Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

It was Daniel Goleman who first brought the term “emotional

intelligence” to a wide audience with his 1995 book of that

name, and it was Goleman who first applied the concept to

business with his 1998 HBR article, reprinted here. In his

research at nearly 200 large, global companies, Goleman found

that while the qualities traditionally associated with

leadership—such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and

vision—are required for success, they are insufficient. Truly

effective leaders are also distinguished by a high degree of

emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness,

self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill.

These qualities may sound “soft” and unbusinesslike, but

Goleman found direct ties between emotional intelligence and

measurable business results. While emotional intelligence’s

relevance to business has continued to spark debate over the

past six years, Goleman’s article remains the definitive

reference on the subject, with a description of each component

of emotional intelligence and a detailed discussion of how to

recognize it in potential leaders, how and why it connects to

performance, and how it can be learned.

Every businessperson knows a story about a highly

intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a

leadership position only to fail at the job. And they also

know a story about someone with solid—but not

extraordinary—intellectual abilities and technical skills who

was promoted into a similar position and then soared.

Such anecdotes support the widespread belief that identifying

individuals with the “right stuff” to be leaders is more art

than science. After all, the personal styles of superb leaders

vary: Some leaders are subdued and analytical; others shout

their manifestos from the mountaintops. And just as important,

different situations call for different types of leadership.

Most mergers need a sensitive negotiator at the helm, whereas

many turnarounds require a more forceful authority.

I have found, however, that the most effective leaders are

alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of what

has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that

IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but

mainly as “threshold capabilities”; tha...

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know intuitively that leaders need to manage relationships

effectively; no leader is an island. After all, the leader’s

task is to get work done through other people, and social

skill makes that possible. A leader who cannot express her

empathy may as well not have it at all. And a leader’s

motivation will be useless if he cannot communicate his

passion to the organization. Social skill allows leaders to

put their emotional intelligence to work.

It would be foolish to assert that good-old-fashioned IQ and

technical ability are not important ingredients in strong

leadership. But the recipe would not be complete without

emotional intelligence. It was once thought that the

components of emotional intelligence were “nice to have” in

business leaders. But now we know that, for the sake of

performance, these are ingredients that leaders “need to

have.”

It is fortunate, then, that emotional intelligence can be

learned. The process is not easy. 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 for the organization, make it worth the effort.