In the past two decades, emotional intelligence or EQ has been
recognised as an integral part of every aspect of life including
leadership, teamwork, and human capital development.
With the world becoming more integrated, leaders have little choice
but to help those under their tutelage to realise their fullest
potential by using emotional intelligence.
Little wonder that Mr John Lim, the chairman of Singapore Institute
of Directors (SID), thinks that qualifications alone are insufficient to
make someone a good independent director. He believes that “whether you
make good independent directors depends also on the commitment you
make, the
EQ that you have — IQ itself may not be enough — and the
strength of character.”
In the book, Primal Leadership: Realising The Power Of Emotional
Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, who promulgated the concept of emotional
intelligence, says: “Great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and
inspire the best in us. When we try to explain why they are so
effective, we speak of strategy, vision, or powerful ideas.
“But the reality is much more primal: Great leadership works through
the emotions. Even if they get everything else just right, if leaders
fail in this primal task of driving emotions in the right direction,
nothing they do will work as well as it could or should.”
For any organisation to succeed in achieving its goals, consideration for human factors will be of prime importance.
In his book EQ And Leadership In Asia, Sebastien Henry suggests that
Asian culture is naturally inclined towards emotional intelligence, in
particular, he says.
“Asian thinking has developed an art of dealing with paradoxes that
Western thinking has just started to integrate and appreciate.
Obviously, the art of handling paradoxes was not pursued for the sake of
developing emotional intelligence”.
There is a framework developed by Goleman highlighting essential elements of emotional intelligence:
Self-awareness
Emotionally intelligent individuals have a high level of
understanding about themselves that helps them to keep their emotions
under control.
Self-regulation
When they keep their emotions under control, emotionally intelligent
individuals are able to avoid making spurious decisions. In the words of
Sebastien Henry, “emotions are like the weather: they are always
around, and they always change. It requires some particular skills to
handle them”.
Motivation
Emotionally intelligent individuals welcome challenges and embrace
changes willingly if they are for the betterment of the organisation.
Empathy
Being empathetic is a hallmark of emotionally intelligent
individuals, fostering a productive working relationship. Indians, it is
sometimes said, have a particular knack for empathy because of their
upbringing in a culturally diversified environment.
Social skills
Social skills hold leaders in good stead when it comes to teamwork,
especially when encouraging others to work towards a common goal.
Dr Goleman argues that good leaders are people who are in tune with
the moods of their followers and have resonant relationships with them.
They are literally on the same wavelength as others, in that the actual
brain chemistries of leaders and followers change in similar ways during
the course of their social interactions.
According to Sunny Verghese, group managing director and chief
executive of Olam, driving emotions in the right direction is one of the
qualities required by a chief executive officer.
He should have the ability “to combine conceptual and analytical
skills with emotional intelligence, that is, the ability to understand
himself, his emotions, his ability to control his feelings, postponing
gratification”.
In August last year, Time magazine did a cover story on India’s
biggest export, which was in reference to CEOs. Egon Zehnder, in a study
of S&P 500 companies, found more Indian CEOs than any other
nationality except for the Americans.
The discussions, moderated by Shaili Chopra of ET Now, highlighted one of the main reasons why Indian CEOs are doing so well in global companies: the comfort level with diversity, which needs high emotional intelligence.
Obviously, Asian leaders seem to have achieved success combining EQ
and leadership by effectively leveraging on the Asian cultural
strengths. It could now evolve as best practices for other corporate
leaders to emulate when they take up leadership in the Asian region.
Article by Maler Vilee, who has over 14 years of invaluable working
experience in coaching, mentoring and leadership development with
Training Edge International
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