Introduction
An increasingly complex business world demands that successful leaders bring more to their role than merely a strong intellectual capacity. In our work with organisations, we frequently see the dramatic differences in leadership performance between those who rely on their intellectual capacities alone and those who enhance their intellects with a range of emotionally based capabilities.
This month’s article overviews the concept of emotional intelligence. We look at the key elements of EI and the implications for leadership and the development of leadership capacity.
A Potted History of EI
The idea that intelligence is a combination of both cognitive and non-cognitive elements goes back to the early part of the twentieth century. Initial views of intelligence focused on purely cognitive aspects, such as memory and problem solving. However, in the 1930’s Robert Thorndike proposed the concept of a “social intelligence”. In 1940, David Wechsler defined intelligence to include the ability to “act purposefully” and “deal effectively with one’s environment” as well as the ability to “think rationally”.
In 1983, Howard Gardner proposed a model of “multiple intelligence” that listed seven kinds of intelligence, including two “personal” varieties: knowing one’s inner world and social adeptness.
The term “emotional intelligence” was first used by Salovey and Mayer in 1990. However, it was Daniel Goleman’s 1995 book called “Emotional Intelligence” that really sparked wide ranging interest and highlighted the importance of EI to modern day leaders.
Since then, EI has been the subject of ongoing research, particularly in the area of the measurement of EQ. In Australia, one of the leaders in this area has been Swinburne University’s Organisational Psychology Research unit, who in 2002 released an instrument designed to assess the development levels of emotional intelligence in individuals.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is our ability to recognise and regulate emotions in ourselves and others. Daniel Goleman describes it as: “The capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. It describes abilities distinct from, but complimentary to, academic intelligence, the purely cognitive capacities measured by IQ.”
This by no means is the only definition, however it captures the common and important themes.
Goleman breaks down emotional intelligence into five elements:
- Self awareness: Knowing ones internal states, preferences, resources and intuitions
- Self Regulation: Managing one’s internal states, impulses and resources
- Motivation: Emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate
- Empathy: Awareness of others’ feelings, needs and concerns
- Social Skills: Adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others
EI and the Implications for Leadership
The implications for leadership occur at a number of different levels.
- Firstly leaders who possess well developed EI have been shown to be more successful. For example, it is hard to imagine that the crew of Apollo 13 would ever have returned to earth safely without Flight Director, Gene Kranz’s highly developed emotional intelligence. Certainly the rescue required a high degree of technical competence, however without Kranz being able read the emotions of his team, keep his own under check and deal with the enormous stress, no amount of technical competence would have solved what at first appeared to be unsolvable problems.
Research to date supports the proposition that, while a well developed cognitive ability is important, by itself, it is insufficient for leadership success. What makes the difference, once you reach a level of intellectual sophistication, is emotional intelligence. Studies of “derailed executives” at the Center for Creative Leadership found that such executives failed most often because of an interpersonal flaw. These included: rigidity, handling pressure poorly, poor working relationships, proneness to angry outbursts, covering up and passing blame for failure.
- Secondly, the leader’s EI quotient has significant impact on leadership behaviour, which in turn strongly influences the attributes of the surrounding culture. Leaders with highly developed EI will tend to behave in a way that creates a climate characterised by high levels of information sharing, trust, healthy risk taking and learning; attributes of constructive and adaptable cultures. Conversely, leaders with lower levels of EI behave in ways that that create cultures characterised by levels of fear, anxiety, conservatism and tightly controlled information flows; attributes of defensive cultures. There is a well known link between constructive cultures and sustained financial performance.
- Thirdly, in the same way as individuals possess emotional intelligence, so do teams of people. Group EI is not simply the sum total of the emotional intelligence of the individuals rather it is a complex dynamic impacting the team in three key areas:
- The behaviour of individual team members
- How the team as a whole reviews and controls its activities
- How the team interacts with other teams
Teams possessing highly developed EI exhibit behavioural norms that have been demonstrated to be closely associated with those norms displayed by high performing teams.
The following table summarises the association between successful team norms and the dimensions of group EI.
