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Plastic Surgical Nursing www.psnjournalonline.com 55

Leadership and Emotional Intelligence: Does It Matter?

Marcia Spear , DNP, ACNP-BC, CWS, CPSN, CANS

DOI: 10.1097/PSN.0000000000000088

Marcia Spear, DNP, ACNP-BC, CWS, CPSN, received her Doctor of

Nursing Practice from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. She is fac-

ulty at both the School of Medicine and School of Nursing at Vanderbilt.

She has more than 25 years of experience in plastic surgery and wound

care and is presently working as a nurse practitioner and certifi ed wound

specialist for the Department of Plastic Surgery at Vanderbilt University

Medical Center. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Jeannette C.

Rudy School of Nursing at Cumberland University, where she teaches

undergraduate nursing students.

The author reports no confl icts of interest.

Address correspondence to Marcia Spear, DNP, ACNP-BC, CWS, CPSN,

Department of Plastic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center,

S-2221, Medical Center North, Nashville, TN 37232 (e-mail: marcia.

[email protected] ).

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. John F. Kennedy

Leadership is the ability to lead other people in the accomplishment of a common task. How does a leader accomplish this? What are the necessary qualities and/or traits a successful leader must possess to lead? No doubt, the task at hand with the leaders of ASPSN is to further the mission and vision of the organi- zation. I never really thought of myself as a leader until I became actively involved in ASPSN where many of my past mentors recognized my abilities and nurtured them. When you have to do personal inventory of the quali- ties that you possess as a leader, it can sure by an eye opening experience. I sometimes think I know what my effective and “good” qualities are but, then again, when I look critically at my inventory, I fi nd myself lacking. In this instance I must positively nurture the qualities I do possess as I fulfi ll my obligations as President of ASPSN and on my journey, develop and nurture those I did not even know I had. So, to do my personal inventory I decided to examine emotional intelligence (EI). I fi rst heard of EI when I was participating in a formal ad- vanced practice nurse mentor/mentee program and fi nd EI to be simple and applicable to myself as a leader. It also appeared to encompass many of the qualities that I developed growing up: honesty, integrity, empathy, and motivation.

Emotional intelligence was originally proposed in 1990 as an effective barometer for effectively dealing with emotions within the self and others (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Salovey and Mayer (1990) described EI as the ability to perceive, appraise, and express emo- tion, access and process emotional information, gen- erate feelings, understand emotional knowledge, and regulate emotions for emotional and intellectual growth. The concept of EI has been widely used in the corporate world since Goleman published his book titled Emo- tional Intelligence in 1995. Goleman (1995) described EI as a capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and managing emo- tions well within our selves and in our relationships. In other words, EI is the ability to recognize your emotions, understand what they are telling you, and realize how your emotions affect the people around you. The defi ni- tion was revised in 1997 to read, “Emotional intelligence involves the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotions; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to under- stand emotion and emotional knowledge, and the ability to regulate emotion to promote emotional and intellec- tual growth” (Salovey & Mayer, 1997, p. 35). Emotional intelligence and the associated characteristics have been associated with successful leaders in many arenas but have not been well embraced in health care leadership (Bradbuey, Greaves, & Lencioni, 2009; Cooper & Sawaf, 1998; Goleman, 1995; Palmer, Walls, Burgess, & Stough, 2011; Renaud, Rutledge, & Shepherd, 2012). I want to explore and do a critical appraisal of my personal char- acteristics as a leader using the components of EI. The intent is to increase my awareness of my positive charac- teristics as well as identify those I need to develop. Emo- tional intelligence has fi ve components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill ( Goleman, 2004; Goleman, 2011 ).

The fi rst recognized component of EI is self- awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions, and drives as well as their effect on others. Competencies identifi ed within this ability are self-confi dence, realistic self-assessment,

Letter From the President of ASPSN

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56 www.psnjournalonline.com Volume 35 Number 2 April–June 2015

Letter From the President of ASPSN

and self-deprecating sense of humor ( Goleman, 2004 ). It is always good to have humor and how better than to be able to laugh at yourself and with others. One must understand one’s own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives. Self-awareness involves being hon- est with our selves as well as others. We would all like to believe that we are good at everything but, unfortu- nately, this is just not the case in spite of what we might think. Someone who is highly self-aware knows where they are going and why. One of my lifelong sayings has been, “I know my fl aws better than anyone.” Sometimes it is hard to accept those fl aws but being able to recog- nize and accept them as a leader through self-aware- ness will enable me to work with the other leaders in identifying the strengths necessary for accomplishing the goals of ASPSN. Self-awareness is a mechanism for self-inventory as a leader that I will utilize it often.

