-This week’s focus is on the critical role of emotional intelligence (EI) in effective strategic leadership. EI refers to an individual’s capacity for recognizing one’s emotions and those of others.
In the previous six weeks, we focused on “what leaders do and how they do it.” This week, we address “who leaders are.” That is, we focus on individual attributes instead of leader behavior. It is important to point out that these two issues are highly related because successful leaders possess valuable traits that enable them to engage effectively in activities to create value for their organization.
Although there have been countless studies of leader traits (e.g., integrity, maturity, energy, intelligence), we address one that has really garnered a lot of attention in both the academic and business presses: Emotional Intelligence (EI). This concept has been popularized by Daniel Goleman who has published best-selling books. Goleman defines EI as the capacity for recognizing one’s own emotions and those of others. Recent studies have found that effective leaders have a high level of EI and that EI is a better predictor of life and career success than IQ (intelligence quotient). The five components of EI are:
Globalization is another reason for the increasing importance of empathy (one of the five elements of EI) for business leaders. Cross-cultural dialogue can often result in miscues and misunderstandings. Empathy is a valuable antidote. Managers who have it are attuned to subtleties in body language. They can hear messages beneath the words being spoken. Further, they have a deep understanding of the existence and importance of cultural and ethnic differences.
There are some potential drawbacks of EI; dont confuse the role of each trait. Below are a few drawbacks of the benefits of its essential components if taken in the wrong context.
1. Effective leaders have empathy for others (leaders may confuse empathy with sympathy and fail to make “hard decisions”)
2. Effective leaders are astute judges of people (leaders may rely too much on their judgment and dismiss others’ insights)
3. Effective leaders are passionate about what they do, and they show it (passion may prevent leaders from other possibilities and ignore realities that others see)
4. Effective leaders create personal connections with their people (if there are too many unannounced visits, it may lead to fear of micromanagement.)
Read the attached article titled, Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Organizational Creativity.
ARTICLE-Relationship Between Leadership Styles
Read Chapter 14, Leading Strategic Change.
Book Title Exploring Strategy Text and Cases
Author / Editor Johnson, Gerry
-Answer ONE (1) of the following questions/statements:
In your own words, describe organizational ambidexterity. What are the pros and cons? Give an example of an organization who has organizational ambidexterity.
