Leadership & Emotional Intelligence

Leadership & Emotional Intelligence

BUS 621

Leadership &Teamwork

Ashford University

Leadership & Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is best described as the capability to control and manager your personal emotions as well as the emotions of people you are around. It is inclusive of five components, which can be both negative and positive relationships depending on the leadership. The analysis shows that this type of intelligence is more significant than even IQ for leaders. Transactional, situational, and transformational leadership types are all different yet the same. Furthermore, leadership is influenced by culture negatively and positively, as I will address in this paper.

The five elements of emotional intelligence are empathy, social skills, self-regulation, motivation, and self-awareness. Leaders that are self-aware and have a good grasp on their team’s moods, emotions, and feelings, are often referred to as Transformational leaders. (Mulla & Krishnan, 2012). Motivation means having a passion for fulfilling personal goals. Self-motivated transformational leaders consistently work hard and typically have high standards for whatever they do or are in charge of overseeing. Empathy is imperative to transformational leaders for maintaining a successful team. Self-awareness is the capability to surmise his or her own emotions. However, on the other hand, self-regulation is a necessity of emotional intelligence that displays how people manage their own emotions.

Leaders with self-regulation rarely stereotype others, verbally attack others, make a snap or emotional decision, or compromise their values. Social skills are an essential aspect of great leaders, ‘ which means they can interact well with others. Research has found that supervisors that are found to be the most effective with their subordinates have emotional intelligence components and are associated positively with transformational leadership (Paolucci, Zappalà, Lourenço, Rebelo, 2018). Emotionally intelligent transformational leaders recognize the need for the motivation of all team members and act accordingly. They realize they may need to provide both the tools and support that motivates team members to achieve the set goals or achievements.

Transformational leadership requires the ability to prove oneself as the leader by gaining trust and confidence from followers. Though different from the transactional leadership, where team members are punished and/ or rewarded based on their performance in a specific task. (Eagly & Johnson, 2001). Furthermore, situational leadership accomplishes the best team achievement by having a motivated group/team.

Studies have found that to have a decisive effect on a team, there needs to be transformational leadership, while the contrary can be said about transactional leadership (Dey & Carvalho, 2014). Coordinating and organizing projects within a team environment is the definition of Transformational leaders. They are then expected to meet goals based on their motivation of the team to achieve said goals. They are also responsible for developing a framework for understanding, support, and motivation to the team to support and encourage a positive and successful outcome.

This framework can include psychologically supporting innovation, empowering people, and mediating variables to improve what the team can achieve. This framework is only successful when it involves leaders directing their teams on what and how to do things to achieve the team’s objectives successfully. These leaders then find it challenging to adapt to every circumstance because of inflexibility leading to poor team performance.

In such a controlled environment, it is hard to develop and stimulate energized and creative personalities. Diverse cultures apply to most teams. Therefore, any organization can succeed or fail based on the culture of the organization (White & Lean, 2008). The impact of cultural diversity can vary according to the circumstance of an organization; it can also influence important variables: satisfaction, creativity, communication, cohesion, and conflict. A leader who demonstrates their values by actions leads by example and devises a culture of ethics which empowers teams and generates excellent performance.

In conclusion, social skills, motivation, self-awareness, empathy, and self-regulation are the five components of emotional intelligence that are equally influential in how transformational leaders achieve. Combining both emotional intelligence and transformational leaders, you can set your team on a path of success. The style of leadership is also essential; situational, transactional, and transformational leadership can have both a positive and negative affect on a team, and so the ethical diversity and the overall organizational culture.

References

Eagly, A. H., & Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C. (2001). The Leadership Styles of Women and Men. Journal of Social Issues, 57(4), 781. https://doi-org.proxy library.ashford.edu/10.1111/0022-4537.00241

Mulla, Z. R., & Krishnan, V. R. (2012). Transformational Leadership and Karma-Yoga: Enhancing Followers’ Duty-orientation and Indifference to Rewards*. Psychology & Developing Societies, 24(1), 85.

Dey, R., & Carvalho, S. (2014). Are Transactional Leaders Also Emotionally Intelligent? – An Analysis of Sales Executives in India. International Journal of Business Insights & Transformation, 7(2), 42–49.

Paolucci, N., Dimas, I. D., Zappalà, S., Lourenço, P. R., & Rebelo, T. (2018). Transformational Leadership and Team Effectiveness: The Mediating Role of Affective Team Commitment. Revista de Psicologia Del Trabajo y de Las Organizaciones, 34(3), 135–144. https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.5093/jwop2018a16

White, D. W., & Lean, E. (2008). The impact of perceived leader integrity on subordinates in work team environment. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(4), 765-778.