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Journal of Business Studies Quarterly

2013, Volume 4, Number 3 ISSN 2152-1034

Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership

Bano Fakhra Batool, Superior University

Abstract

Emotional Intelligence has become increasingly popular as a measure for identifying potentially

effective leaders, and as a tool for developing effective leadership skills. There is little empirical

research that substantiates the efficacy of emotional intelligence in these areas. The aim of the

present paper is to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective

leadership to evaluate the tendency of emotional control of the working class both male and

female at a managerial level in a private and public sector of Pakistan mainly Banking sector. A

survey of 50 people is conducted by distributing. Random sampling technique is used to answer

the instrument of the study. SPSS software was used to analyze the data collected based on

descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, percentage. The result indicates that the

relationship between leadership style and Emotional Intelligence is positive and significant.

Key words: Leadership, Stress, Performance, Motivation, Communication and Emotional

Intelligence.

1. Introduction

One of the most applied constructs which emotional intelligence has been associated with

is that of leadership. The leadership literature has produced countless theories outlining which

characteristics compose the most effective leader, however, current academic research in the area

describes two distinct types of leaders: transformational and transactional (Mandell&

Pherwani,2003). Transformational leader stimulates interest among colleagues, inspires a

different outlook on the work, generates an awareness of the goals of the organization, develops

others to higher level of ability and motivates others to consider the interests of the group over

their own interests. Along these lines, transformational leadership is said to be comprised of the

following four dimensions: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation

and individual consideration (Bass &Avolio, 1994). Alternatively, the transactional leader is one

whom rewards (or disciplines) staff on the basis of their performance. They emphasize work

standards, task completion and employee compliance while relying heavily on organizational

rewards and punishments to influence employee performance (Bass &Avolio, 1994).

Researchers investigating the effects of transformational and transactional leadership

have found that transformational leadership predict higher ratings of effectiveness and

satisfaction (Hater & Bass, 1998), higher group performance (Keller, 1995) and higher amount

of effort on the part of subordinates (Seltzer & Bass, 1990) compared to transactional leadership.

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Researchers on the area of leadership have likewise proposed that effective transformational

leaders must possess social and emotional intelligence. These elements are considered critical to

inspire employees and to build strong relationships.

The foremost contributor to the area of emotional intelligence and leadership is Daniel

Goleman, who has written several books on implementing emotional intelligence in an

organization, including Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998) and The Emotionally

intelligence Workplace (2001). Goleman posits that leaders high in emotional intelligence are

key to organizational success and leaders must have the capacity to sense employee’s feelings at

their work environment, to intervene when problems arise, to manage their own emotions in

order to gain the trust of employees and to understand the political and social conventio ns within

an organization (Goleman, 2001). A leader has the capacity to impact organization performance

by setting a particular work climate.

Research has found that the most effective leaders integrate four or more of the six styles

regularly, substituting one for another more appropriate style depending on the leadership

situation. This has been found to be the case in studies of insurance companies, where leaders

were adept at all four of the positive styles of leadership and at schools where heads of schools

who used four or more of the leadership styles experiences superior performance among students

compared to comparison schools. Performance was poorest in those schools were only one or

two styles of leadership were used (Hay/McBer, 2000).

1.1 What is emotional intelligence?

The most widely accepted model of emotional intelligence (EI) has been influenced by

several scientists and researchers. Sternberg’s (2003) theory of multiple intelligences suggests

that interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence are unique, and different from the mathematical

and logical type recognized today as ‘IQ’, or general intelligence. Peter Salovey and John Mayer

first proposed their own theory of EI in 1990 and Reuven Bar-On (1988) has placed EI in the

context of personality, health and well-being.With his 1995 mega best-seller Emotional

Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Daniel Goleman brought to prominence the

notion of emotional intelligence and ‘emotional quotient’ (EQ) as an alternative to the more

traditional measures of IQ. Goleman (1998) reformulated EI in terms of a theory of

organisational and job performance. According to Goleman (2000), ‘a leader’s singular job is to

get results’. But even with all the leadership training programs and ‘expert’ advice available,

effective leadership still eludes many people and organisations. One reason, says Goleman, is

that such experts offer advice based on inference, experience and instinct, not on quantitative

data.The discussion of EQ often begins with an emotional challenge from Aristotle:

