Category: Emotional intelligence

ABSTRACT

Leadership styles may be of relevance to in a variety of situations where there is a requirement to manage others. The main objectives of the study is to analyse the relationship between Emotional Intelligence factors and leadership of Employees. Convenience sampling was also used to determine the sample size for the Employees. A total of 60 employees are taken as sample for this study. The study makes use of statistical techniques such as Percentage analysis, Chi Square test, T-test, Anova and Correlation in analyzing the data for finding the result. The study revealed that delegating leadership is adopted by a very few respondents. Leadership is very much important in every organisation. When there is a good leadership then the performance of the employees will also be good.

INTRODUCTION

Today’s industries in India are carried in an excellent manner. Under the previous five year plans, the industrial organizations have achieved greater success both in private sectors.’ Leadership style’ plays an important role in shaping the behavior and attitudes of the members of an organization. In recent years, the study of leadership has drawn more attention to its role in the failure or success of an organization. Many studies have focused on investigating the role of leadership in developed countries. However, little is known about the leadership styles in developing world organization. This research will attempts to enhance the understanding of the different emerging leadership styles in organization of a developing economy.

The successful leaders of any organisation perform tasks and act in a way that provides followers with satisfaction and fulfillment in performing the work required and reaching the objectives. A leader triggers “Will to do” shows the way and guides group members towards goal accomplishment. As a writer astute only observed “where there is no vision, the people perish leaders give vision, he people perish” Leaders give vision to their followers and leading is a necessary ingredient of successful management.

Leadership style plays an important role in shaping the behavior and attitudes of the members of an organization. In recent years, the study of leadership has drawn more attention to its role in the failure or success of an organization. Many studies have focused on investigating the role of leadership in developing countries. However, little is known about the leadership styles in developing world organization. This research will attempt to enhance the understanding of the different emerging leadership styles in organization of a developing economy.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Having a satisfied work force is very much essential for smooth working of every organization. Hence this study is conducted to know whether the workers are satisfied with the leadership qualities, communication, decision making, goal setting, training, motivation of the company. Industrial world today offers many unprecedented and yet challenging opportunities for growth. Leaders are therefore called to rethink traditional ways and play a greater and innovative role to face them with foresight and courage. There is also an urgent need to focus on the personality of leaders so that their skills and talents are robust enough to keep pace with modern times. Effective leaders can anticipate problems and quickly respond to new realities. Leadership roles today are challenging particularly because we live in a knowledge economy and operate in the era of knowledge workers. Leadership success in this context will depend on how the leader mobilizes his people to achieve extraordinary results. While other resources such as machine, material, etc.

The study will help the management to recognize the importance of Emotional Intelligence to develop effective leaders to lead the organization. The research study will benefit the executives to enhance the Emotional Intelligence competencies where they are at low levels and enable them to become effective leaders.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Leadership is one of the main springs of efficient human activity. The study of leadership has drawn more attention due to its role in the failure or success of an organization. It is essential to maintain and improve the efficiency, quality of output and involvement among the workers. The present study on leadership style undertaken is to analyse and understand the various aspects connected with managing an organisation. As such it is one of the small contributions to the field of industrial psychology. Leadership style is derived by many inter-related factors. Although these factors can never be isolated from one another for analysis they can be made use for statistical techniques and be separated enough to give an indication of their relative importance of leadership.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Ali Amur AL Marhoobi and Tarik Attan (2017), “The Effects of Perceived Leadership Style on Employee Motivation: A Comparative study between Public and Private Sectors in Oman”, explores the relationship between leadership style and employee motivation in the public and private sectors in Oman. The reqired data for the study have been collected through issue of questionnaire. A sample of 661 employees has been collected by adopting random sampling technique. Tools like Descriptive statistics, means and standard deviations have been used to analyze the data. The find that they participants were aware of the need for an effective leadership style that harmonises with the employees motivation dimensions. Kashif Rathore, Chaudhry Abdul Khaliq and Nauman Aslam (2017), “The Influence of Leadership Styles on Employees Performance under Perceptions of Organizational Politics: A Study of Telecom Sector in Pakistan”, to investigate the relationship of leadership styles and employee performance. The data for the study have been collected through issue of questionnaire. A sample of 249 employees have selected by convenience and incidental sampling method. Tools like Correlation Analysis, Regression Analysis and Mediation Analysis have been used to analyse the data. They find that there is no significant relationship between the transformational leadership and employee performance. Muskan Khan and Dr. D.S Yadav (2015), “Impact of Leadership Style on Employee Engagement in Context of Education Sector, Specifically Business Management Institutes”, to analyze Leadership as a major factor of Employee engagement. The data required for the study have been collected through issue of questionnaire. A sample of 200 members have been contacted by adopting Convenience Sampling technique. Descriptive Statistics have been used to analyze the data. They find that the leader in the business institution makes or breaks the employee motivation level that leads to employee engagement.

SUGGESTION

All Employees and supervisor may be administered the Emotional Intelligence tool and given feedback on their level of Emotional Intelligence.

• Based on the levels of Emotional Intelligence specific interventions can be planned depending on their area of improvement.
• The management may also think of using an appropriate instrument for selection of employees with required Emotional Intelligence.
• Emotional Intelligence descriptors / events may be used in interviews for selection of candidates to elicit demonstration of specific competencies by HR professionals.
• The organisation may review its HR systems and practices in the light the findings from current investigation with regard to leadership interventions and practices.
• The study revealed that delegating leadership is adopted by a very few respondents. The management may further discuss and explore, analyse the implications.

CONCLUSION

Leadership plays an important role in shaping the behavior and attitudes of the members of an organization. It also determines how people would interact with each other in order to solve problems and take decisions. The field of leadership not only focuses on interpersonal relations but also appreciates the role of a leader as a motivator and energizer. The objective of this research was to enhance the understanding of emerging leadership styles in selected organization in a developing economy. Leadership is very much important in every organisation. When there is a good leadership then the performance of the employees will also be good. Through these team problems are solved, conflicts are avoided, employees gets great support from the superiors in solving the problems as well as in team building. This motivates the employees in the organization to contribute more and feel the atmosphere in a relaxed manner.

