This paper is a study on how leaders are developed through emotional and social intelligence. Tools that can be used to increase self- awareness and empathy in individuals through reflection and reflexivity. The paper also identifies learning styles as well as defines emotional and social intelligence and critiques different author's definition, the paper also explains the importance of ESI in leadership development. The paper talks about coaching and mentoring as a tool of ESI. The paper also identifies components of emotional and social intelligence. The paper talks about barriers in evaluation of ESI as well as validity and reliability of toolkits developed to train leaders. The paper also gives a brief introduction of leadership, leadership development, origins and types of leadership as well as tools to be used in leadership development, definitions of mood, emotions and intelligence.
Introduction
Leadership development can be defined as a means of identifying and grooming leaders for future purpose / roles and training them to fit organizational vision/goals. (www.ehow.com)
It has been discovered that followers would follow leaders because of his traits/behaviour (Blake and Mouton) and that leaders with task and people oriented skills are more productive. The purpose of leadership development is to produce leaders who have imbibed best practices and appropriate leadership styles. (Bass and Ovolio). Leadership development is about transformational leadership which involves or is about ability of a leader to inspire workers or team mates, communicate and develop the organisations purpose and vision as well as motivate them. Leadership development sees leaders as change agents.
Tools for leadership development include: Emotional and social development, coaching, mentoring, counselling, reflective writing, personal journals etc.
Leadership can be seen as the act of influencing and knowing one's self as well as being able to communicate goals and visions, building trust among subordinates or followers and taking steps to discover one's leadership potentials.(John Maxwell and warren Bennis). There are different types of leadership and theories some of which are Great man leadership theory, Situational, Contingency, traits, behavioural, relationship etc. for this paper situational and behavioural are mostly important. Behavioural Theory talks of behaviours of leaders that help influence people to follow them as well as the different behaviours required to lead people. (Bolden et al 2003) Situational theory talks about different situation calling for different styles of leadership. E.g. sometimes a leader needs to be autocratic and sometimes democratic etc. in summary different situations calls for different approaches and styles of leadership. Also different situations call for different behaviours. A key attribute of a leader is to be self-aware.
In summary ESI is a tool for leadership development because it helps leaders become self-aware, reflective and reflexive, bearing in mind that self- awareness is a key attribute of a leader.
Part A
Introduction of toolkit: The toolkit is designed to make leaders aware of themselves as well as the emotions of others, which is what emotional and social intelligence is all about. The toolkits consist of videos and diagrams.
Rationale: the toolkit is designed to help achieve the development stages (http://www.creative-edge-consulting.com/blog/3-stages-of-awareness-for-leader-development), which includes:
Self -Awareness: This involves getting leaders to know how they behave as a result of personality differences, mood and situations.
Reflective Awareness: This involves getting leaders/individuals to think on everyday actions and how to improve positively as well as what didn't go well.
Reflexive Awareness: This stage happens after the reflective stage it involves actual self- regulation. Being able to determine behaviour for different situations and moods such as decision making, problem solving etc.
Information and Education: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4fbuu_emotional-intelligence_creation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7axytcVnMY
PART B
Emotional Intelligence
This definition looks at EI from the perspective of mood and how it plays a vital role in influencing our emotions.Olson.2006.pg.196Definitions: Jennifer .George. (pg. 1033) emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage mood and emotions in self.
This definition talks about emotional reasoning. I.e. using one's head and mind.Mayer et al defines emotional intelligence as the capacity to understand as well as regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.
This definition sees EI as a skill needed to cope with work pressure According to Martinez 1997 cited by Dulewicz and Higgs 2000.pg 342 emotional intelligence can be defined as possessing of non-cognitive skills that affects one's capacity to face organizational/environmental challenges.
Differences and Similarities of definitions
Similarities
Differences
Definition one sees EI as being aware of one's self(behaviour)
This definition says you have to understand your mood and how it affect ones emotions.
Definition two sees EI as being aware of one's behaviour.
This definition talks about regulation of emotions.
Definition three sees EI as a behavioural skill needed to survive in a challenging organizational environment.
This definition sees EI as a skill needed to survive challenges at work.