‘Anyone can become angry–that is easy. But to be angry withthe right person, to the right

degree, at the right time

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2. Problem Statement

The banking sector is very important as it is the major contributor of Pakistani economy in

services industry and that the interest in this sector is very important. Despite the world global

financial crisis and along with the bad economic conditions of the country this sector had

produced stable results. Therefore, this sector needs professional leaders who can achieve

maximum goals of both employees and organizations. An organization that is short of capital

may resort to borrowing money, and one in a poor location has the option to move. However an

organization with short of leadership has little chance for survival (Yousef, 1998). The

relationships between Emotional Intelligence and leadership have attracted considerable

attention. Previous researches focused on specific human resource behaviors. Yet not much study

has been conducted to investigate the impact leadership style and Emotional Intelligence in

particular banking sector of Pakistan. This study, therefore, will help to fill this gap and effort

to improve the understanding of the role of leadership in Pakistani banking sector.

3. Back ground of the Study

Mayer and Salovey (1997) construct appears to be the framework most likely to produce

a construct of emotional intelligence as it addresses emotion and intelligence criteria” (Jordan,

2000, p.123).The Mayer-Salovey Four branch model of emotional intelligence states that there

are four branches of skills that are related to emotional intelligence. The first two branches,

Perception and Facilitation are termed “Experiential Emotional Intelligence” because they relate

most closely to feelings.They involve first the capacity to perceive emotions in others accurately

and second the ability to use emotions to enhance how we think. The third and fourth areas of

Emotional Intelligence skills are termed “Strategic Emotional Intelligence” because they pertain

to calculating and planning with information about emotions.Research exploring the neural

circuitry that governs emotional awareness (Lane, 2000), as well as additional emotional and

social aspects of this concept (Bar-On et al., 2003; Bechara& Bar-On, in press; Bechara et al.,

2000; Damasio, 1994; Lane & McRae, 2004; LeDoux, 1996), has begun to provide tangible

evidence of the anatomical foundations of this wider construct which some have questioned as an

intangiable myth (Davies et al., 1998; Matthews et al., 2003; Zeidner et al., 2001). The third area

Understanding emotions, involves knowing how emotions change in and of themselves, as well

as how they will change people and their behaviors overtime. The fourth area Emotional

management focuses on how to integrate logic and emotion for effective decision-making. These

four skill areas are related to one another but they are functionally distinct as well.

3.1 Concept of Emotional Intelligence

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4. Hypothesis and Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this paper are to describe:  The relationship between emotional intelligence and effective leadership  Understanding of Emotional Intelligence  Concept of Emotional Intelligence  Why Emotional Intelligence is Needed in Leadership  How to use Emotional Intelligence in developing Leadership

The hypothesis is given below as under:

Hypothesis 1: Emotional intelligence is positively associated in developing Leadership.

Hypothesis 2: Emotional intelligence is positively associated in Understanding Leadership

5. Literature Review

5.1Why Emotional Intelligence is Needed in Leadership

Scholars began to shift their attention from describing and assessing social intelligence to

understanding the purpose of interpersonal behavior and the role it plays in effective adaptability

(Zirkel, 2000). This line of research helped define human effectiveness from the social

perspective as well as strengthened one very important aspect of Wechsler’s definition of general

intelligence: “The capacity of the individual to act purposefully” (1958, p. 7). According to

Mayer and Salovey (1997) “Emotional intelligence involves the ability to perceive accurately,

appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate

thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate

emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth” (p. 10).People are often surprised to find

that within the emotional intelligence paradigmthere exists not one, but several theories (e.g.

Bar-On, 2000; Goleman, 1995:1998; Mayer&Salovey, 1997).

In an effort to help clarify this situation, the Encyclopedia of Applied

Psychology (Spielberger, 2004) recently suggested that there are currently three major

conceptual models: (a) the Salovey-Mayer model (Mayer &Salovey, 1997) which defines this

construct as the ability to perceive, understand, manage and use emotions to facilitate thinking,

measured by an ability-based measure (Mayer et al., 2002); (b) the Goleman model (1998) which

views this construct as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive managerial

performance, measured by multi-rater assessment (Boyatzis et al., 2001); and (c) the Bar-On

model (1997b, 2000) which describes a cross-section of interrelated emotional and social

competencies, skills and facilitators that impact intelligent behavior, measured by self-report

(1997a, 1997b) within a potentially expandable multi-modal approach including interview and

multi-rater assessment (Bar-On & Handley, 2003a, 2003b).Emotional intelligence does not fit

the classic historical models of leadership. The latter are usually associated with great figures of

military history and conjure up charismatic and sometimes despotic images. However people

often use the same language for leadership today bold, brave and tough with a strong sense of

purpose and resolve. However this does not fit today’s needs because of few reasons:  Today’s workforce does not accept the autocratic style often adopted by leaders following

historical models of leadership.

