1 Background
There is little doubt that leadership is one of the most researched and written about topics in the study of management in organisations. So why yet another book on the topic? There are a number of reasons, why we think that it is still worth exploring the subject of leadership further. These are:
- 1.The current state of research into leadership is that the evidence presented in support of the myriad of models available is often inconclusive and contradictory.
- 2.Organisations today are facing an unprecedented level of uncertainty, volatility, complexity and ambiguity in their environment. They face increasing demands to change and adapt to rapidly shifting contexts combined with increasing pressures to perform. These challenges are not only faced by private-sector organisations, but also by those in the public sector and, indeed, even in charity and third-sector organisations
- 3.There is growing evidence that the much used statement the ‘people are our most important resource’ has moved from the rhetoric in the statements in organisations annual accounts, to a reality. Organisations that successfully engage their employees, build commitment that, in turn, leads to higher levels of performance. In order to respond to the demands of today’s challenging environment. Furthermore, such organisations build a sustainable, resilient, agile and flexible way of working that supports their need to innovate change and develop to meet the demands of their stakeholders
A problem with much of the research and writing on leadership is that it represents a search for a model that explains the way in which leaders behave in order to achieve performance in a somewhat simplistic way. In essence, it appears to be a search for the ‘Holy Grail’. Academic research, that acknowledges the complexity of the phenomenon of leadership, is becoming increasingly inaccessible to practitioners. It paces rigour above relevance. Therefore, there remains a need to identify a framework for thinking about leadership that recognises the complexity of the topic and combines rigour with relevance in underpinning the framework with empirical evidence.
Against this background, in this book we set out to propose a framework that is relevant to today’s organisational context. In doing this we are cognisant of the dangers of adding yet another model to the large volume that already exist. All too often new models of leadership are presented premised on the previous models being wrong. However, in doing this they still suffer from the ‘Holy Grail’ syndrome. We are consciously trying to avoid this. In our thinking we were influenced by the work of Karl Weick on sensemaking. In his book Sensemaking in Organisations (Weick, 1995) he presented the following statement:
In line with Weick’s view we will present our thinking on leadership as one that sets out to make sense of leadership in today’s challenging context.We are not going to discover anything new. We need to use our knowledge to make sense in the context in which we are operating.
1.1 Emotional Intelligence
One of the notable developments in thinking that was seen as being relevant to organisations in seeking to engage employees and lead to effective performance was the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI). Whist the concept was initially put forward in 1990, it was not until the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence: Why it can Matter More than IQ (Goleman, 1996) that it gained traction with the broader based practitioner community and indeed the general public. The view that, other things being equal, EI accounts for the difference between personal success and failure is one that captured the interest of the media, practitioners and academics. Subsequently we have seen a stream of research and writing that has examined the broader role of EI in terms of a wide range of organisational as well as individual outcomes. The level of interest seems to result from the concept arriving at a point when the view of the organisation as being managed in a totally rational manner was coming under challenge. The complexity and volatility of organisational life was giving rise to a need to see organisations as needing to balance the rational with the emotional aspects of strategy and decision making. As a result of this, the need to engage people emotionally with their work and their organisation was proposed to be an essential underpinning of effective organisational performance as we entered the twenty-first century. In the debates around EI it did not take too long before academics and writers were proposing linkages between EI and effective leadership. Indeed, Goleman together with his colleagues published a book that set forth a direct linkage between EI and leadership (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002).
Once again in the debate around EI and leadership the search was on for a ‘silver bullet’ that provided a simplistic view of the solution to a complex set of issues. Having said that, in our own research we found significant evidence of important linkages between EI and effective leadership. However, we believed that to obtain a fuller view of the requirements of effective leadership in today’s complex, volatile and uncertain environment other considerations needed to be given due weight.
1.2 Development of Leadership Thinking
In this book we do not intend to explore all aspects of the way in which our thinking about leadership has developed since the early academic studies in the late 1940s. As already mentioned, a lot of thinking has focused exclusively on the leader and falls under the broad heading of ‘heroic leadership’. However, more recently there has been a shift towards viewing leadership as more of a relational set of behaviours. Furthermore, the contingent nature of these relationships has raised the need to consider approaches to leadership in the context facing an organisation. More recently, this contingent view has come to the fore in relation to the implementation of change within organisations. It is now well established that the majority of changes within organisations fail to meet their objectives. In exploring reasons for this it has been argued that the style of leadership has played a major role in such change failure. Indeed Higgs and Rowland demonstrated that up to 50% of variations in change success were attributable to leadership behaviours (Higgs & Rowland, 2011). 1
One response to trying to make sense of leadership in today’s context has been the emergence of the view that leadership needs to be seen as a shared activity as complexity and volatility in the environment increases, particularly in dealing with significant and constant organisational change.
