Case Study

LEADERSHIP SKILLS & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Information taken from article by the Center for Creative Leadership

How is emotional intelligence related to the specific behaviors we associate with leadership effectiveness?

Findings: Higher levels of emotional intelligence are associated with better performance in the following areas:

• Participate Management

• Putting People at Ease

• Self-Awareness

• Balance Between Personal Life and Work

• Straightforwardness and Composure

• Building and Mending Relationships

• Doing Whatever it Takes

• Decisiveness

• Confronting Problem Employees

• Change Management

Participative Management reflects the importance of getting buy-in at the beginning of an initiative. It is an extremely important relationship-building skill in today’s management climate in which organizations value interdependency within and between groups. Of all the skills and perspectives management had the largest number of meaningful correlations with measures of emotional intelligence. In other words, managers who are seen as good at listening to others and gaining their input before implementing change are likely to be assessed as good at cooperating with others, able to find pleasure in life, able to foster relationships, control impulses, and understand their own emotions and the emotions of others.

Putting People at Ease gets at the heart of making others relaxed and comfortable in your presence. From the perspective of direct reports, putting people at ease was related to happiness, suggesting that your disposition is related to how comfortable others are in your presence.

Self-Awareness describes those managers who have and accurate understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Ratings on self-awareness were related to impulse control and stress tolerance. If you find that your explode into anger easily, it is likely that others don’t see you as very self-aware. In addition,...