Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking

AMBA 600

26 April2015

Part I. The Emotional Intelligence of Leaders

The Emotional Intelligence of Leaders written by Daniel Goleman helps the audience develop a better understanding of the difference between leadership and management. Goleman does this by explaining the anatomical makeup of how emotions register in the brain and are transferred throughout the body. He gives a good example by explaining the “gut feeling” people often experience but do not take heed of, which is actually a signal sent from the amygdala(structure of the brain) to the GI tract( Goleman, 1998). The article also explains emotional intelligence a bit more in depth by describing 5 fundamentals in which leaders possess. These 5 fundamentals include self -awareness, managing emotions, motivating others, showing empathy, and staying connected.

Self-awareness allows you to see your own actions through an outside prospective. How a person’s actions affect others is important when you are in a leadership position. Without self-awareness, people tend to lack a sense of reality with not only situations but with how others feel toward them.

The second trait of a leader is the ability to manage emotions. In simple terms, it is just that. Leaders need to be able to control the amount of emotion they let influence their actions. Lack of this type of control enables behavior to have a shortage of consistency as well as be controlled by impulse rather than rationale.

Leaders must always motivate others. Goleman chooses to use the word optimism during the course of this article. By motivating others, optimists view the glass half full rather than half empty. The position an optimist takes on this particular topic can help motivate the team, ultimately producing a higher level of output (Goleman, 1998).

The next characteristic of a leader is showing empathy. Showing empathy does not mean feeling sorry for your subordinates, but rather understanding their emotions and...