 Leadership has to evolve to match a growing sense of democracy and independence in the workforce.

 Employees now have far more options and choices than the foot soldiers of yesterday.

5.2 The New demands Leaders have to meet

Leaders now need to manage and lead an empowered workforce and go beyond the

consultative, co-operative and democratic styles of today. These new demands include:

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 Consultation and involvement but leaders still get criticized for not having and communicating a compelling vision and purpose.

 Autonomy and freedom but leaders are still expected to take full responsibility when things go wrong.

 Opportunities for growth, challenge and glory but leaders must be on hand to coach and mentor us so that we develop our potential.

 Inclusion and team Spirit but we still want our leaders to give us individual recognition and acknowledgement.

5.3 Emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness

Studies have demonstrated that leaders who consistently outperform their peers not only

have the technical skills required, but more importantly, have mastered most of the aspects of

Emotional Intelligence. In the Harvard Business Review landmark article ‘What Makes a

Leader?’, Goleman (1998) states that the five components of Emotional Intelligence at Work are:

Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation (or Management), Motivation, Empathy (Social Awareness),

and Social Skills (Relationship Management).There is growing evidence that the range of

abilities that constitute what is now commonly known as emotional intelligence plays a key role

in determining success, both in one’s personal life and in the workplace. Research by

Rudermanet. al (2001) has uncovered links between specific elements of* emotional intelligence

and specific behaviors associated with leadership effectiveness and ineffectiveness. The study

using BarOn EQ-i (Emotional Quotient Inventory) –an assessment.

5.4How to use Emotional Intelligence in developing Leadership

There are now a number of models and questionnaires aimed at measuring emotional

intelligence, often based on self-report questionnaires. However this approach has obvious

limitations in identifying levels of self awareness.

5.5Emotional Intelligence in Leadership 1- Self Awareness

If you are self aware, you always know how you feel and you know how your emotions and your actions, can affect people around you. Being self aware in a leadership position also

means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses. And it means having humility.

How to improve Self Awareness Keep a Journal

Journals help improve your self-awareness. If you spend just a few minutes each day writing down your thoughts, this can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness.

Slow down

When you experience anger or other strong emotions, slow down to examine why. Remember, no matter what the situation, you can always choose how you react to it.

2- Self Regulation Leaders who regulate themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or

emotional decisions, stereotype people or compromise their values.Self regulation is all about

staying in control.According to Goleman, ‘This element of emotional intelligence also covers

leader’sflexibility and commitment to personal accountability.

How to Improve Self Regulate

Know your Values

Do you have a clear idea of where you absolutely will not compromise? Do you know

what values are most important to you? Spend some time examining your ‘code of ethics’. If you know what’s most important to you, then you probably would not have to think twice when you

face a moral or ethical decision you will make the right choice.

Hold yourself Accountable

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If you tend to blame others when something goes wrong, stop. Make a commitment to

admit to your mistakes and face the consequences, whatever they are. You will probably sleep better at night and you will quickly earn the respect of those around you.

Practice being Calm

The next time you are in a challenging situation, be very aware of how you act. Do you relieve your stress by shouting at someone else? Practice deep breathing exercises to calm

yourself. Also try to write down all the negative things you want to say and then rip it up and

throw it away. Expressing these emotions on paper and not showing then to anyone is better than

speaking them aloud to your team.

3- Motivation Self Motivated leaders consistently work toward their goals. And they have extremely

high standards for the quality of their work.

How to improve Self Motivation

Re-Examine

why you are doing this – It’s easy to forget what you really love about your career. So,

take some time to remember why you wanted this job. If you are unhappy in your role and you are struggling to remember why you wanted it, try the Five Why’s technique to find the root of

the problem. Starting at the root often helps you look at your situation in a new way.

Make sure that your goal statements are fresh and energizing.

Know where you Stand

Determine how motivated you are to lead. Our leadership Motivation Assessment can

help you see clearly how motivated you are in your leadership role. If you need to increase your motivation to lead and it then directs you to resources that can help.