1.3 Leading with Emotional Intelligence
In considering all of the developments in leadership thinking and research over the past 50 years we have tried to make sense of the models and findings in today’s context. In doing this we have brought the concept of EI into the mix. It does appear that today leaders need to blend EI with a range of cognitive competencies (e.g., critical analysis, strategic perspective), and managerial competencies in order to balance these components to meet the needs of differing change contexts. We summarise this as leading with emotional intelligence and suggest that:
Effective Leadership = IQ (cognitive competencies) + EQ (Emotional Intelligence) + MQ (Managerial competences)
We also propose that whilst individual leaders need to achieve the balance between these components there is also a need to consider how these need to be developed and deployed by leadership teams.
2 Structure of the Book
In the rest of this book we will develop the above themes and present our thinking in the following chapters:
- Chapter 2. ‘The Importance of Emotional Intelligence’
In developing our argument for the importance of emotionally intelligent leadership we begin with an exploration of the concept of EI and its emergence. We argue here that this is a concept that’s time has come. In exploring the emergence of EI this chapter discusses how the concept is understood and some of the common misunderstandings. In exploring the drivers of interest in EI we will point out that it is a useful concept but, by no means a ‘silver bullet’.
- Chapter 3. ‘Does Emotional Intelligence Make a Difference?’
Having explored the nature of EI this chapter explores the extent to which there is evidence that underpins the potential value of the concept. There has been much debate around the validity of EI as a distinct concept or, indeed, anything new. In order to do this the research that has shown that EI can make a difference to individuals, teams and organisations is reviewed. We explore the way in which EI impacts on a range of significant organisational outcomes ranging from performance to well-being and provide evidence that EI is a distinct concept and adds explanation of variance in important outcomes beyond that explained by personality factors. Specifically, we examine the evidence that EI plays a role in underpinning effective leadership. However, we do highlight that it is not a simple alternative to other models and frameworks that attempt to describe effective leadership. We argue that, rather, it is part of a more complex range of considerations. This lays the foundation for our arguments for the concept of emotionally intelligent leadership.
- Chapter 4. ‘Measuring Emotional Intelligence’
Having established the nature, importance and validity of EI, in this chapter we explore how an individual’s EI can be measured and assessed. We then explore ways in which these measures can be used within an organisational context. Whilst we argue for the importance of using established and valid measures of EI we provide a very brief initial self-assessment guide that may be of use to the reader in preparation for exploring the later chapters in the book as well as being a guide to potential implications in their work context.
- Chapter 5. ‘Can Emotional Intelligence be Developed?’
In our initial work on EI we were eager to ensure that we were not merely developing a new label to put on individuals (in a similar way to IQ). Our research supported the view that an individual can develop their EI through a planned programme of action. In this chapter we explore this research and outline thoughts on how EI can be developed in practice. We provide specific frameworks that can help an individual plan their own development of their EI. We also consider actions that may be established within organisations to support the development of the EI of their people (particularly managers and senior leaders) in order to improve performance.
- Chapter 6. ‘Developments in Leadership Thinking’
Given the overall focus of our book we move from considerations of EI to look at leadership. In doing this we begin by considering the context of uncertainty, volatility, complexity and ambiguity that organisations face today. We then consider how this plays an important role in framing our thinking about leadership.
Against this background, we review the way in which leadership thinking has developed over time and the strengths and weaknesses of different models. In doing this we raise the linkages between leadership and context. The dominance of the ‘heroic’ model of leadership is discussed along with the dangers that this model can give rise to. In general we see that, as the context is becoming more complex and volatile, there is an emergence of more relational models of leadership that focus less on the leaders and more on their role in facilitating others to perform and engaging followers with the goals of the organisation. We argue that it is in connection with this shift in thinking that EI comes into the leadership equation. However, we also argue that other factors are also important and introduce the view that, in today’s context, leaders need a balance of EI with cognitive competencies (IQ) and managerial competencies (MQ). This combination provides us with the basis for arguing that today’s effective leadership entails leading with emotional intelligence.
- Chapter 7. ‘The Leadership Context’
Having raised the importance of considering leadership in the context in which organisations are operating, as a basis for making sense of leadership, and considering what effective leadership looks like we turn to exploring the elements of today’s context. In doing this, the drivers that are creating today’s context are examined along with the implications of these. The chapter explores the increasing significance of com...