REFERENCE

1. Ali Amur AL Marhoobi and Tarik Attan (2017), “The Effects of Perceived Leadership Style on Employee Motivation: A Comparative study between Public and Private Sectors in Oman”, nternational Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, Vol. V, Issue 11, pp.27-67.
2. Kashif Rathore, Chaudhry Abdul Khaliq and Nauman Aslam (2017), “The Influence of Leadership Styles on Employees Performance under Perceptions of Organizational Politics: A Study of Telecom Sector in Pakistan”, International Journal of Management Research and Emerging, Volume 7 Issue 1, pp. 106-140.
3. Muskan Khan and Dr. D.S Yadav (2015), “Impact of Leadership Style on Employee Engagement in Context of Education Sector, Specifically Business Management Institutes”, Journal of Education and Practice, Volume 5, No.18, pp.12-24.

Introduction

Nursing leadership theories are formed to create excellent leaders that accommodate the objectives of the team and these theories allow the team members to understand different leadership situations. This following scholarly paper describes a case study of conflicts regarding a new graduate nurse who experiences a rude behavior from a senior colleague during the workplace. This paper explains the application of emotional intelligence theory and how a nurse can provide leadership in this situation.

Definition

Emotional intelligence is outlined as the capacity of a people to discover, evaluate, and control their own emotions and feelings, the emotions of other people and groups (Goleman & Gardner, 2014).

Concepts of theory

Daniel Goleman’s model of emotional intelligence theory focuses on a wide variety of competencies and skills that improve leadership performance. It mainly focused on five areas self- awareness, self -regulation, social skill, empathy, and motivation. Self- awareness means understanding of own’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and objectives to recognize their effects on other people while using gut feelings to guide other team members. Social skills include managing emotions of others to move people in the one direction. Empathy describes recognizing, understanding and considering other people’s feelings especially when making any decision. Motivation means motivating person to achieve something for the sake of success (Goleman & Gardner, 2014).

Application of leadership skills

As a nurse leader, there are many ways to deal with this situation. Daniel Goleman (2006), presented the concept of emotional intelligence in which he relates the emotional intelligence to four elements, these are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skills. We applied nursing leadership skills to our case study according to these four elements:

1. Self-awareness: Firstly, the nurse can use this method to be self-aware to understand herself. She finds her strengths and weaknesses as a person and a leader. She can understand why she feels in this way, and what makes her feel like this. If she understands her emotions, she can identify their impact on herself and those in her team.
2. Self-management: In this element, the nurse can try to be in control of what she says or do, while avoiding the temptation to make a rushed decision, a nurse can observe her actions and reduce the chances of compromises with her own values and beliefs.
3. Social awareness: Social awareness is the ability of a leader to understand the emotions of the team members and this element linked to empathy (Goleman, 2006). The nurse uses her empathy to understand the emotion of senior nurse why she thinks this way. She can do this also by talking to the senior nurse.
4. Social skills: The nurse can try to develop and maintain a good relationship with a senior nurse and communicate clearly with her. She can talk to a senior nurse calmly to identify the problem. The graduate nurse builds trust so that the senior nurse understands that the graduate nurse is doing her work properly and knowledgeably. A graduate nurse can try to work well in a team and take action to avoid any further conflicts (Crowne et al., 2017).

Other resources

• Surround herself with good people: Nurse can surround herself with good people. Fill her time with the positive people to avoid conflict and tension to some extent. It can increase her confidence to deal with a situation effectively.
• Have a strong mindset: Nurse can bring a positive perspective to work. Negativity is always out there, but if she strengthens her mindset, she can change how she react to negativity.
• Communicate with the person: When the nurse starts to feel confident. She may decide to approach that senior nurse and ask her about her behavior. But she keeps in mind that she handles the situation carefully without arguing. She can try to explain to her about the situation.
• Do not take it personally: It is a very important resource to deal with rude behavior at work but also the hardest thing to do. We all take things personally. It is not easy to avoid conflict situations.
• As a nurse leader how, I could provide leadership in this case scenario:
• Self-emotional appraisal: This is the person’s ability to understand their deep emotions and they should be able to express these emotions naturally.
• Other’s emotional appraisal: This relates to the people’s ability to perceive and understand the emotions of people around them (Crowne et al., 2017).
• Regulation of emotions: This involves the ability of people to regulate their emotions which will help them to recover from psychological distress.
• Use of emotions: It involves the ability of an individual to make use of these emotions to facilitate the performances by directing them towards the activities (Law & Wong, 2002).

As a nurse leader, I should try to know the strengths and weaknesses of new graduate nurses as nobody learned everything from home, we learned from our mistakes and with experience. First of all, I will orient the new staff to the whole department where she is going to work, then I will give work to her that she can do in a particular time and as a nurse leader, I will assist her and observe her doing the procedures so that I can correct her mistakes. If another nurse wants to take help from me, as nurse, it is my responsibility to help every person in my area and at the end of duty, I will appreciate the new staff for her work so that she can gain confidence and will try to work more and to learn more from day to day activities in the hospital and will become an independent staff in a short period.

Reference

1. Goleman, D. (2006). Emotional Intelligence (10th anniversary ed.). New York, NY; London: Bantam Books.
2. Goleman, D., & Gardner, H. (2014). Emotional Intelligence Goleman. Learning theories. Retrieved from https://www.learning-theories.com
3. Crowne, K. A., Young, T. M., Goldman, B., Patterson, B., Krouse, A. M., & Proenca, J. (2017). Leading nurses: Emotional intelligence and leadership development effectiveness. Leadership in Health Services, 30(3), 217-232. Retrieved from http://libaccess.senecacollege.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libaccess.senecacollege.ca/docview/1917620411?accountid=28610
4. Wong, C., & Law, K. (2002). The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude: An exploratory study. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(3), 243-274. Retrieved from https://www-sciencedirect-com.libaccess.senecacollege.ca/science/article/pii/S1048984302000991

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a highly contentious topic within the business world. Some advocates of the concept of EI claim that it accounts for up to 90% of variance between top performing management and average-performing management (Goleman, 2000). However, the debate of EI among academics remains more controversial. For instance, Locke (2005) argued that EI is invalid because it is not a form of ‘intelligence’ and has such an inconsistent definition (p. 425). Similarly, Antonakis (2003) argues that the data analysis within the literature is unreliable and lacking validity (p. 359). Nonetheless, the matter is still frequently researched and new evidence is still emerging today in an attempt to resolve the debate and determine whether emotional intelligence really can determine the efficacy of leaders. This essay argues that EI is an important area to investigate and develop further to understand the alleged implications for management.