Be Hopeful and find something Good

Motivated leaders are usually optimistic, no matter what they face. Adopting this mindset

might take practice but its well worth the effort. Every time you face a challenge or even a failure, try to find at least one good thing about the situation. It might be something small, like a new

contact or something with long term effects, like an important lesson learned. But there is almost

always something positive. You just have to look for it.

4- Empathy For Leaders having empathy is critical to managing a successful team or organization.

Leaders with empathy have the ability to put themselves in someone else’s situation. They help develop the people on their team, challenge others who are acting unfairly give constructive

feedback and listen to those who need it.

How to improve Empathy

Put Yourself in someone else Position It’s easy to support your own point of view. After all, it’s yours but take the time to look

at situations from other peoples perspectives.

Pay attention to your body Language Perhaps you listen to someone you cross your arms, move your feet back and forth, or

bite your lip. This body language tells others how you really feel about a situation and the

message you are giving is not positive. Learning to read body language can be a real asset when

you are in a leadership role because you will be better able to determine how someone truly feels. And this gives you the opportunity to respond appropriately.

Respond to Feelings

You ask your assistant to work late – again. And although he agrees, you can hear the disappointment in his voice. So, respond by addressing his feelings. Tell him you appreciate how

willing he is to work extra hours and that you are just as frustrated about working late. If possible

figure out a way for future late nights to be less of an issue.

5- Social Skills

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Leaders who do well in this element of emotional intelligence are great communicators. They are

just as open to hearing bad news as good news and they are experts at getting their team to support them and be excited about a new mission or project.

Leaders who have good social skills are also good at managing change and resolving conflicts

diplomatically. They are satisfied with leaving things as they are but they are not willing to make everyone else do the work. They set the example with their own behavior.

How to improve Social Skills

Learn conflict Resolution

Leaders must know how to resolve conflicts between their team members, customers or vendors. Learning conflict resolution skills is vital of you want to succeed.

Improve your Communication Skills

How well do you communicate? A leader must have the ability to communicate well with others and for the communication it is necessary to have the best listening skills.

Learn how to Praise others

As a leader you can inspire the loyalty of your team simply by giving praise when it’s

earned. Learning how to effectively praise others is a fine art, but well worth the effort.

6. Methodology

Leadership is about influencing people while providing guidance and direction as needed Paul

Hersey (1984, 1997 and 2008). Effective leaders tend to be expert in term of how they respond to work

load, discipline, handle stress, communicate the goals of organizations by bringing innovation polishing the performance of their subordinates.Emotional intelligence should enable leaders to empathically

address their followers, thus building high-quality leader–follower relations and strengthening followers’

identification with and trust in the leader (Kellet, Humphrey, &Sleeth, 2006; Wolff, Pescosolido,

&Druskat, 2002). In this study the following variables are used and relationship was found out with the effective use emotions to intelligently handle situations employees and customers by using the SPSS

version 20.

For the purpose of this study, a copy of questionnaire was distributed to 50 individuals belongs to different professionals like doctors, nurses, medical staff and bankers. The surveys were all confidential.

No names were mentioned and no payment was given to respondents for completing the questionnaire.

There were 37 males and 13 females age between 25-50 and experience range was 1-15, 15-30 and 30- 50.The main task of this study was to find out the impact of different factors on effective leadership and

emotional intelligence.

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7. Analysis of texts and documents

Responsibility The relationship between effective leadership and emotional intelligence with that of responsibility can be illustrated from

this diagram which is showing that it is normally dispersed towards standard deviation that is close to mean and having posit ive

skewness, this shows responsibility is an important factor as 40% and 42% of the respondents were Agree and Strongly Agree

respectively about the impact of responsibility in effective leadership.

Workload The relationship between effective leadership and emotional intelligence with that of workload is shown from below diagram

which is close to normally dispersed towards standard deviation that is close to mean and having positive skewness, this shows how

work load effect the performance and managing of emotions as 34% and 58% of the respondents were Agree and Strongly Agree

respectively about direct impact of workload in effective leadership.

Self Control

The effect of self control on effective leadership and emotional intelligence is shown from above diagram which is dispersed

towards left and difference of .46 between mean and standard deviation but still positive skewed this also shows how work load effect the

performance and managing of emotions as 46% and 42% of the respondents were Agree and Strongly Agree respectively about direct impact of self control in effective leadership.

