Emotional Intelligence in the Leadership Environment

Effective leadership requires multiple pieces of knowledge, competencies, skills, and talents. Besides, the foundation of leadership is a relationship with others. Leaders achieve their objectives through their efforts and the coordinated efforts of followers. They cannot work without followers (Bufalino, 2018). An organizational environment usually encompasses a multitude of events that in turn affect the performance of workers. Leaders act as drivers of performance in such environments because of their ability to influence workers. However, leaders must possess specific skills and knowledge to influence followers positively. Emotional intelligence has been identified as a crucial component that enhances the effectiveness of leaders. Thus, it is vital to examine the relevance of emotional intelligence in the leadership environment to determine how it influences leadership practices. Nevertheless, the meaning of intelligence should be clear before understanding the meaning of emotional intelligence. Studies define intelligence as the distinctive human mental capacity to deal with and think about information (George, 2019). Thus, emotional intelligence concerns a particular form of reasoning ability regarding emotions. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a crucial concept today owing to its presence in numerous discussions. The concept has existed for some time now as the basis of its modern definition was established over the past three decades in which notable psychology figures properly defined it (Mayer et al., 2016). The definition of EI is based on three dominant frameworks (Gómez-Leal et al., 2018). John Mayer and Peter Salovey developed the initial psychological theory of emotional intelligence. Other experts such as Goleman and Bar-on later offered alternative definitions. 

The present paper explores the concept of emotional intelligence and its relationship to leadership. The paper will first describe the concept deeply before examining its role in the leadership environment.

The Concept of Emotional Intelligence

According to Pugliese and Senna (2018), research on emotional intelligence suggest that EI concerns the ability of an individual to understand and control emotions. The EI notion has five different elements including self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy, and motivation (Pugliese & Senna, 2018). Different models offer a clearer picture of the concept of EI. Mayer and Salovey coined the EI notion initially, which laid the basis for later conceptual definitions. Before this definition, psychologists regarded emotion as detrimental to both life and work. Nevertheless, the two experts described EI as a form of higher cognition, different from general intelligence (Mayer et al., 2016). Based on their definition, a person with EI can perceive, access, and produce emotions and use them to think properly, understand emotions, and regulate emotions reflectively to enhance intellectual and emotional growth (Mayer et al., 2016). The authors used a multi-factor intelligence measure to separate personality features from emotional intelligence and suggested that EI is independent of personality features (Mayer et al., 2016). Based on this description, EI has four interrelated abilities including perception, facilitation, understanding, and regulation or management (Mayer et al., 2016). Perception concerns people perceiving emotions within themselves, others, and their environment. Facilitation occurs when people use emotions to interpret their environment and changes differently. 

Understanding concerns the conceptual emotional knowledge, the way emotions change, and the influence of emotions. Regulation or management concerns the ability of people to steer their emotions and those of their colleagues. While the abilities are interconnected, some abilities are higher in the hierarchy than are others. For example, regulation is a higher-level ability as it connects thinking and emotions and necessitates people to possess high EI levels than the lower level abilities such as perception (Mayer et al., 2016). Research support this conception by proposing that people with strong abilities in one area of the Mayer-Salovey model are also competent in other abilities (Wang & Lian, 2015). 

Goleman developed the second EI model by emphasizing the role of EI in functional (Livesey, 2017). He describes EI as the ability to regulate individual emotions. In contrast to the Mayer-Salovey model, Goleman’s description considers EI as relying on both personality traits and cognitive abilities. He argues that EI is a universal ability possessed by all people and as a measurable dimension, embodying individual differences in which emotional measures in a specific range can sort people (Livesey, 2017). Goleman describes four major elements that contribute to the functioning of EI. They are self-regulation, self-awareness, relationship management, and social awareness. People with self-regulation have the ability to think before acting and can interrupt emotional judgements on events (Livesey, 2017). Self-regulation also entails the ability to manage mood swings and urges and avoid disruptions in the quality of life of an individual. Features of self-regulation include ease in embracing ambiguity, reliability, integrity, and openness to change. 