Much debate exists in the literature regarding the definition of EI, and the research methods developed to measure it. Many scholars have varying opinions and views on what EI represents. It is not a “new” concept by any means. Peter Salovey and John Mayer (1990) are noted as the first theorists of EI, describing it as “the accurate appraisal and expression of emotions in oneself and others and the regulation of emotions in a way that enhances living” (p. 772). Over the years, the definition of EI has transformed and expanded and is also described as the superior ability of some individuals to process information about emotions and contextual stimuli, and to use this information to guide their thoughts and behaviour for productive purposes (Oatley, 2004; Krishnakumar, Hokpins, Szmerekovsky & Robinson, 2016). However, there are academics who have described EI as an unsubstantiated misrepresentation, and nothing more than a new ‘fad’ for pre-existing concepts – personality and intelligence (Locke, 2005; Antonakis, 2004).

At present, there is no widely accepted test of EI, rather there are two main methodologies applied – self-report methods and ability-based methods. Mayer, Salovey and Caruso (1999) are credited as the first to develop questionnaires to measure the construct of EI in the United States, while Dulewicz and Higgs (2000) are believed to be the first to develop a similar instrument in Europe (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2003). Self-assessment reports require the individual to rate their own or others’ behaviour in a social context (Walter, Cole & Humphrey, 2011). To test EI in this way is efficient and easily disseminated (Walter et al., 2011). The Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) is an example of a self-report test that assess respondents on the following criteria: self-emotional appraisal, others’ emotional appraisal, regulation of emotion and use of emotion (Kong, 2017). However, self-report methods have been argued to be ineffective, as the results only represent the respondents’ perceptions of their EI, rather than their actual capabilities (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 1999; Brackett, Rivers, Shiffman, Lerner, & Salovey, 2006). Another method to measure one’s EI is an ability-based model. The Mayer-Solvey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) is an example of an ability-based test that is designed to measure one’s emotional intelligence. It measures the participant’s ability to perceive emotions, facilitate thought, understand emotions and manage emotions (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, 2012). This particular method is strongly debated with some scholars believing that the MSCEIT and similar tests reflect personality traits, or produce insignificant results (Antonakis, 2004), while others maintain that ability-based methods are better able to counter ‘socially desirable responding’ (Walter et al., 2011). Higgs and Aitken (2003) reason that the cause of criticism regarding the legitimacy of EI testing, is because in the 30 years since the term was first coined, little substantiated evidence has been published within credible sources (Higgs & Aitken, 2003, p. 814). This confirms that testing for EI still needs further development.

The need for effective management is seen to be quintessential to the sustainability and long-term success of businesses in today’s climate, constantly faced with change and innovation. “Leadership is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of a vision or set of goals. Organisations need strong leadership and strong management for optimal effectiveness” (Robbins, Judge, Millet, & Boyle, 2017, p. 288). There is ample research that indicates intelligence and certain personality traits (such as extroversion and conscientiousness) of leaders are linked to leadership efficacy (Robbins et al., 2017; Rosete & Carriochi, 2005). Several academics also propose that emotional intelligence is an indicative measure of leadership effectiveness (Prati, Douglas, Ferris, Ammeter, & Buckley, 2003; Rosete & Carriochi, 2005, Goleman, 2000). For example, the emotional responses and associated behaviours of managers have been found to influence employee emotional reactions. Thus, employee job performance benefits from positive emotions but suffers from negative displays of emotions (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2003). Leaders who can accurately recognise and comprehend the emotions of members within their work teams should be better equipped to formulate more successful emotional outcomes, according to Mayer, Salovey and Caruso (2002). The regulation and management of one’s emotions is also a strong predictor of task performance (for some jobs) and organisational citizenship behaviours (Robbins et al., 2017. p. 119).

However, there is still much speculation and doubt, concerning the legitimacy of these claims, as their research deign models have been disputed for lacking “methodologically defensible scientific criteria”, required for conducting and objectively evaluating research (Antonakis, 2004; Locke, 2005). Locke (2005) and similarly, Antonakis (2004), also dispute the findings on the basis that previous attempts to highlight the significance of EI in an industrial setting are indicative of constructs that are already well established within the literature – cognitive intelligence (IQ) and the Big Five personality traits. Nevertheless, newer research, from 2018, has emerged that further supports the earlier claims from Mayer and Salovey (1990), Prati et al. (2003) and Rosete and Carriochi (2005) that emotional intelligence does have a high correlation with leadership effectiveness. Edelman and Knippenberg’s (2018) investigation concludes that leaders with high levels of EI are indeed more effective, even when their research methodology included controls for cognitive intelligence and Big Five Personality Traits, since being identified as a major design flaw (p. 603). As was the case with the Cardiac and Vascular unit at NYU Langone Medical Centre when they experienced a 30% increase in patient volume, whilst redefining the roles of staff members and implementing new processes to transition to a specialist unit. The staff members were resistant to the changes at first, however, within one year all organisational goals were met and staff and patient satisfaction was improved (Foltin & Keller, 2012, p. 21). The key to the success of NYU Langone Medical Centre was attributed to the high emotional intelligence of the leaders within the organisation, whilst still acknowledging the roles of cognitive intelligence and business savvy, which highlights the importance of EI within businesses.

Given that EI can predict the future success of management and has been linked to successful business outcomes, even though it should not be used as a determining factor alone, it is no surprise that there is an increasing interest in how one can develop their own EI. It is also a potential focus for managerial development programs (Edelman & Knippenberg, 2018, p. 592). Goleman (2000) suggests expanding one’s EI can be achieved at any age. He also explains that 360-degree appraisals are a useful tool to do so. These evaluations are important in providing objective feedback from the perspective of work colleagues within close proximity of the individual, to highlight any discrepancies between the beliefs of the individual and the observations of those nearby (Perks, 2008, p. 42) Edelman and Knippenberg’s (2018) evidence suggests that ability-based tests (e.g. the MSCEIT) could be implemented during the recruitment process for leadership roles. For this reason, it is important that the research into EI continues to be advanced.

It is agreed among both advocates and critics that EI is not without limitations and further research and testing of EI is needed to validate to potential application within human resource management. When the evidence is reviewed as a whole, there are convincing arguments from each side, although ultimately, given the latest research to be revealed, it is clear to see that EI does play a pivotal role in leadership efficiency. More work needs to be done to develop future applications of the concept, but when utilised correctly within organisations, is already resulting in optimistic outcomes for all involved.

