Emotional Intelligence and Effective LeadershipXavier A.
JonesDr. YoungbloodOrganizational Theory09-02-2018 IntroductionEmotional Intelligence (EI) can be described in three different ways: a person’s ability to be able to distinguish their own emotions and others as well, recognize the meaning of these emotions, and determining his or her own emotions appropriatelyCITATION Rob17 p 116 l 1033 (Robbins ; Judge, 2017, p. 116). An example of emotional intelligence would be a manager recognizing that they are frustrated because things are not working out as planned at work. Another example would be supervisor noticing their staff is gloomy because of the work environment.
As time has progressed, many scientists and researchers such as Sternberg, Peter Salovey and John Mayer, Reuven Bar-On, and Daniel Goleman have influenced the current model of emotional intelligence. Sternberg had a theory of numerous intelligences that advocate interpersonal and intrapersonal are unique and differ from mathematical and logical type that we know currently as “Intelligence Quotient”. Peter Salovey and John Mayer described emotional intelligence in a four-branch model that consists of different skills.
The first two branches known as Facilitation and perception are combined into a group called Experiential Emotional Intelligence because they meticulously describe feelings. The last two branches are emotional intelligence skills known as “Strategic Emotional Intelligence”, the reason being that they deal with calculating and planning with information about emotions. Reuven Bar-On believed that emotional intelligence depends on the conditions of a person’s health, personality, and well-being. Finally, Daniel Goleman, he influenced a great deal of importance to the notion Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Quotient as an equivalent to more traditional measures of IQ CITATION Bat13 p 85-86 l 1033 (Batool, 2013, pp.
85-86).Emotional Intelligence and LeadershipWhen emotional Intelligence is being discussed, it is usually being related to the efficiency and effectiveness of leadership. As time moves forward, the definition of a leader grows and changes as well; the style of leadership from the past is no longer up to date. The workplace has become more diverse and open to everyone emotions and how they choose to express them.
According to Bano Fakhra Batool, leaders now need to manage and lead an empowered workforce and go beyond the consultative, co-operative, and democratic styles of today CITATION Bat13 p 87 l 1033 (Batool, 2013, p. 87). In 1998, Daniel Goleman stated that there are five emotional intelligence components when we are at work: Self-Regulation (Management), Self- Awareness, Empathy (Social Awareness), Social Skills (Relationship Management), and Motivation CITATION Bat13 p 88 l 1033 (Batool, 2013, p. 88). When a leader applies these five components into their work place they play a major role in being successful. To be self-aware means to acknowledge how you feel and how you present your emotions and behavior can influence others in the work place. Self-Regulation would be remaining calm and being in control of your emotions, so no rash decisions are made.
Empathy implies being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes; also listening to people’s opinions and being able to fair, well rounded feedback. Social Skills is very important when dealing with emotional intelligence, being able to communicate with employees or staff is key to shifting the mood and success rate of an organization.Elements of and Reasons for Emotional Intelligence in LeadershipLeaders in todays society need to utilize emotional intelligence to manage an organization. Being able to understand and utilize emotional intelligence helps initiate, maintain, change employees’ actions and behavior as we progress into the futureCITATION Men12 p 24 l 1033 (Mengal, 2012, p. 24). A few reasons a leader needs emotional intelligence may be to: social and communicate with the staff, understand the emotions of other and why the feel the way they do to build strong relationships, and to provide a thriving environment in which work goals are met while also keeping the employees satisfied.
Understanding the emotions of others and why they may feel a certain emotion one Is a key need for a leader in the workplace. When a leader realizes emotions are natural in the workplace and stray from creating an emotion-free environment, it creates a safe environment. Understanding and putting yourself in the employee’s shoes helps with explaining why their actions and behaviors and predict them in the futureCITATION Rob17 p 125 l 1033 (Robbins & Judge, 2017, p. 125).Being able to socialize and communicate with work employees ensures that you can be a people person and not someone who is feared. When a leader has good communication skills he can motivate people in the work place; better communication also ensures higher standards for the quality of employee’s work CITATION Bat13 p 89 l 1033 (Batool, 2013, p. 89).