Group Emotional
Intelligence Norms |
Dimensions of Group
Emotional Intelligence |
Collective
Beliefs |
| Individual Focused |
- Trust
- Group Identity
- Group Efficacy
|
- Perspective Taking
- Interpersonal Understanding
|
- Group awareness of members
|
- Confronting members who
break norms
- Caring orientation
|
- Group regulation of members
|
| Group Focus |
- Team self evaluation
- Seeking feedback
|
|
- Creating awareness for working with emotion
- Creating an affirmative
environment
- Proactive problem solving
|
|
| Inter-team Focus |
- Organisational awareness
- Inter-group awareness
|
|
- Build external relationships
|
|
Developing Emotional Intelligence
It has been widely accepted that once established, IQ changes very little over the course of our lives. This does not appear to be the case for EI. At an empirical level, as we grow older we tend naturally to become more aware of ourselves, our emotions and how we impact others – in short we mature. To a large extent, maturity itself describes the process of developing emotional intelligence. There is an increasing body of evidence that supports this view. For example, Reuven Bar-On, an early developer of an emotional quotient (EQ) measurement instrument, measured EQ in more than three thousand men and women. He found a small but steady and significant increase in EQ with increasing age, peaking in the forties.
It is not hard to imagine that teaching purely cognitive abilities is a comparatively easy process when compared to developing emotional intelligence. Capabilities like empathy or flexibility differ markedly from those of a purely technical nature. They are much more closely associated with the way we think, how we behave and the habits we have developed over time. Successfully achieving improvements in emotional areas requires the removal or lessoning of established patterns of behaviours and then replacing them with new ones. Our common approaches to developing cognitive abilities are likely to be inappropriate for developing sustained improvements in competencies associated with emotional intelligence. Hence, we need to adopt a whole new approach to developing emotional intelligence based on techniques applied to achieving behaviour change.
Guidelines for the Development of EI
Goleman has proposed a set of 15 guidelines for the development of emotional competencies. They include many of the components that would be included in any systematic approach to learning. These include:
- Focus only on those competencies that are needed for excellence
- Encourage sustained practice of new behaviours over a period of months
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the development program
- Be clear about the pay offs of learning or improving competence
Significantly, it also includes a range of components that directly mirror those imbedded in Oisin’s transformational coaching approach. These include:
- Individualise learning by assessing individual strengths and weaknesses
- Allow learning to be self directed by having people choose their own goals
- Focus on clear manageable goals
- Provide feedback on a 360 degree basis
- Reward and celebrate improvements that are consistent with the organisational mission and values
- Connect learning to on-the-job situations
Developing emotional competence requires a combination of traditional cognitive learning approaches and a set of methods that provide self reflection, reinforcement and self direction.
Summary
The idea that intelligence involves more than cognitive abilities has been suspected since the 1930’s. Despite this, serious research into the concept of emotional intelligence is relatively recent and the development of our understanding continues to be an ongoing process.
Emotional intelligence is the component of our total intelligence that deals with our ability to be aware of, and effectively deal with, our own and others’ emotions and feelings. It impacts on our decision making process, how we interact with others, the nature of our relationships and the way in which we cope with stress.
The implications for our thinking on leadership are profound. EI redefines our understanding of the attributes of an effective leader, how this impacts on the development of successful organisational cultures and introduces additional dimensions to the development of high performing teams. EI also reshapes our view on the methods for effective leadership development, highlighting a more holistic approach to learning.
Consider you own leadership development interventions and ask yourself the following questions:
- Are they targeted at achieving significant behavioural change?
- Do interventions occur over a period of time or are they single event driven?
- Are development plans personalised, taking account of individual strengths and weaknesses?
- Are interventions supported by regular 360 degree feedback processes?
- How closely are development activities aligned to concrete business issues?
- Is feedback on progress provided regularly?
- Do participants have the opportunity to openly discuss issues and share ideas:
- With each other?
- With other peers?
- With mentors and coaches?
- Are leadership behaviours supported by internal organisational structures? e.g.
- Recruitment and selection criteria
- Rewards for performance
- Evaluation and appraisal systems
- Job descriptions
- Explicit corporate philosophy