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:

1. Adler, A. (1939). Social Interst, Putnam, New York, NY
2. Alvesson, M, and Willmott, H. (1992). Critical Management Studies, Sage London
3. 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
4. Bachman, J., Stein, S, and Campbell, K (2000), ‘ Emotional Intelligence in the collection of debt’, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 8, 176-182
5. Bakan, D. (1966). The duality of human existence: Isolation and communion in Western man. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA.
6. Bar-On, R. (1997). The emotional Quatient Inventory (EQ-I): a test of emotional intelligence Multi-Health Systems, Toronto.
7. 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.

Among Asian countries, Sri Lankan economy occupies an extremely very important position as a mixed economy having share in varied sectors like textile’s sector, the sports goods industry, the agriculture sector, the services sector and other industries. In service sector, Sri Lanka banking sector keeps the largest share and growing very fast. After the Liberalization Privatization Globalization, the banking sector of Sri Lankan has been transformed from an indolent and slow-moving sector to an active, competitive and productive industry. In today’s corporate world, the issue of the emotional intelligence is widely emphasized. Today many organizations and researchers are recognizing that emotional intelligence skills are critical to success. The literature has highlighted that the importance of emotional intelligence leadership for the betterment of the employee satisfaction, commitment, job performance and ultimately, the organizational success (Kappagoda, 2012).

Despite the researchers have produced many programs for prevention of stress and improving emotional balance among employees in developed countries, they are far lacking in developing country like Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the numerous reforms’ programs are just limited to improve the financial performance, innovation of new products, improve the building infrastructure, promotion of modern practices etc., but they are yet to start any reform program, which is relevant to employees’ psychological problems. Banking sector is backbone of any economy, so this study focused on the new yet equally important concept of emotional intelligence among bank employees. Perusal of literature revealed that the rules of work are changing increasingly. With the increasing complexities both in business as well as in human behaviour created the need for not only people with high IQ but people with high EQ also.

In the present era where the slogan “Customer is the King” prevails in every organization the emotionally imbalanced employees may find it hard to achieve their targets or deliver their reports on time. The way a person feels affects the way he behaves and the way he behaves will not only have relation with his performance, but also affects the performance of those around him. Number of research studies has been conducted on this pressing issue both in developed and underdeveloped countries covering the various aspects of emotions at workplace and the relationship of emotional intelligence characteristics, such as perception, control, use and understanding of emotions, with physical and psychological health and to determine the advantages of the knowledge and application of emotional intelligence. In developing country especially India, there is dearth of literature focusing on this important aspect of emotional intelligence. So, a need arises to study this concept in banking sector which is the back bone of financial system and hence responsible for the overall growth of the economy at a large (Pahuja at el, 2012).

Emotional intelligence contributes to increased organizational performance, increased employee overall performance and increased quality of work. Emotional intelligence has a vital importance for the organizations because of its strapping impact on the performance of an individual as well as of the organization. Studies on investigating the impact of Emotional Intelligence on Job Performance are lacking, and therefore, the literature is deficient in several aspects. In reviewing the literature, it was found that there were few studies conducted on emotional intelligence in Asia. However, studying the impact of Emotional Intelligence on enhancing performance and employees’ outcomes provides a valuable input to the organization (Praveena, 2015).

The banking sector, the dominant sector in the economy plays very positive and important role in the overall economic development of the country. The researcher believes that the prosperity of the banking sector is the prosperity of the country. However, there was no enough empirical evidence on emotional intelligence in Sri Lanka. Thus, this issue may serve as a good research gap for investigation (Kappagoda, 2012). In this research, the main problem is that employees’ emotional intelligence effect on their work performance. This emotional intelligence has a great impact on the performance. Here I hope to examine the impact of emotional intelligence on employee performance in my model.

Over the last 50 years, organizations have been obsessed with identifying the traits or characteristics associated with effective leadership (Parry and Meinal, 2002). According to Voger (2018), “leadership is about developing people and helping others reach their full potential. It’s about equipping others with the light tools and strategies no one to maximize the success of an organization but also the lives of individuals.” It means that leaders are responsible in maximizing the work of their association and it can be done with an intimate emotion.

Emotional Intelligence is broadly known to be a key component of effective leadership. The ability to wisely in tune with yourself and your emotions as well as having sound situational responsiveness can be a powerful tool for leading a team. The act of knowing, understanding and responding to emotions, overcoming stress in the moment, and being aware of how your words and actions affects others, is described as emotional intelligence (Gleeson, 2015).

According to Yuki (2002), the term leadership itself projects images of powerful, dynamic individuals who command victorious armies, build wealthy and influential; empires, or alter the course of nations. Stated concisely, people commonly believe that leaders make a difference and want to understand why. Bass (1990) states that, “leadership is often regarded as the single most important factor in the success or failure of institutions”. Ocawa and Scribrer (2002) agreeing with a wide, diverse and growing set of stakeholders assure that, “leaders are largely responsible for school performance.”

According to Halpin (1966) consideration and initiation of structure as two leadership factors are related to subordinate satisfaction and effectiveness. These dimensions have been common to most leadership models. Feiler and Garcia (1987) argued that, “the most effective combination of people oriented and task-oriented behaviors varied.” Leadership style was not agreeable to change: therefore, the situation was the major determinant in leader’s effectiveness.

According to Akitunde (2013), Transformational Intelligence focuses on bringing a modification to the relationship between leaders and subordinates. The transformational leader inspires and encourages the subordinates to maintain a positive attitude and to perform tasks given to him or her to the best of his or her skill. The transformational leader serves as a role model for the followers, because followers trust and respect the leader, they match two individuals and internalize his or her ideal. Further in a study, they found out that it is clear that the school leadership provided and/or shared by a school management is one of the key factors on enhancing school performances and students’ achievements. Koontz and O’Donell (1901), defined leadership as the “art of in drown subordinates to accomplish their assignments with – and confidence” and “the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically.” In addition, Burr (2011) defined leadership in two basic elements “what he or she is refers to the leader personal equipment, his or her personality character and reference”. And the “what he or she uses refers to his or her performance leadership styles or behavior”. Instructional leaders in their schools even could be seen as having an ethical purpose to straightforward vision where the school for all children and youth by developing strong commitments to important things and modeling and supporting them continuously.