When employees are in better moods, they usually are more helpful toward others and have a boost in performance, which leads to better business for the organization. This goes hand and hand with helping the organization thrive, the reason being when a pattern of good leadership is created and reflects positively with the employees, people free more relaxed at work. More positive effects are: creative environments, enthusiastic interactions with employees and customers, feedback is received and given, goals are reached more often, and more changes are more likely to be accepted as new people are brought in.With these elements and reasons in mind, the organization and leaders must think about the possible consequences of a leader not possessing any skills or enough emotional intelligence. The most two important consequences that come to mind are employees being unhappy and their emotions affect others, and with lack of proper leadership, goals will not be reached which reflects bad on the company. When employees are negatively emotional at work, it can cause a whirlpool of problems; one problem being that it contagious to other employees. If one employee is sad, mad, depressed, or unmotivated, it can be passed along to the next employee which then can be spread to the whole workplace.
In a related sense, this can affect how well some employees perform. When employees are not performing well, and goals are not being met, then the overall status of the organization is affected which no one wants.Emotional Intelligence Strategy to Improve the WorkplaceWhen discussing selecting the right leaders to manage an organization, we want to make sure that they have the social skills they need and have them improve on as time progresses. The first part of the strategy would be to have everyone take a test on recognizing emotions of others and learn to understand what these emotions mean and how to handle them properly. Leaders should learn the many ways in which can affect someone’s emotions.
These things can consist of: someone’s personality, time of day, day of the week, weather, stress level, how social they are, the amount of sleep they get, exercise, age and sexCITATION Rob17 p 108-113 l 1033 (Robbins ; Judge, 2017, pp. 108-113). Personality deals with built-in tendencies to experience the emotions and behaviors more often than others. The time of day and day of the week play a major role because certain days and time have an affect of how they perform and feel; people are more likely to have slow starts in the morning and beginning of the week compared to the end of the day and week when people have more energy and get more things done. Weather comes into play because emotions can be connected to weather in the sense of rain equaling a sad a gloomy mood, while warm and sunny can make people feel happy and energetic. Depending on whether someone is a people person, their social meter may not allow them to show emotions. The amount of exercise and sleep someone is getting is important because it affects their health and how well they function from day to day.
Age come into play because the younger you are, the more energy you have and experience with emotions compared to when you are older. Sex depends on what a may or female may be going through because we are all emotional people but express it differentlyCITATION Rob17 p 108-113 l 1033 (Robbins ; Judge, 2017, pp. 108-113).As stated earlier in the paper, learning about the components of emotional intelligence and how leaders can implement them into everyday life would be the next step. Teaching them about how to be a great leader and listen to the employees of the workplace would be the most important step. Being able to understand emotions and how they affect people, having great communication skill, being able to be a team player and motivate others, having everyone feel safe and open in the work environment so work get completed and reach weekly goals is what we would aim for with this strategy.
We want to be able to grow and change with the times and generations to come. We see it with baby boomers and millennials, baby boomers have a difficult time accepting the new ways of the millennials because they weren’t allowed to express themselves in the past and had to follow certain guidelines. An organization that learns this will be very successful and receive great feedback from the workers, leaders, and customers.Finally, we want our leaders to be able to find a good balance of hiring agreeable employees and future leaders of the organization. The reason being that having a good balance between the two, makes for a better work place overall. Depending on what type of work setting you have and the demographic of customers you work with may also play a role in who you hire. Top performers ensure that work is being completed and goals are being met. Agreeable employees lean more to be the helpful and nice workers who work well in social situations and brightening up the work area.
As stated in the book, one of the fall backs of hiring an agreeable worker is that they have a lower drive to emerge as leaders and their behavior has an effect on their effectivenessCITATION Rob171 p 162-163 l 1033 (Robbins & Judge, 2017, pp. 162-163).ConclusionIn conclusion, when leader learn about emotional intelligence and implement the skills and components into everyday life at the workplace, the outcome will be significantly more positive and geared toward success than organizations who don’t.
Works Cited BIBLIOGRAPHY Batool, B. F. (2013). Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 4(3), 84-94.Mengal, T.
(2012). Leading with “Emotional” Intelligence–Existential and Motivational Analysis in Leadership and Leadership Development. Journal on Educational Psychology, 5(4), 24-31.
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