- Hello and welcome back to my blog!
When people talk about leadership, most of the time, they seem to focus on how to be good leaders. However, by the position, not everyone can be a leader in the workplace. Even though you are a leader, you are also a follower at some point in your profession. In fact, a majority of employees are followers. Thus, if one aims and wants to practice to become a good leader, s/ he should put oneself in followers’ shoes to reflect on what an effective leader is like. Peter G. Northouse (2017), the author of Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice, stated that “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (p.6). However, employees are discontent to be treated disrespectfully in order to complete professional tasks. Those treatments are micromanaging, bullying, avoiding conflict, ducking decisions, stealing credit, shifting blame, hoarding information, failing to listen, setting a poor example, slacking, and not developing staff which the employees receive from their leader. Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries (2016), a psychologist, professor of leadership development and organizational change, and consultant, wrote in his article that 77% of employees who have a good relationship with their employers saw themselves as people who were engaged at work, and the research also stated that an engaging workforce is a key driver of organizational success. It is believed that, other than the legitimate power that the leaders gain as formal leaders, they need referent power, an ability to influence the followers to achieve the goals through respects, admiration, and loyalty. Hence, emotional intelligence becomes an important component to construct an effective leadership. We will explore this topic this week. What is an Emotional Intelligent?
Emotional intelligence is defined as “the ability to perceive and express emotional, to use emotions to facilitate thinking, to understand and reason with emotions, and to effectively manage emotions within oneself and in relationships with others” (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, 2000 cited by Northouse, 2016). In short, Daniel Goleman, author of the New York Times bestseller Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence, defined emotional intelligence as abilities that individuals can handle themselves in the relationship (Big Think, 2012). How important is Emotional Intelligent?
Northouse (2016) included emotional intelligent as an important trait of leadership. In the lens of traits approach, it is said that emotional intelligence can be the one trait that shapes a person to become an effective leader as Stogdill, (1948) cited in Denhardt et al. (2016), the author of Leader Behavior: Its Description and Measurement, wrote that the leaders tend to be more intelligent in social situations than other group members. Nevertheless, Emma Sue Prince (2017), the author of The Advantage that published by Pearson Business, showed results of a research conducted by University of California at Los Angeles. The results illustrated that only 7% of effectiveness is from intelligence, while 93% results from emotional intelligence. Thus, emotional intelligence is one of the significant traits that the leaders should attain in order to maintain a good relationship with their followers and help themselves influence their group to achieve the common goal. Five component of emotional intelligent
by Goleman (1995) referred by Denhardt et al. (2016)
- Self-awareness: Leaders are aware of their own emotions and have self-understanding, so the leaders know how they truly feel. It is very essential that the leaders are not bad-tempered while leading their followers. For example, if someone disagrees with a leader’s project, the leaders are expected to set anger aside and consider why someone has different ideas instead of being furious and not listening to anyone.
- Self-management: The leaders have an ability to handle their feeling appropriately. Since each emotion has its function, the leaders need to utilize those emotions to benefit their situations. For example, Captain Sully, manages himself to stay calm and tries to control a situation instead of be panicking when he emerges a bird strike (Ford, 2014).
- A motivation is defined as passion and persistence. It does not only take a single moment for a person to become a leader, but it takes longer than that as a process. Thus, if the leader is discouraged easily on something, the followers tend to fail at completing tasks at work because they need the leader to guide them. For instance, Martin Luther King Jr. had spent fifteen years as a leader in the civil right movement with tremendous pressure from 1954 – 1968.
- Empathy for others: This is a very important role for the leaders. Even though the leaders have more power, it is impossible for them to accomplish the goals by themselves without assistance and coordination. The effective leaders will need to understand others’ feeling in order to gain referent power.
- Social Skills: The leaders will have abilities to handle relationships by putting all dimensions altogether. If they see their followers struggle in professional tasks, they should assist and coach them. For example, from the movie named Facing the Giants, Coach Taylor is upset that his team keeps losing; however, he controls his stress of being a failure and tries to influence the weak teammates by using Brock to motivate them. As the result, the team becomes stronger and better.
References:
Big Think. (2012, April 23). Daniel Goleman Introduces Emotional Intelligence . [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7m9eNoB3NU Northouse, P.G. (2016).
Denhardt, R. B., Denhardt, J. V., & Aristigueta, M. P. (2016). Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Ford, J. (2014, March 24). I Was Sure I Could Do It. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJdesmgX30
Kendrick, A., Kendrick, S. (Producer) & Kendrick, A (Director). (2006). Facing the Giants [Motion Picture]. United States: Sherwood Pictures, Destination Films
Kets de Vries, M. F. R. (2016). Do You Hate Your Boss?. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/12/do-you-hate-your-boss
Leadership: Theory and Practice (7thth ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Hi Issaree. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 is another book that might interest you (Bradberry, Greaves & Lencioni, 2009). It's a quick read with some helpful ideas on developing emotional intelligence.
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