Self-awareness is the ability to understand the basis of personal behavior and the effect of the behavior on others. Features of self-awareness include healthy self-confidence abilities, realistic self-assessment, and modest humor. Self-awareness relies on the ability of people to monitor their individual emotion states and to identify their emotions accurately. Relationship management concerns people having strong social abilities that allow them to establish relationships with their peers effortlessly and manage the associations correctly. Features of relationship skills include persuasiveness, managerial aptitudes, and team leadership abilities. Social awareness entails people possessing empathic abilities and the ability to understand their emotional abilities and consider their emotions based on their subsequent responses. Features of self-awareness include being sensitive to sociocultural components such as sexual orientation, ethnicity, or gender. Others are being able to recruit talent and possessing customer service skills. Goleman’s model also highlights the importance of internal motivation by suggesting that internally motivated professionals are effective at their work for other reasons besides material benefits, money, or status (Livesey, 2017). These professionals focus on achieving greater things daily because they are optimistic. Goleman also argues that top managers or senior directors must possess greater social skills and must be experts in EI.

Bar-on offers another comprehensive description of the EI notion that reflects the third model of EI. Bar-on describes EI as embodying different and interrelated social and emotional facilitators, skills, and competencies that influence intelligent behavior (Bar-On, 2010). The model also identifies five major markers of EI, which include interpersonal, decision-making, self-expression, self-participation, and stress management. It further divides the markers into 15 sub-categories in which the interpersonal marker encompasses interpersonal associations, social responsibility, and empathy. Decision-making includes impulse control, reality testing, and problem solving while self-expression includes independence, assertiveness, and emotional expression. Self-participation includes emotional self-awareness, self-actualization, and self-regard while stress management includes optimism, stress tolerance, and flexibility (Bar-On, 2010). Bar-on (2010) also outlines the Emotional Quotient Inventory technique for measuring and quantifying EI. The method focuses on identifying and predicting EI markers and their effect on the managerial aptitude of an individual. It includes the aforementioned sub-categories. 

The third model can predict several factors including physical/psychological wellbeing and health, occupational leadership and performance, organizational and didactic effectiveness, career path, and academic performance (Gómez-Leal et al., 2018). However, other studies question the validity of the model by suggesting that it correlates with personality features, which reduces its measurement effectiveness (Esnaola et al., 2018). Despite the existence of these three major descriptions of EI, there is debate regarding the exact definition of EI. Mayer-Salovey model considers EI as a new type of intelligence, even though they also describe EI in terms of ability. The model considers EI as an independent intellectual dimension based on objective measurement techniques (Esnaola et al., 2018). Goleman’s model considers EI in terms of traits while Bar-on considers it as a unitary model. 

Both Goleman and Bar-on’s models consider EI as being distinct from the general cognitive ability and personality based on self-reports (Esnaola et al., 2018). Additionally, each model possesses individual psychometric measure even though each focuses on different components (Gómez-Leal et al., 2018). There are also controversies regarding the benefits and drawbacks of each model in which most researchers recognize the Mayer-Salovey model but criticize it for inadequate predictive validity in a workplace setting (Nafukho et al., 2016). Other researchers dismiss the Goleman model as lacking a fundamental psychological basis (Nafukho et al., 2016), while others criticize Bar-on’s model as being too wide and overlapping with competency and personality models (Nafukho et al., 2016). Studies also identify the different EI dimensions by differentiating EI from emotions. For instance, Gómez-Leal et al. (2018) argue that people develop emotions in their environment through knowledge and situations. 

However, EI concerns being aware and developing the skill to identify and understand emotions, moods, and feelings and using them adaptively (Gómez-Leal et al., 2018). Learning is a vital component of EI because it allows people to gain knowledge of various ways of managing emotions and using the knowledge to guide conduct (Gómez-Leal et al., 2018). Thus, EI guides activities such as making decisions, solving problems, and managing self and depicting leadership. EI influences nearly every aspect of people’s lives. Its major dimensions include guiding behavior and influencing decision-making. Other dimensions such as conflict resolution influence individual emotions and ways of communicating with others matter.

Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

Various studies have examined the role of emotional intelligence on leadership and linked the relationship behaviors of leaders to high emotional abilities (Lam & O’Higgins, 2015). Studies demonstrate that EI is influential and effective when applied in the leadership environment (Pastor, 2014). Leaders embodying and practicing high EI develop the ability to communicate their ideas clearly, enhance the motivational and persuasion skills, respond appropriately to confusing and stressful events in the organization, and control their feelings and those of their followers to a certain extent (Pastor, 2014). In turn, this results in a productive, effective, and efficient organizational environment. 