Sergiovanni (2007), indicates transactional leadership focuses supervision skills such as rules, procedures and job description to accomplish expectations. Schneider (1992) asserted the leadership is a learned behavior. Delos Santos (2002), categorized certain outstanding track of leaders in the military organization, these leadership characteristics are “shakers” and “owners”. He said that leaders tend to achieve significant milestones and passionately pursue their mission if the subordinate are to lead their lives with a sense of destiny. They can stay on course and develop patterns of excellence and achievements.

Goleman said “to process emotional information and utilize it effectively whether to facilitate good personal decisions to resolve conflicts or to motivate oneself and other. Emotional Intelligence is everywhere we look, and without it, we would be devoid of a key part of human experience. And according to Dollar (2018), “No matter what leader set out to do whether it’s creating a strategy or mobilizing teams to action their success depends on how they do it. Even if they get everything else just right, if leaders fail in this primal task of driving emotions in the right direction nothing they do will work as well as it could or should.” According to Palmer et. al (2000) and some researchers in psychology, they use the emotional intelligence examination in predicting the effectiveness of a leader and also, the emotional intelligent leaders are believed to be more joyful and progressively dedicated to their association. Research into the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership is filled with bold claims as to the relationship between these constructs (Harms and Crecle). Noted experts in the field of emotional intelligence argue that elements of it such as empathy, self-confidence and self-awareness are the core under pinning of visionary or transformational leadership.

According to Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2003), effective leadership is best described as balanced and thorough. Effective leaders have a discerning ability to know when, how, and what needs to be done. Further still, the significance of emotional intelligence in a senior leadership role such as a department chair, dean, or college/ or university president should not be trivialized. In the late 1980s, research confirmed that emotional intelligence was correlated with nearly 90% of effective leadership practices (Salovey & Mayer, 1990).

To be able to properly define the leadership styles and their application, it is important to look at the theory of emotional intelligence (EI). Although there are differences in the various EI models proposed and the method used by researchers to determine it (Cherniss, 2010), the fundamental concept of emotional intelligence is based on three principles: first that emotions are important in people lives, second that people differ in how they perceive, understand and manage emotions, third that individuals are affected by their emotion in the way they can adapt in different contexts, such as the workplace (Cherniss, 2010).

Although earlier references to the importance and the effect of internal states, non-cognitive aspects or interpersonal intelligence, the term Emotional Intelligence was first introduced by Wayne Payne in 1985 in his doctoral dissertation. In the 1990s psychologists, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer developed Wayne’s concept of emotional intelligence (Dhani & Sharma, 2016).

Daniel Goleman with his book Emotional Intelligence – Why it can matter more than IQ (Goleman, 1995), is the one who popularised the concept making it widely known. Daniel Goleman’s theory (Goleman, 1998), although applicable to every day, was research to determine leader’s cognition of the skills associated with emotional intelligence, and some of its intrinsic characteristics (Goleman, 1998)

• Self-awareness – knowing one’s strengths, weaknesses, drives, values, and impact on others.
• Self-confidence, Realistic self-assessment, Self-deprecating sense of humour, Thirst for constructive criticism
• Self-regulations – controlling or redirecting disruptive impulses and moods.
• Trustworthiness, Integrity, Comfort with ambiguity and change
• Motivation – appreciating achievements for its own sake.

A passion for the work itself and for new challenges, Determined to improve, Optimism in the face of failure

• Empathy – understanding other’s emotional makeup.
• Expertise in attracting and retaining talent, Ability to develop others, Sensitivity to cross-cultural differences
• Social skill – building rapport with others to move them in the desired direction.
• Effectiveness in leading change, Persuasiveness, Extensive networking, Expertise in building and leading teams

We could also simplify by distinguishing the skills needed to succeed in life, as well as professionally, in two main areas, Recognition and Regulation of the self and the social.

Recognition refers to the awareness of the self and of others’ emotional strengths and weaknesses, understanding them and how to relate to them to achieve the highest performance, personally, as part of a team and as a leader. In the specific of leaders Goleman (1998) argued that senior executives did not, and possibly still don’t, give credit to EI as an important quality for leaders, seen more like a weakness. His findings showed that the opposite was indeed true, as organization teams appreciated and were more productive when their manager/leader was aware of people feelings and was empathetic with their staff.

The many types of research that have analysed, defined and quantified EI, support the theory that it can be learned or improved, providing better social and emotional skills, which can enable people to better perform in a range of fields (Kapetopoulos, 2019).

Goleman’s research, spanning over 188 large international organizations, on personnel’s characteristics that drove productivity and performance, he found that, compared to technical skills and cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, the ability to work effectively in a team context and be responsive to, as well as leading through changes, was the main determinant for the success of an organization. Concluding that successful managers/leaders EI skills were more important than their IQ, (Goleman, 1998).

Goleman (1998) in aligning the five components of emotional intelligence, and the possibility of learning or improving them, has created a platform that leaders in different areas and different levels can use to improve their ability in leading a team and increase productivity and team’s members work satisfaction. He argues, for instance, that people with strong self-awareness are honest with themselves and others, or that they understand personal values and goal, they know where and how they are leading to. Self-regulation is also an important component of EI, as it allows people to better evaluate, regulate and respond to theirs and other emotions. People with well-developed self-regulation of emotions acknowledge the team performance, and when poor, they tend to step back and find reasons for it, without blaming the team. They are aware that negative emotion in management will result in negative mood throughout the organization. One of the EI components that are very important in any team situation is Empathy. Goleman (1998) was already aware twenty years ago that empathy is a very important part of people’s awareness of others’ emotions and social or cultural context to better navigate in today’s globalization. He emphasized the increase in the importance of empathy in leaders as more and more there are the needs to work in team, globalization and the need to retain talents.

Leadership Styles

Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee (2004) further developed the EI theories defining the six styles of leadership in their book Primal Leadership. The proposed leadership styles have positive and negative aspects as people may, emotionally, respond differently in a different situation. Of these six styles four of them are meant to promote harmony and positivity, (Authoritative, Coaching, Affiliate and Democratic), while two styles may create tension if not used only in specific situations (Pacesetting and Coercive) The authors argue that no one style on its work all the time in all situations, rather a combination of the six should be used to depending on the people involved and the situations. (Goleman, et al., 2004).

