The Importance of Emotional Intelligence for Leadership
This paper tries to show the importance of the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership. The paper makes some questions for more focusing on the main title. The paper also proposes some details for establishing a link between emotional intelligence and leadership. That may hence lead to build knowledge about how to lead emotion by using our intelligence for more effective.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.
Emotional intelligence is based on a long history of research and theory in personality and social psychology. The three most widely used approaches to emotional intelligence were developed by Reuven BarOn, Daniel Goleman, and Jack Mayer, Peter Salovey and David Caruso. While the theory and practice of EI continues to evolve, the central premise that social and personal competencies are vital for a productive life remains a common theme throughout each model. And research continues to demonstrate EI’s importance to both emotional intelligence and leadership.
For leaders, having emotional intelligence is important for success. After all, who is more likely to succeed – a leader who shouts at his team when he's under stress, or a leader who stay in control, and calmly assesses the situation?
According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who helped to popularize EI, there are five main elements of emotional intelligence:
1. Self-awareness.
2. Self-regulation.
3. Motivation.
4. Empathy.
5. Social skills.
We think of leadership as a relationship between leaders and followers. But we overlook a more important relationship, the one between leaders and their target audiences’ emotions.
Abdurrezagh Ramadan Ali Shabshaba(3-2015)
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