Self-regulation is the ability to control or redirect disrup- tive impulses and moods. It also includes the propensity to suspend judgment and to think before acting ( Gole- man, 2004 ). Hallmarks of self-regulation include trustwor- thiness and integrity, comfort with ambiguity, and open- ness to change ( Goleman, 2004 ). Now to me, this seems to be in confl ict with EI, a bunch of women not acting and reacting with emotions. That can be a deal breaker. Self- regulation is inner conversation and fi nding ways to con- trol and even channel emotions in useful and productive ways. I have always talked to myself. When my daughter was growing up and we were going to daycare and work each morning, I would talk out my whole day to myself as I was driving. My daughter got used to this and would ask me almost daily, “Mom, you talking to yourself again?” Yes, I would say, planning my day. Self-regulation fosters trust and fairness and can become contagious. This trust and fairness is essential for the growth of ASPSN. Life of- fers no certainty and self-regulation allows one to go with the fl ow, welcome change as a means for self-growth, thoughtfulness, and refl ection. I like change. Change is good. Change is good for ASPSN and leadership must work toward change to better the organization.

Motivation is a passion to work for reasons that go beyond status. Motivation is also the propensity to pur- sue goals with energy and persistence ( Goleman, 2004 ). I have often been called an overachiever but consider that a compliment. There is nothing wrong with achiev- ing for the sake of achieving. I love a job well done. There is no better feeling of accomplishment. Emotional intelligence identifi es seeking out creative challenges, the love of learning, and taking pride in a job well done as identifi ers of motivation. I proudly admit that I possess these characteristics and am committed to the growth and success of ASPSN. My job as a leader is to make motivation contagious, not only to current leaders but to potential future leaders as well.

Empathy is another characteristic of EI and a good leader. Empathy is the ability to understand the emo- tional makeup of other people and treating people ac- cording to their emotional reactions ( Goleman, 2004 ). Empathy does not mean in the instance of leadership adopting the emotions of other people and trying to please everybody. We all know that it is not possible to please everybody. I no longer even attempt but being a leader is not about pleasing people. It is not to say that consideration of the feelings of others should be ignored but should be included in intelligent decisions. An effective leader must be able to sense the emotions and understand the viewpoints of all stakeholders. The stakeholders referred to here are the Board of Directors of ASPSN. Using empathy promotes collaboration as a team and I see this collaboration as essential in carrying out my duties and responsibilities as a leader. We can’t forget coaching and mentoring that grooms and moti- vates our future leaders.

Now, last but not least, is social skill. Social skill involves managing relationships and building net- works. Social skill also involves the ability to fi nd common ground and build rapport ( Goleman, 2004 ). In other words, we socialize continuous- ly to build rapport and have the resources already in place when there is a job that needs to be done. Getting work done through other people is the hallmark of a good leader. No leader is an island ( Goleman, 2004 ). It takes a collaborative approach to be successful. I don’t believe I have ever accomplished anything without the help and support of others.

CONCLUSION

Emotional intelligence can enhance the self-inventory process of the characteristics necessary for a good and infl uential leader. Self-awareness, self-regulation, motiva- tion, empathy, and social skill are necessary components of effective leadership. A leader needs social skill to get the work done through and with other people. Motiva- tion is necessary to communicate passion with the leaders and members of ASPSN. Managing emotions and relation- ships with others is imperative to further the mission and vision of ASPSN. After all, this is my purpose as President of ASPSN and one I take very seriously.

REFERENCES Bradbuey , T. , Greaves , J. , & Leniconi , P. ( 2009 ). Emotional intel-

ligence 2.0 . San Francisco, CA : TalentSmart . Cooper , R. , & Sawaf , A. ( 1998 ). Executive EQ: Emotional intelligence

in leadership organizations . New York, NY : Berkley . Goleman , D. ( 1995 ). Emotional intelligence —Why it can matter

more than IQ . New York, NY : Bantam Books . Goleman , D. ( 2004 , January). What makes a leader . Harvard Busi-

ness Review . 1 – 10 . Goleman , D. ( 2011 ). Emotional intelligence . New York, NT : Bantam .

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Letter From the President of ASPSN

Palmer , B. , Walls , M. , Burgess , Z. , & Stough , C. ( 2011 ). Emotional intelligence and effective leadership . Leadership and Organiza- tion Development Journal , 22 , 5 – 10 .

Renaud , M. , Rutledge , C. , & Shepherd , L. ( 2012 ). Preparing emo- tionally intelligent doctor of nursing practice leaders . Journal of Nursing Education , 51 ( 8 ), 454 – 460 .

Salovey , P. , & Mayer , J. ( 1990 ). Emotional intelligence . Imagination, Cognition & Personality , 9 , 185 – 211 .

Salovey , P. , & Mayer , J. (Eds.). ( 1997 ). What is emotional intelli- gence ? In Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications . New York, NY : Perseus Books Group ; 3 – 32 .

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