The three different definitions of emotional intelligence given above talks about emotional intelligence as a skill to be developed or acquired, it also talks about empathy as a tool for emotional intelligence as well as emotional intelligence being about understanding ones mood and emotions and being able to control how our mood affects our emotions and how we react to people. All the definitions talks about emotional intelligence four components (Goleman et al 2000 cited by Jennifer 2000) which includes:
1 .Self- awareness
2. Self-regulation
3. Social- awareness
4. Self- motivation
Emotional intelligence influences people's level of cognitive reasoning capabilities and the extent to which they are controlled Salovey and Mayer cited by Jennifer.2000.pg.1034. in expressing emotions we should take into consideration that we all have different personalities and degrees to which we all are aware of our emotions. According to Salovey '' Emotions are shorter and generally more intense. It can be distinguished from moods'', The right expressions of emotions helps in decision making.(Jennifer .2000.pg 1034). Emotions can be used in making choices, focusing on pressing issues and decision making. Moods affect our emotions. Richard.N.2006) defines mood as an emotional intellectual attitude of an individual towards others. Positive moods can bring about creativity, critical thinking, optimism etc. people in positive mood tend to think highly of their future success and self-efficacy (Bower 1981 cited by Jennifer 2000.pg.1037) by measuring the same situation in varying mood states during which a broad range of options come to mind. (Kergas et al 1990 cited by Jennifer .2000.pg1037) while negative moods can bring about paying attention to every detail, detecting errors and mistakes and processing information received carefully as well as being meticulous. (Sinclair and mark 1992 cited by Jennifer 2000.pg 1036). People in negative moods are usually pessimistic in nature. Shift in emotions can lead to more flexible planning.
Emotional intelligence allows one to function in a variety of roles such as ''achievement and close relationship'' (Goleman, cited by Jennifer.2000.pg.1039)
ESI Competence Frame Work
Self- Regulation: self -control
Trust
Innovation
Conscientiousness Personal competence
Adaptability
Self-motivation: Achievement drive
Commitment
Optimism
Initiative
Social awareness: Empathy
Service orientation
Developing others
Leveraging diversity Social Competence
Political awareness
Social skills: Influence
Communication
Leadership
Team capabilities
Conflict management
Collaboration and cooperation
According to Consortium for research on EI in organisations 1998
Social intelligence on the other hand can be defined the ability to relate well with people and getting them to work with you. SI is sometimes called people skills. It is a lifelong learning and unlearning process. A socially intelligent person unlearns and learns behaviours that are acceptable throughout his/her existence in life, in other to maintain social harmony. (Albrecht, Gardner and Goleman).A socially intelligent leader is one who fully understands social transformation, traditions and troubles.
Si requires one to have an in-depth knowledge of practices, customs, social changes and problems that occur. SI creates a way for social reforms and activities which seek to develop group spirit and commitment, which brings about positive change in organizations.(Gardner and Albrecht). According to Kosmitzki and John.1993) a socially intelligent person is one who takes others feeling into consideration and listens to opinions of others. Socially intelligent people are those who have confidence, demonstrate genuine interest in others and expresses their feelings and emotions clearly.(Shaun 2007)
SI dimensions
Dimensions
Skills
Situational Awareness
Ability to study and analyse situations as well as selecting strategies to achieve positive results.
presence
One's open self that others perceive.
Authencity
Degree of genuineness
clarity
Ability to communicate clearly and one's good use of language.
empathy
Capacity to understand others.
SI and EI are interwoven and go hand in hand and are very important for leadership development and should be used leadership development. According (Daniel Goleman) ESI makes leaders become smarter. He further suggested that leaders could be made self- aware through coaching and mentoring. Coaching and mentoring helps leaders to identify their strength and weakness as well as develop their weakness to become strength, it also helps leaders become reflective and reflexive. This can be achieved through coaching, mentoring, reflective writing and use of personal journals.
According to Mayer et al cited by Sadri.2012.pg 536 there are four levels of EI: Perceiving emotions, facilitating thoughts, understanding emotions and managing emotions. This helps and aids effective decision making. So the use of ESI for leadership development aids effective decision making. According to George cited by Sadri.2012.pg 537'' EI is a key factor for leadership to be effective''. Leaders with high EI manage their emotions properly thus motivating subordinate /team mates. EI is important for leadership development because it has to with empathy and self-control. (Rego et al cited by Sadri.2012).
(Conger cited by Sadri.2012)There are four approaches to leadership development: personal, conceptual understanding, feedback and skill building. This approach is similar to Goleman's competency framework. Goleman's competency frameworks are skills needed by leaders. EI helps leaders become self- aware, control and manage their emotions while SI helps leaders become aware of other people's feelings, it is about making decisions that affect an organisation positively as well as individuals in the organisation.
ESI is important to leadership development but people must bear in mind that some of the people with high ESI are likely to have low self- confidence/esteem because that tend to be perfectionist and worry a lot about what people would do or say if they don't get things done rightly.
Theory on ESI Evaluation
There are a lot of literatures on evaluation of ESI, but the two most common surveys are that of Mayer et al and Goleman. (Matthew et al.2004.pg.180). He identified seven myths about EI but this paper identifies and talks on two.
Defining ESI as being coherent conceptually: ESI covers a wide range of competency (social, personal, and emotional) Goleman 1995 cited by Matthew et al 2004) sees ESI as having positive qualities that IQ does not have while( Baron 1997 cited by Matthew et al 2004) sees ESI as a non-cognitive capabilities, competency and skills that influence people's ability to succeed and coping with environmental demands and challenges.
The range and scope of ESI starts with or ranges from behaviours to personality, integrity, character and having to adopt to environmental challenges. (Matthew et al.2004.pg.180).
