Emotional Intelligence

What makes an effective leader? Does emotion play an important role in leadership? You may think of an extraordinary leader as someone who has a calm demeanor and is in control of every situation. You may also think of this leader as someone who is a great communicator, listens with compassion, who is approachable, who has complete trust in everyone around him, and who always seems to make the correct informed decisions. These are all attributes of someone who has a high level of emotional intelligence. But, how much does emotional intelligence play in successful leadership? The answer is: a lot! Studies have shown that "emotional intelligence is the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of

Their emotions help them to prioritize demands. Emotional signals are used to direct their attention to pressing matters that need immediate intervention (George, 2002). So, an effective leader realizes when emotions generated by low priority demands are interfering with more important demands they have the ability to manage those emotions and can facilitate effective decision making. Additionally, effective leaders link their emotions to opportunities or problems use those emotions as information for decision making (George, 2002). Leaders that are knowledgeable about their emotions and can determine their causes can establish when emotions are linked to opportunities or problems and use those emotions as information in the decision-making process. By knowing the root of their emotions, leaders can effectively use emotional input for decision making. Furthermore, when an effective leader realizes that emotion is a detriment to a decision, they can take steps to decrease and manage the emotion so that it will not be a source of error. Therefore, emotional intelligence allows leaders to effectively use emotions in the decision process and manage the emotions that interfere with that

Wasielewski implies that when leaders understand and able to influence their follower's emotions, they may be able to: get followers to reassess the feelings they experience and the manner in which they display them. Based on the ability to do this, a leader may then be able to substitute an alternative view of the world that resolves this emotional ambiguity; for example, a leader may point out that anger is not an adequate emotional response to existing injustices if the group is interested in effecting real change. The leader might then propose an alternative view of the present situation, along with an appropriate set of alternative emotions more suitable to achieving the desired goal. (Wasielewski 213)

Effective leaders accurately assess their follower's emotions, respond to them, and sometimes alter those emotions, can more effectively overcome the resistance to change. For effective leaders to respond and alter follower's emotions, it is necessary to accurately understand the cause of emotional responses and their change over time; this is an important aspect of emotional