Styles of Leadership Carachteristics

• The authoritative: “Come with me.” Focoused on achiving the end goals mobilizing the team but leaving to them a level of indelpendency.
• The coaching: “Try this.” Supports personal and professional in the team, preparing them for the future.
• The affiliative: “People come first.” Creates a sense of belonging, trying to emotionally bring the team together.
• The democratic: “What do you think?” Values the opinion of the team and support harmony via active participation.
• The pacesetting: “Do as I do, now.” Effective when results are needed within a time frame. Could burn the team out
• The coercive: “Do what I tell you” Possibly the less effective style of leasership, imposes his/hers view, most of the time resulting in people leaving the team. (Kapetopoulos, 2019).

More recent developments on leadership theories and how certain characteristics are affected by neurobiological chemistry and the individual social interactions that cause them (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2008), are proposed now as the fundamentals of Social Intelligence. A leader’s social interactions are now considered fundamental in the development of a genuine sense of positivity, which will foster positive feelings in the people that collaborate with him or her (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2008).

Emotion Intelligence and Creativity

Taking as a case study the Melbourne’s marketing agency Roque located on Chapel Street, Prahran, I’ll try to contextualize the leadership styles and element of EI as applied by the director of the agency Sandra Catalano

Creativity and Empathy

Empathy is a key component of creativity. The better we know our clients, the better equipped we become in understanding what they want, not what they think they want.

Sandra Catalano

Roque is a marketing agency specialized in the creation of advertising, branding, design, PR & web. I interviewed Sandra, the agency owner, asking question-related to EI and leadership styles theory, of which she had no academic knowledge. She honestly shared information on her management/leadership style, making me wonder if there is, indeed, a natural predisposition to be a team player and a leader, with an acute sense of EI and leadership, as a natural characteristic, as she seemed so spontaneous in applying them, not only the relationship with her staff, but also with the client.

At Roque, Sandra Catalano, co-founder and now sole owner and Managing Director of Roque, says that the agency boasts the kind of brand activation experience the client would expect from a team that has worked on major brands both locally and internationally, yet her team is small enough to give the deserved attention to the client’s needs. Sandra approach is that every client is intrinsically unique and different from the next. Each client relationship that Sandra and her team build starts by breaking down the physical (Emotional) and linguistic (Cultural) barriers. For her it is important to adopt a positive body language, expressing respect, and learn to understand and speak the client’s business language. Sandra emphasizes the importance to build the client’s trust (Affiliative/Democratic). Show empathy, she says, for their needs and challenges, listen, question and discover but most importantly be consistent; in our conversations, in our solutions, in our presence, in values. Once we have built that level of ease in the relationship and truly connect with a client, she continues, they will consider you a partner in their business and want you to share the journey with them. Relationships are at the heart of everything Sandra does; at work, at home, at play (Coaching).

Sandra relationship with her team, as she puts it, rather than leadership or management, is not different from the philosophy with which she approaches a new client. Openness, sharing the business positives and negatives, coaching and mentoring her staff, sharing responsibilities and achievements, supporting staff personal improvement and new skills development (Coaching/Democratic). A positive and empathic approach to the work environment.

As well as being connected to the team’s EI, Sandra provides a firm, coherent and clear organizational path (Authoritative), where each member of the team, although working in relative independence, has specific expertise and responsibility. Sandra said that she is happy for the willing staff to take on the supervision of some creative projects, usually supervised by herself (Coaching).

Coming from a great working experience in Italy, working for a major marketing agency under the wings of an incredible mentor, Sandra understands that giving the opportunity of growth to the staff enthuse them to stay in the agency. Of course, she also realizes that people eventually may want to start their own business but sees it not a problem, but a positive inevitability, and happy to have been part of that person’s professional and personal journey.

Talking with Sandra, as she shared her professional experiences and her passions, it was clear how EI was well integrated into her life, professional experiences and relationships. I felt that a good level of common sense, humanity, and humility, was even more important in knowing the various theories on leadership. In a world of self-professed or labelled “leaders”, her genuine character supported a certain scepticism that I have for the industry of professional and personal development, its gurus and their workshops. Goleman’s (1995) theories have certainly contributed to the proliferation of such an industry.

Leadership has been a significant recorded presence in the history of the populace and is one of the world’s oldest preoccupations. Leadership has been evident for over 5000 years from the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and has been a continuing theme amongst philosophers; theorists and entire societies. A pied group of noteworthy historical figures have enacted leadership including Moses, Confucius, Plato, Caesar, Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi, to name but a few. The subject of leadership is familiar to all and it knows no cultural boundaries. The word “leader” entered the English language around the year 1300 and the methodical study of leadership began over 600 years later in the 1930’s. The incessant obsession for leadership is evident when exploring the numerous theories, and publications on the topic. Over the last 75 years leadership has literally been abundantly demarcated different ways by both academics and practitioners. (Cox, 2011)

The purpose of this essay, is to explain if intelligence quotient (IQ) alone, is enough for successful leadership or if other factors are present. One such factor to consider is emotional Intelligence (EI) or also known as Emotional Quotient (EQ) and whether this is just as/or significantly more important than intelligence quotient. This essay will also discuss the ethical dilemmas that professionals in the construction industry are likely to encounter.

So, what is intelligence quotient and where did it come from? Intelligence Quotient is a person’s intelligence measured by way of a given number, the higher the number, the more intelligent the person is determined to be. The first practical intelligence quotient test was invented by two French psychologists between 1904 and 1905, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon. The French Ministry of Education asked Binet and Simon to help de-termine which students would probably have learning difficulties in school. The government had passed laws requiring that all French children attend school, so it was important to find a way to identify children who would require more specialised support and assistance.

