What Makes a Leader? Author: Daniel Goleman In this landmark article, Daniel Goleman, the premier expert in the emotional intelligence movement, author of Emotional Intelligence (Bantam, 1995) and Working With Emotional Intelligence (Bantam, 1998) and co-chairman of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, based at Rutgers University AEs Graduate School of Applied Psychology, describes why emotional intelligence is the crucial component of leadership, and how it shows itself at work. The author also describes how emotional intelligence can be enhanced by a distinctly different approach to human resource training. Superb leaders have very different ways of directing a team, a division, or a company. Some are subdued and analytical; others are charismatic and go with their gut. And different situations call for different types of leadership. Most mergers need a sensitive negotiator at the helm, whereas many turnarounds require a more forceful kind of authority.
The author has found, however, that effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. In fact, Goleman AEs research at nearly 200 large, global companies revealed that emotional intelligence — especially at the highest levels of a company — is the sine qua non for leadership. Without it, a person can have first-class training, an incisive mind, and an endless supply of good ideas, but he still won AEt make a great leader. The components of emotional intelligence — self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill — can sound un businesslike. But exhibiting emotional intelligence at the workplace does not mean simply controlling your anger or getting along with people. Rather, it means understanding your own and other people AEs emotional makeup well enough to move people in the direction of accomplishing your company AEs goals.
The Essay on Emotional Intelligence 6
Emotional intelligence is defined as an individual’s ability to perceive, control and appraise emotions. Emotional intelligence can be learned, strengthened or be an inborn characteristic. Emotional intelligence is thus the subject of social intelligence that entails the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s thoughts and emotions, to differentiate among them and to apply information in guiding ...
In this article, the author discusses each component of emotional intelligence and shows through examples how to recognize it in potential leaders, how and why it leads to measurable business results, and how it can be learned. It takes time and, most of all, commitment. But the benefits that come from having a well-developed emotional intelligence, both for the individual and the organization, make it worth the effort.
