Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Leadership
THE IMPACT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
ON LEADERSHIP
INTRODUCTION
Our World today has more civilized societies with ever expanding population, having diversity in racial polarization, creed and gender. One common thread or feature in all these people is that everyone has feelings and emotions, and emotions engender emotional intelligence. We, being humans, are superior over other living creatures- we can think, feel and rationalize. Because of that we are being deluded by many behaviours, traits, perceptions , mindset patterns and attitudes. All these call for some kind of set order where one can act and interact with one another in ways that are not repugnant, but in harmony and with the decorum that portrays one to be civilized. Leadership is a dynamic process of relationships building between individuals and groups. The constant nourishing of individuals is at the core of effective leadership. Effective leaders improve performance by assuming a level of competence and building upon existing strengths. This paper briefly looks into the impact of emotional intelligence on leadership.
LEADERSHIP DEFINED
It has been said that there are as many as definitions of leadership as there are those that write it. Leadership is the ability to influence individuals or groups toward the achievement of goals. 1 Leadership is a process where a leader influences the direction of a unit in achieving its objective. 2 Leadership is vision manifest through challenge, encouragement, and inspiring others to action. 3
There are two kinds of people in this world, followers and leaders. Followers are the people that never take a leadership role in any activity. However leaders are the ones that use their leadership skills to make a difference in this world, such as presidents, teachers, or even college graduates. Leadership is not something you can learn from a book, but you have to gain this skill through experiences such as holding an office, organizing an event, speaking in
ON LEADERSHIP
INTRODUCTION
Our World today has more civilized societies with ever expanding population, having diversity in racial polarization, creed and gender. One common thread or feature in all these people is that everyone has feelings and emotions, and emotions engender emotional intelligence. We, being humans, are superior over other living creatures- we can think, feel and rationalize. Because of that we are being deluded by many behaviours, traits, perceptions , mindset patterns and attitudes. All these call for some kind of set order where one can act and interact with one another in ways that are not repugnant, but in harmony and with the decorum that portrays one to be civilized. Leadership is a dynamic process of relationships building between individuals and groups. The constant nourishing of individuals is at the core of effective leadership. Effective leaders improve performance by assuming a level of competence and building upon existing strengths. This paper briefly looks into the impact of emotional intelligence on leadership.
LEADERSHIP DEFINED
It has been said that there are as many as definitions of leadership as there are those that write it. Leadership is the ability to influence individuals or groups toward the achievement of goals. 1 Leadership is a process where a leader influences the direction of a unit in achieving its objective. 2 Leadership is vision manifest through challenge, encouragement, and inspiring others to action. 3
There are two kinds of people in this world, followers and leaders. Followers are the people that never take a leadership role in any activity. However leaders are the ones that use their leadership skills to make a difference in this world, such as presidents, teachers, or even college graduates. Leadership is not something you can learn from a book, but you have to gain this skill through experiences such as holding an office, organizing an event, speaking in