Binet and his colleague researcher Simon, began to develop particular and exacting questions that focused on specific areas that were not explicitly taught in schools, such as attention; memory, and problem-solving skills. Using these questions, Binet deter-mined which questions acted as the best interpreters of school success. (Cherry, 2019)

The intelligence quotient score was in the past a major consideration when companies and organisations recruited staff, especially at middle and higher-level management positions and leadership roles. Those individuals with a high intelligence quotient were given higher level positions, as it was respectfully considered and believed that those people made the best leaders. Companies were managed much like dictatorships with an autocratic style of leadership, the workers emotions and wellbeing were not given much consideration. Using intelligence quotient to determine a person’s position within a company had changed very little until the early 1990s. (Cherry, 2019)

During the 1990s, a theory of assessing leadership came about known as emotional intelligence (EI). Although a relatively new theory, it was not totally an original concept as E.L. Thorndike first coined the idea of “social intelligence” in 1920 and quoted: “social intelligence” is defined as “the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls…to act wisely in human relations”. (Thorndike, 1920)

Ideas started to emerge around people’s emotions and life success and during the 1940s the theorist and psychologist David Wechsler proposed that a range of different, but effectual components of intelligence could play a significant role in how successful people were present in life. The 1950s saw the rise of the ‘school of thought’ known as humanistic psychology, such as Abraham Maslow who gave greater consideration on the different ways that people could build emotional strength. Maslow’s theory is very relevant to emotional intelligence. He suggests that those who can realise their own potential, self-actualisers, naturally have stronger emotional intelligence, and those people who struggle to meet that self-actualisation with needs such as esteem, tend to have lower emotional intelligence. (Maslow,1954). Later around the mid 1970’s Howard Gardner introduced the ‘notion of intelligence’ Gardner said that intelligence was more than just a single, general ability but was a collection of multiple intelligences. (Chapman, 2003-2014).

It wasn’t however until the 1990’s when Theorists and Professors John Mayer and Peter Salovey gave birth to the term emotional intelligence and its relevance to leadership in the business environment. The meaning of emotional intelligence refers to the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an innate characteristic.

Mayer and Salovey defined emotional intelligence as: “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action”. (Mayer and Salovey, 1993)

Mayer and Salovey conducted a broad and significant range of research surrounding emotional intelligence publishing numerous articles of importance. David Caruso, PhD joined Mayer and Salovey some years later, and continued the development of the emotional intelligence, introducing an assessment to become known as “The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence-Test” (MSCEIT).

In the article emotional intelligence, “New Ability or Eclectic Traits” (Mayer, Salovey and Cruso, 2008), emotional intelligence appears to be an important component for leadership, and that people who have more sensitive emotions, have a greater positive impact on others due to those sensitive emotions, which enables them to become more effective leaders.

Understanding the difference between intelligence quotient and emotional intelligence, gives the professionals a better understanding in tackling their own unique challenges within their own industry. The construction industry is one of the most labour-intensive, project-based industries in the UK and contributes significantly to the economy, and this is still the case today, coming second only to the service industry. (Department of Business Innovation and skills, July 2013)

The very nature of the business within the construction industry is totally project-based, resulting in employing a very diverse range of people. All having to work together, often on short term contracts. Effective working relationships must constantly be established and maintained. To successfully manage and coordinate all these relationships, it is essential that construction professionals and managers possess a higher level of intelligence, personal characteristics, interpersonal skills and leadership qualities (Shirazi and Hampson, 1998). All these areas are important components of the emotional intelligence superstruct.

A major difficulty confronting many construction companies and organisations is the ability to keep workers motivated for the life of the project, from the first site meeting; throughout the various construction stages, to the final handover and settling outstanding accounts. (Loosemore et al, 2003). Love et al, (2011) identified that when members of the team were motivated, it was easier to identify problems faced during all the construction stages, and solutions to the problems were easily identified.

Songer and Walker, (2004) stated that the ability to be aware of, to understand and appreciate the feeling of others, is not necessarily something that is practiced frequently within the construction industry. The incapability of many construction professionals to control their emotions, and their level of dissipation of emotions might be significant for current and future projects. However, studies have disclosed that construction professionals and managers are somewhat slow to adapt to new and even existing management methods, which include the importance and reasoning of emotional intelligence.

From an organisation or company’s perspective, their concerns within the engineering and built environment, are that construction professionals’ use of non-technological or soft skills such as communication, leadership, teamwork and management have resulted in their careers plateauing, due to gaps in emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2004). Goleman argued that it was not intelligence quotient (cognitive intelligence) that guaranteed business success but emotional intelligence. He described emotionally intelligent people as those with four characteristics:

The first characteristic is self-awareness, being good at understanding one’s own emotions, the second characteristic is self-management, being good at managing one’s own emotions, the third characteristic is social awareness, being empathetic to the emotional drives of other people and the fourth characteristic is social skills being good at handling other people’s emotions. This seems logically acceptable at one level, but it also possibly contradicts the reality that most of us experience, specifically and well reported that many of the most successful leaders such as Steve Jobs and Richard Branson are not emotional intellectuals.

However, there is research that disagrees with Goleman’s findings. It turns out that emotional intelligence isn’t the biggest aspect of a leader’s success. This statement is based on a comprehensive data-driven assessment released by Development Dimensions International (DDI) in 2016. Their research was from findings from 15,000 leaders from 300 organisations, across 18 countries and from 20 industries, these findings reflect how leadership shapes business in today’s society. (DDI, 2016)

IQ was calculated using data from the Ravens Progressive Matrices and Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking tests, both standard and accepted measures of cognitive ability. EQ was calculated using data from their global leadership personality inventories collected over the last 40 years, using a combination of two factors: interpersonal sensitivity (it takes one to know one effect) and imperceptivity (reverse coded)

Finally, they looked at which two indices were more critical in predicting assessment centre performance in seven different behavioural skills producing the graphic “Predicting Leader Skills” IQ did a better job in predicting the more business-focused aspects of leader performance, those with business savvy and financial acumen, while EQ, related more strongly to performance in the people focused competencies, such as leading teams and building networks.

Some interesting outcomes from the research showed that as leaders climbed the leadership ladder, the less they used any EQ skills they had learnt and focused more on using their IQ skills they always had. Examples of successful leaders who have a high IQ and poor EQ are Bill Gates whose IQ is 160 and Mark Zuckerberg who’s IQ is 152, that as CEO’s their success may well stem from the teams around them, they can depend on the people around them to compliment their strengths and counter their weaknesses, so they pay for EQ This can be clearly seen from the graphic “The shifting balance of execution versus engagement as leaders ascend” (See Appendix 2)

The research from DDI credibly implies that using IQ to present a strong business case and clear rationale maybe more beneficial, then once the client having been influenced by the business case, using EQ will be the perfect partner to ensure the plan is a success.

