you from saying to her, ‘No I hate it! It’s the most hideous dress I’ve ever seen!’

Instead you would look for something non-committal to say like, ‘It’s a very nice color.’

Emotional intelligence is what helps you not only to empathize with others, but it helps you to be in tune with what’s going on, when something is not quite right with someone you love or know really well. For example, I can always tell, just by the sound of my their voices if something isn’t right with one of my children. I can read their faces as well and can tell when they are happy, sad, stressed, whatever.

References:

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Alvesson, M, and Willmott, H. (1992). Critical Management Studies, Sage London
Anderson, J.C and Gerbin D.W. (1988). ‘Structural equations modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach’. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 411-423
Bachman, J., Stein, S, and Campbell, K (2000), ‘ Emotional Intelligence in the collection of debt’, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 8, 176-182
Bakan, D. (1966). The duality of human existence: Isolation and communion in Western man. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA.
Bar-On, R. (1997). The emotional Quatient Inventory (EQ-I): a test of emotional intelligence Multi-Health Systems, Toronto.
Baron, R.M. and Kenny, D.A (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual strategic and statistical consideration, Journal of Personality and Socialpsychology, 51, 1173,1182.

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