Stress The impact of stress on effective leadership and emotional intelligence is shown in this diagram which is dispersed almost normal

and difference of .46 between mean and standard deviation and positive skewed this also shows how stress effect the performan ce and

managing of emotions as 52% and 38% of the respondents were Agree and Strongly Agree respectively about direct impact of stress in

effective leadership.

Discipline The impact of discipline on effective leadership and emotional intelligence is shown from above diagram which is dispersed almost

normal and difference .712 between mean and standard deviation and positive skewed, this also shows how discipline effects in managing of

emotions as 56% and 20% of the respondents were Agree and Strongly Agree respectively.

Performance

The relationship between performance and effective leadership and emotional intelligence is shown in this diagram which is

dispersed normal and positive skewed, this also shows how that performance motivate the intelligence of the leader and managing of

emotions as 56% and 20% of the respondents were Agree and Strongly Agree about direct impact of stress in effective leadership.

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8. Limitation and Recommendations

We select the Topic “Effective Leadership and Emotional Intelligence” to find out the relation

between emotional intelligence and factors effecting it that further effect organizational performance. It is

matter related to person to person behavior, psychology and dealings with each other and particularly in respect of a leader how he controls his emotions or in other words how his emotion intelligently to

achieve the target in today play’s rapidly changing environment due to globalization and technological

advancement. It is a huge phenomenon. Emotional intelligence is developed by many competencies. So

we have to cover major variables at a time like responsibility communication discipline stress and working environment. It was very hard to find out the enough results of every variable, but we tried by

different resources to narrow the gap. Although our effort was at the initial level because it was our first

attempt to get and research on selected topic and then shape in an article. We have sample of 50 respondents including heads of different institutions and managers in public organizations of Pakistan.

This sample size was not enough for coverage of this wide topic. In the end we can conclude that after

taking the required information from the public sectors professional in different industries of Pakistan it is

evident emotions are to be controlled in a proper way to perform in the right direction for a leader to be effective for his or her organization and in his personal life it also helps to sort out the solutions in

different scenarios.

9. Conclusion

Implementation of emotions intelligently in any organization by a leader to be effective and efficient plays a vital role to leader effectively. There are so many studies which reflect that Emotional

Intelligence also have impacts on organizational goals. Our study reflects that emotional intelligence can

help to reduce Stress improve performance and sense of achievement by motivating the subordinates

within the organization and helps to enhance the productivity of the employees to meet organizational end goals in an ethical way by putting positive impacts on the society as a whole.

We believe that emotional intelligence is one of the useful tools which helps a leader to judge

people more clearly and closely and build a connection between people. And it develops a sense of sensitivity, balance feeling and a strong mix of cognitive capacity (logical, conceptual and creative

thinking), people skills (Interpersonal skills, influence skills and communication skills).Our study has

taken some steps towards understanding the connection between effective leadership and emotional intelligence, and pointing the key role affective factors which play pivotal in enhancement towards

quality of leadership in organization.

We finished our modest effort by this quote of Hazrat Ali (A.S) “Whoever wants to be a leader

should educate him before educating others. Before preaching to others he should practice himself. Whoever educates himself and improves his own morals in superior to the man who tries to teach and

train others”.

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Free Press.

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Gibbs, Nancy (1995, October 2).The EQ Factor. Time magazine. Web reference at

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APPENDIX

EQ-i SCALES The EI Competencies and Skills Assessed by Each Scale

Intrapersonal Self-awareness and self-expression:

Self-Regard To accurately perceive, understand and accept oneself.

Emotional Self-

Awareness

To be aware of and understand one’s emotions.

Assertiveness To effectively and constructively express one’s emotions and oneself.

Independence To be self-reliant and free of emotional dependency on others.

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Self-Actualization To strive to achieve personal goals and actualize one’s potential.

Interpersonal Social awareness and interpersonal relationship:

Empathy To be aware of and understand how others feel.

Social Responsibility To identify with one’s social group and cooperate with others.

Interpersonal

Relationship

To establish mutually satisfying relationships and relate well with

others.

Stress Management Emotional management and regulation:

Stress Tolerance To effectively and constructively manage emotions.

Impulse Control To effectively and constructively control emotions.

Adaptability Change management:

Reality-Testing To objectively validate one’s feelings and thinking with external

reality.

Flexibility To adapt and adjust one’s feelings and thinking to new situations.

Problem-Solving To effectively solve problems of a personal and interpersonal nature.

General Mood Self-motivation:

Optimism To be positive and look at the brighter side of life.

Happiness To feel content with oneself, others and life in general.

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