Effective Leadership and Emotional Intelligence (EI) Part 4

By TERRI RABICOFF
Scottsdale Leadership Class XIX

This is the fourth of a multi-article series discussing the relationship of leadership and emotional intelligence.

Organizations continually face the challenge of finding their next generation of leaders. According to an article published in the Northeast Human Resources Association (NEHRA), “Identifying leaders is not about simply reviewing a performance appraisal and making a selection based upon what the individual knows or does not know about getting the job done. Just because someone excels in a functionally specialized role – say, as an accountant or a computer programmer – does not guarantee that he or she has the qualities to effectively lead an organization from an enterprise-wide perspective” (2004).

The ability of organizations to improve performance through emotional intelligence (EI) adds to their bottom line and shareholder value by hiring and retaining a higher caliber of employees, reduced turnover, employee satisfaction and financial results.  Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee (2001) examined the question of what drives an organization’s bottom line performance and determined that EI was a major factor in successful leadership.

Over the past 10-12 years there has been the development of several multi-rater or 360-degree surveys that have been designed to measure emotional intelligence in the workplace. Many of these are based on a model of emotional intelligence called the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI).  These surveys and raters have been useful in providing feedback on (a) someone’s individual strengths and weaknesses compared to others in the same organization or in a similar role, and (b) they also provide feedback on the gaps or discrepancies between a person’s self-perceptions and how they are rated or perceived by others.  These feedback systems are great for enhancing self-knowledge, leading to improved leadership behaviors, effectiveness and performance.