So, although theorists have argued over the years on which matters more Intelligent Quotient (IQ) or Emotional Quotient/Intelligence (EQ/EI), in recent years the reality is that both matters equally, just in different measures. So, in the words of Daniel Goleman (2006) from his book Emotional Intelligence: Why can it matter more than IQ. “In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels”

Gender Equity, as previously discussed, is ensuring equal opportunities, obligations and rights. This term was first tossed at the Beijing platform for Action by Islamic fundamentalists in 1995. Also Vatican followers joined hands who sought to divide their property to their kids according to their needs not equally, in their gender specific roles. According to our study, emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in achieving the forediscussed goal.

Early studies define emotional intelligence as the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotions; access feelings when they facilitate thought, understand emotions and emotional knowledge and hence regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth(Mayor and Salovey, 1997).

In another research, Emotional Intelligence(EI) and gender inter relationship is highlighted. EI encompasses 26 abilities and hence is influenced by many factors, out of which one is gender. This effect, as discussed, may be due to both social and biological factors. Social experiments show, females are known to have greater EI than males (Singh, 2002; Ryff, Singer, Wing & Love, 2001).

Pointing out the significance of EQ in males, Daniel Goleman(1995) pointed out that males who have high EQ are socially balanced,friendly and happy. He also highlighted how men with high EQ are not prone to unnecessary fear and worries, have the ability to commit and live by it, carry ethical outlook along with sympathy and create a holistic repertoire. Whereas women are considered more socially responsible than male and are found more attentive to their feelings. Also in this study, he stated females scored higher in interpersonal skills, empathy and social responsibility whereas male scored superior in stress tolerance and self-regard.

Though later Goleman(1998) in his studies affirmed that there is no difference in EQ of both men and women however they vary in strengths in weaknesses. Their profiles of strengths and weaknesses vary differently in different dimensions.

Contradicting Goleman’s theory of equal EQ, Women are more likely to score higher on measures of Emotional Intelligence(Mayer and Geher,1996); Mayer,Caruso, and Salovey,1999). Further justified, females are often exposed to family and job related stressors than their male counterparts because of their engagement as both mothers and professionals(Roxburgh,1996; Simon,1995) They also tend to face gender-specific resistance in efforts to reach the highest positions in organizational hierarchies(Cotton, Hermsen, Ovadia, and Vanneman, 2001). However, as a part of argument, these family responsibilities and gender specific resistance does not emerge in the beginning of the career however they create a hurdle in the later stages of work life. But since middle aged women face challenges than their younger counterparts, which hampers their perceived job control and as a whole their overall productivity.

More recent studies highlight relationship between gender difference and emotional intelligence among 150 adolescents and concluded that girls were found to have higher EI than that of boys(Katal and Awasthi,2005). In another study conducted amongst 234 Iranian students proved the forestated fact that EI of girls is higher than that of the boys(Naghavi,2012)

The Kimpton Hotels under the initiative GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender) sends a message of accommodation, comfort, and sensitivity towards persons from diverse groups (Andrew Freeman & Company, n.d.). On the other hand, the Christian hoteliers seem to send a message of rigidity and dogmatism that is bound to interfere with the comfort and general feelings of the targeted groups (Hirsch, 2011). In my opinion, the viewpoint of Kimpton hotel is more sensible because it portrays sensitivity towards the clientele. Sensitivity to the specific needs of GLBT sends a general message that the hotel has the capacity to anticipate, respect, and fulfill the needs of clientele through a personalized approach. On the other hand, Christian hoteliers may appear to be prejudicial and limiting in their capacity to meet the needs of their clients. Discrimination of any form in the contemporary world is viewed upon as uncultured, insensitive, and uncivilized. Such an image is even worse for an institution that is operating in the hospitality industry, where the capacity to anticipate and attend to the specific needs of clientele is the generalized hallmark of the industry.

Sexual harassment, in general, is a difficult situation to deal with due to the social and cultural disparities that make defining the offense difficult. However, the situation is worse in the hospitality industry, where according to Gilbert, Guerrier & Guy, employees are usually expected to attend to the needs of customers sometimes beyond expectations. Evidently, some customers are bound to either take advantage of or confuse the hospitality and warmth accorded to them and consequently make sexual advances at the employees (1998, p.49). In essence, sexual harassment is more common in the hospitality industry, and the complications it presents might be more difficult to deal with.

Although I have never experienced sexual harassment or heard a colleague of mine complain, in my previous work experience, the manager ensured that there were strict policies to discourage and deal with sexual harassment in the workplace. Unlike other managers who take sides with the customer in such situations, my manager ensured that the cases were handled professionally and fairly. Customers who were found to be in the habit of sexually harassing employees were blacklisted and or legal actions were taken against them, depending on the severity of the harassment. As a manager, I would ensure that employees are sensitized on issues regarding sexual harassment. In addition, I would ensure that employees are taught techniques they can use to discourage harassment and the proper channels they can use in case they are harassed. In case an employee is sexually harassed by a guest, I would make sure that the guest is confronted and made to apologize directly to the employee. Repeated cases may lead to blacklisting of the guest. Action should be taken against sexual harassment in the hospitality industry because sexual harassment costs the industry closes to $67 million annually in terms of absenteeism and low productivity (Gilbert, Guerrier & Guy, 1998, p.51).

The resort industry is experiencing age diversity among its workforce increases the likelihood of persons from different generations working at the same level within an organization (Rood, 2010, p.81). The resort industry should, therefore, ensure that an organization places the different generations in situations where they are bound to complement each other rather than conflict with each other. For instance, Rood outlines that older generations have loyalty to the company and are more dedicated to their responsibilities, while younger generations are motivated by their image outside their workplace, and their loyalty lies with the boss rather than the company (2002, p.85). Therefore, resorts should encourage the younger generations to work in teams to boost their sense of belonging in the company, and the older generations can be given assignments that call for extreme dedication and sacrifice. Due to their different needs, people from different generations should be treated differently with regard to these needs. However, being treated differently should not infringe on the rights of either group or appear discriminatory.

Reference List

Andrew Freeman & Company n.d., Kimpton Hotels Case Study: Outreach to the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) Market. Web.

Gilbert, D., Guerrier, Y. & Guy, J 1998, ‘Sexual harassment issues in the hospitality Industry’, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 48-53. Web.

Hirsch, A 2011, ‘Gay Couple’s Hotel Battle is Latest Case of Religion Clashing with Human Rights’, The Guardia. Web.

Rood, A 2010, ‘Understanding generational diversity in the workplace: what Resorts can and are doing’, Journal of Tourism Insights, Vol.1, no. 1, pp. 80-88. Web.