The Human Touch: Power of Emotional Intelligence for Effective Corporate Leadership
Abstract:
Emotional Intelligence has become paramount and a growing number of managers and executives have recently come to recognize its significance for effective corporate leadership. As one advances up the corporate ladder, the more important EI becomes. Emotional Intelligence (EI) elements are being integrated as instruments to assess leadership competence and style, and how it affects the corporate culture. The business and corporate leaders have realized that cognitive intelligence, or “IQ” accounts for only part of what leaders need to be efficient and effective. A meta-analysis combined results from 151 independent studies and over 40,000 leaders found that IQ accounts for only 7% of the variability in effective leadership. Corporate leaders are in a good position to help their teams or employees develop emotional intelligence because they can see their people behaving in various real-life situations on multiple occasions over time. They can also provide better and direct feedback after an incident. Some authors have stated emotional intelligence as the “sine qua non of leadership”, where it accounts for about 90% of the difference between star performers and average performers in senior leadership positions. An internet search on keywords “emotional intelligence” and “leadership” provided over 1.3 million pages where Amamzon.com, the online retailer, offers more than 280 books!
