A New Perspective on Leadership

By Florence Stone

Management books have often described effective leaders in terms of their ability to set strategy or vision. Authors David Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee say the primary job of leadership is emotional. In their book “Primal Leadership: Harnessing the Power of Emotional Intelligence,” they even contend that Emotional Intelligence is much more important than IQ in creating outstanding leaders.

Boyatzis, professor of organizational behavior and chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, met with the editorial staff of AMA’s Members Only Website to discuss how great leaders create “resonance,” a positive energy that motivates people to perform at their best.

According to Boyatzis, the foundation for primal leaders lies in four critical aspects of Emotional Intelligence:

1. Self-awareness: understanding one’s emotions, knowing one’s strengths and limitations and a sense of one’s own self-worth.

2. Self-management: a positive outlook on the future, the ability to manage unpleasant emotions, display of honesty and integrity, flexibility in adapting to changing situations and a readiness to act and seize opportunities.

3. Social awareness: seeing others’ emotions and taking an active interest in their concerns, understanding the current within the organization and meeting follower and customer needs.

4. Relationship management: guiding and motivating with a compelling vision, wielding persuasiveness, ability to improve others’ performance through feedback, acting as a catalyst for change and de-escalating disagreements and orchestrating positive relationships.

Boyatzsis maintains that these competencies are not innate talents but rather learned abilities. Further, if leadership building follows these basic principles, improvements can be lasting. But, he adds, “That requires intentional, long-term effort, motivation and an emotional commitment from participants.”

Here is Boyatzis and co-authors’ step-by-step game plan for leaders to discover and harnass the emotional reality within their organizations:

1. Respect the group’s values and the organization’s integrity. Identify what everyone in the organization holds paramount and ensure that it remains intact.

2. Slow down in order to speed up. Use open-ended questions to get at people’s feelings and ultimately to ensure that people are brought into the change process in a way that builds their commitment. Rely on leadership coaching and consensus building styles to do this.

3. Start at the top with a bottom-up strategy. Model new behaviors to make sure all employees know the leader doesn’t just “talk the talk,” but, also, “walks the walk.”

4. Turn vision into action. Make necessary changes in organizational structure and job design, systems and culture to better match people’s functions with the organization’s mission.

5. Create systems that sustain emotionally intelligent practices. Make sure the rules, regulations and human resource practices reinforce the desired organizational outcome.

6. Don’t align—attune. Create a vision that is compelling enough to allow people to identify with it on a deep, personal level without compromising their beliefs and values.

For more information on “Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence,” visit www.amazon.com.