Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Styles

Emotional intelligence (EI) plays a pivotal role in leadership, shaping how individuals manage their own emotions and respond to the emotions of others in the workplace. Defined by Daniel Goleman as “the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships” (1998), the term was originally created by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990. They, alongside author and psychologist, Daniel Goleman, pioneered research into this concept, which resoundingly shows that understanding and developing EI enables leaders to inspire, motivate and build stronger, more resilient teams, ultimately driving business success.

EI comprises four capabilities (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2017), each with a set of emotional competencies (ECs) thought to drive organisational performance:

Leadership Styles and their Link to EI

Using 3,871 executives as participants in his study, Goleman (2000) identified six leadership styles, that he derived from the above ECs. The leadership styles, and associated actions, ECs and uses include:

1. Authoritative (or ‘visionary leaders’) – mobilise people toward a vision:
   1. Actions: share vision with others without telling them how to achieve it.
   2. ECs: emotional self-awareness, empathy, adaptability.
   3. Used when there is a need for a new vision or clear direction; and to enhance retention and commitment by enabling people to see how their values, goals and missions aligns with the company’s.
2. Affiliative leaders – create emotional bonds and harmony:
   1. Actions: Empathise with employees, show how you value them as people and their experiences.
   2. ECs: empathy, teamwork, conflict management.
   3. Used to heal rifts amongst employees, motivate during difficult times, and strengthen connections.
3. Coaching leaders – develop people for the future:
   1. Actions: often occurs in one-on-one interactions; show interest in employees; help them to connect their wants and goals with the organisation’s.
   2. ECs: coach and mentor, empathy, self-awareness.
   3. Used to support employees’ performance by strengthening long term capabilities, build trust, and build motivation.
4. Coercive/commanding leaders – demand immediate compliance:
   1. Actions: top-down decision-making, request little input from team.
   2. ECs: achievement orientation; self-control; adaptability.
   3. Used in a crisis, to promote drastic change, and with challenging employee behaviour.
5. Democratic leaders – build consensus through participation:
   1. Actions: invite team to share in providing knowledge and/or decision-making; listen to and recognise others’ thoughts, opinions, and feelings.
   2. ECs: inspirational leadership; teamwork; influence.
   3. Used to increase team consensus, gain valuable knowledge from employees, increase employee commitment, sense of value and participation.
6. Pace-setting leaders – expect excellence and self-direction:
   1. Actions: set high targets, provide little leader involvement/input.
   2. ECs: achievement orientation.
   3. Used to achieve results quickly from motivated and skilled employees.

Resonant leadership refers to leadership styles that utilise ECs to enhance performance, and are thought to encompass such styles as affiliative, authoritative/visionary, democratic and coaching. This is in opposition to dissonant leaders, who fail to empathise and accurately read the emotional experience of others, sending distressing messages and shifting individuals’ focus to this distress, rather than the important message they are trying to convey. A resonant leader, by comparison, is said to read and understand the emotions of those around them, and therefore can resonate with them, enabling them to inspire others and mobilize team members toward achieving the necessary business goals that the difficult situation requires. Resonant leaders create strong relationships, building hope, compassion, mindfulness and playfulness within them, as well as trust (Goleman et al, 2002; Boyatzis & McKee, 2005).

Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee (2002) state that highly effective leaders typically possess strengths in approximately six ECs; have strength in at least one from each of the four capability areas (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management); have the ability to use up to six leadership styles (as above) rather than relying on just one or two; and they use these appropriately in response to a given business demand. 

How does EI in Leadership Impact Businesses?

Decades of research on small, medium and large size enterprises have demonstrated powerful causal and predictive relationships between leaders’ EI competencies and manager, leader and professional performance (Walter et al, 2011); supportive organisational cultures and job satisfaction (Ali & Hamza, 2018; Gavin et al, 2017), organisational commitment and retention (Brunetto et al, 2012); reduced task and relationship conflict (Ayoko et al, 2008); enhanced decision-making and quality of relationships.