Nguyen et al. (2019) suggest that leaders must have more than just general intelligence because highly intelligent leaders do not necessarily possess high EI. While the ability to lead people requires a certain level of intelligence, comprehending the meaning of being emotionally intelligent surpasses the general intelligence required to be a leader (Nguyen et al., 2019). In turn, this requires an understanding of emotional intelligence. According to Hopkins and Yonker (2015), organizations are finally acknowledging the ability to assess emotional intelligence by appreciating the need for leaders to practice humanity, compassion, and empathy. Thus, leaders must demonstrate EI to be effective at their work. 

The humanistic qualities of leaders allow them to develop mental connections with their followers, which in turn strengthens the relationship between leaders and followers (Lam & O’Higgins, 2015). Emotional intelligence enables leaders to be aware of the needs of others and empathize with them during uncertain times. Research finds that high EI levels develop organizational climates filled with trust, information sharing, learning, and healthy risk-taking. However, low EI levels result in adverse climates filled with anxiety and fear (Hopkins & Yonker, 2015). Besides, Lam and O’Higgins (2015) state that leaders who understand their EI focus on serving their followers and create a setting conducive to high morale and retention levels since people desire working form the leaders.

Organizations usually consider people for a leadership position after those people prove their competence and intelligence and demonstrate the needed experience for the position. However, these attributes are obsolete because they work only in top-down organizations in which followers only obey the directives of their leaders. The modern leadership environment is ambiguous, complex, uncertain, and volatile and is characterized by sudden and constant changes, continuous volatility, and complex events without easy solutions (Seow et al., 2019). Success in such an environment demands flexibility that can be found only in engaged and inspired employees possessing freedom and intrinsic motivation to engage in individual thinking and take initiatives (Seow et al., 2019). Nevertheless, leaders that gain power due to their positions and attributes such as competence or confidence lack the necessary skills to inspire a motivated organizational environment that the modern world requires (Hopkins & Yonker, 2015). Studies show that ensuring effectiveness in such contexts requires leaders with features such as empathy and humanity because such leaders engage and attract loyal workforces (Hopkins & Yonker, 2015). These leadership features rely on leaders possessing EI to support their rational skills. Smart leaders with rational competencies but without EI are ineffective because of their inability to process their emotions and those of others.

Besides, leadership today is complex and requires a mixture of different skills to ensure effectiveness. While attributes such as leadership style, knowledge, experience, competence, and intelligence are vital for leaders, emotional intelligence is also relevant because without it leaders can compromise the motivation of followers (Lam & O’Higgins, 2015). Studies also emphasize the importance of focusing on a holistic approach when demonstrating the role of emotional intelligence in leadership. They state that possessing EI does not mean that other leadership attributes are irrelevant (Nguyen et al., 2019). The suggestion is to establish techniques that foster a proper balance between emotional and cognitive competencies as this fosters rational thoughts by identifying the role of emotion in inspiring others (Nguyen et al., 2019). Therefore, EI is an essential element of effective leadership, especially the type of innovative leadership required to navigate an uncertain and ambiguous leadership environment (Bawafaa et al., 2015). Innovative leaders possess a growth mindset and an outward focus that empowers them to engage in collaborative work with others to address undefined and complex issues besides generating new opportunities (Bawafaa et al., 2015). Such leaders draw on their EI competencies to cultivate a positive leadership environment and address the needs of followers to support connection, security, and trust amid confusion (Bawafaa et al., 2015). Thus, EI is critical for innovative leaders navigating a challenging environment. Studies show that effective leaders are determined by the extent to which they influence the emotions of their followers (Pastor, 2014), which illustrate further the importance of EI among leaders.

Research also finds that the emotional competence of leaders generates various positive organizational outcomes (Burch et al., 2013). These studies link emotional engagement to the commitment and performance of leaders in which positive emotions boost the job performance of followers, ensure the survival of followers during uncertain times, and reduces organizational turnover (Burch et al., 2013). Thus, emotionally intelligent leaders enhance collaboration, openness, creativity, and productivity by decreasing the internal issues followers face due to negative interactions and workplace stress. Pastor (2014) states that great leaders ignite followers’ passion besides inspiring them. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of leaders relies on how they do this because nothing they do works without guiding emotions correctly. Accordingly, the emotional influence of the leaders’ actions or words is a vital leadership dimension (Wang et al., 2019). Dóci and Hofmans (2015) argue that the key to effective leadership concerns the leader’s emotional task as the task reflects the original and vital leadership act. 