Leadership competencies related to EI have also predicted career learning, readiness and success, through such levers as employee engagement, enhanced job performance and career advancement, and positive employment experiences (Howard et al, 2017). EI enhances one’s selection for leadership positions, for example, individuals’ abilities in group task coordination (similar to ‘democratic’ and ‘affiliative’ styles) and supporting others’ development (similar to ‘coaching’ style) predicted selection into leadership positions (Wolff et al, 2002). The degree of shared vision amongst a team, facilitated by ‘authoritative’ leadership styles, predicted engineers’ engagement, which led to enhanced performance (Boyatzis et al, 2017).

How can Leaders Enhance their EI?

It is important to know that EI can be developed within individuals, and to challenge the faulty belief that personality features or general intelligence, both of which are relatively fixed, determine one’s leadership style. They merely shape it. More accurately, ECs, and subsequently varying leadership styles, can be learned and matched to various workplace demands and environments to enhance performance. To demonstrate this point, Boyatzis et al (2017) conducted research involving engineers at a manufacturing company, finding that social and emotional intelligence predicted effectiveness significantly more than did personality or general mental ability. Similarly, research involving senior executives showed EI as related to higher leadership effectiveness compared with personality or intelligence (IQ) (Rosete, D & Ciarrochi, J, 2005). 

Strategies for Enhancing Your EI

1. Request feedback of your leadership style from others and evaluate your own.
   1. Workplace processes: regular 1:1 meetings with your team and your own leader, 360 degree processes, performance reviews, feedback sessions.
   2. Brief instruments, validated through research in organisational contexts, can help you identify your current EI strengths. These include the Emotional and Social Competence Inventory (Goleman & Boyatzis) which measures the above 12 ECs; and others include the Emotional Capital Report (RocheMartin); and the EQ 360 (Talent Smart).
   3. Evaluate your use of ECs and leadership styles in response to different business situations, as per Goleman’s six leadership styles outlined above. Experiment with new approaches to situations and evaluate the response among employees.
2. Enhance self-awareness competencies by regularly practicing mindfulness – your awareness of your present moment experience. This means paying attention, intentionally, to your inner experience (emotions, thoughts, physical sensations, urges to act) and your outer experience (the situation happening around you), without trying to change it. Begin by simply allowing 30 seconds to notice these aspects of your experience throughout the day, whether in response to an event or simply while you have a quiet moment to yourself. Self-awareness skills are fundamental to enhancing self-management skills, which is vital in managing emotionally-driven impulses that can negatively impact business decisions, performance and relationships.
   1. Podcasts: Daily Meditation Podcast; Tara Brach (especially the ‘Mindful Leadership’ episode); 10% Happier with Dan Harris (especially ‘Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, The Mind of the Leader episode)
   2. Books: Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope and Compassion by Boyatzis & McKee.
   3. Seek support from a counsellor or psychologist who can help you explore your own experiences and enhance your mindfulness skills.
3. Reflective exercises to help you identify ECs and leadership styles in leaders you have worked for. This helps to build awareness of your own values and needs from leaders, and in turn, develop empathy for and a sense of how others may respond to your leadership style.
   1. Think of leaders who you i) excelled under and enjoyed working for and ii) tried to avoid. How did they make you and others feel? What did they do and say?
4. Identify opportunities to build the relationships with your team members by learning more about them – whether increasing your presence around your team; increasing the frequency of one-on-ones, social gatherings, or team meetings.
5. Adjust the content of interactions with team members – take the time to check in about how they are feeling, not solely focusing on performance or progress. Ask about their goals and wants for their careers. When you have this information, it will be easier to understand how they may be feeling in their job, so that you can better support them and so that your team feels better known and understood by you.
6. Engage the support of EI experts or organisational psychologists who can assess and coach individuals/leaders to develop their EI (Goleman advises this as an efficacious method for improving EI).

Other helpful resources to learn more about and develop your EI:

Emotional Intelligence Consortium – Articles, Research and Information on Emotional Intelligence (eiconsortium.org) (source of podcasts, reports and measures of EI).

The Emotionally Intelligent Leader, by Daniel Goleman (2019).

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: A Guide for Students by Shankman, Allen & Haber-Curran (2015) and their associated workbook, Emotionally Intelligent Leadership for Students: Student Workbook (2015).

Harvard Business Review’s 10 Must Reads on Emotional Intelligence, by Harvard Business Review (2015).