Within teams, leaders possess the power to influence followers’ emotions. Leaders who guide emotions correctly bring out the best in everyone (Wang et al., 2019). The resonance effect that arises is what matters because its opposite undermines the emotional basis that motivates people (Bawafaa et al., 2015). Subsequently, the key to effective leadership that benefits everyone lies in the emotional intelligence ability of the leader. The way leaders handle their relationships and themselves and the extent to which followers perceive the emotions of their leader relies on the way leaders convey their emotions (Dóci & Hofmans, 2015). Emotionally intelligent leaders can skillfully transmit their emotions with enthusiasm and optimism, which enables them to attract and retain talented workers. The various dimensions such as social skills, self-awareness, perception, and understanding constitute the basic components of effective leadership. Leaders cannot control their emotions well if they are unaware of their emotions. 

Besides, leaders who are overwhelmed by their emotions lose the ability to handle relationships. Research shows that the EI features and markers modify the brain make-up of leaders and followers (Koning & Van Kleef, 2015). Based on these findings, the leadership position neurologically wires leaders to deal with the responsibilities corresponding to that position. Therefore, leaders possess sharp intrusions in which they make decisions based on instant action as they have the required tools to persuade others (Koning & Van Kleef, 2015). However, the aforementioned behaviors are not ingrained into the brains of leaders, as they are not in-born. Nafukho et al. (2016) show that people can be coached on EI based leadership. Thus, the right coaching approach can awaken the aforementioned features or markers identified by the three EI models in any individual, which explains why effective leaders must embrace regular feedback and seek help when required. Feedback and assistance ensure that leaders understand the emotions of their followers, which in turn enhances their relationship skills and their ability to communicate with and influence others (Nafukho et al., 2016). Achieving this entails developing the ability to read the emotions and responses of others effectively and accurately and modifying the leadership approach using appropriate competencies to address issues (Nafukho et al., 2016). Consequently, leaders need to develop their EI constantly through techniques such as professional development in networking and negotiation, coaching, and team-building activities. 

Despite extensive studies demonstrating the positive role of EI in leadership, some studies caution against the potential adverse effects of high levels of EI. For instance, Fiori and Ortony (2016) suggest the potential negative effects of EI among leaders. The authors argue that leaders do not necessarily need EI because high EI levels make leaders excessively empathetic to their emotions and those of their followers, which hinders their effectiveness in organizations. Leaders with high EI are considered to possess inadequate assertiveness when dealing with controversial matters, which in turn compromises their effective functioning (Furnham & Rosen, 2016). Other studies counter this view by suggesting that people with high EI should be less susceptible to the aforementioned effect. These studies explain the contrasting effects of EI based on the hypersensitivity idea that consider EI as augmenting emotional experience (Fiori & Ortony, 2016). Thus, leaders with a high EI experience stronger emotions, focus more on emotions and augment the influence of emotions on social perception and behavior (Fiori & Ortony, 2016). The role of EI as an amplifier is an asset that allows leaders with a high EI to understand deeply their emotional reactions and those of others, even though it can be difficult for leaders to manage this deep knowledge. Fiori and Ortony (2016) suggest that leaders with high EI use regulatory techniques to balance their deeper understanding of emotions, which allows them to retain the values of EI. The adverse effects of high EI levels arise only when leaders cannot balance their deeper knowledge of emotions.

Conclusion

Emotional intelligence is a unitary idea comprising of different facets that eventually develops a leader through combined power. The concept is not novel as it has been under development for nearly three decades. It is only recently that leaders are learning about the importance of EI to the leadership environment. Leaders can use EI to manage and motivate their followers. Effective leadership relies on emotional intelligence because EI enables leaders to develop the ability to identify and control their emotions and those of others positively. The potential adverse effects of EI arise only when leaders fail or lack the ability to manage their deeper understanding of emotions.

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