![]()
HBR Guide to
Emotional Intelligence
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
![]()
SECTION ONE
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
![]()
CHAPTER 1
Leading by Feel
LIKE IT OR NOT, leaders need to manage the mood of their organizations. The most gifted leaders accomplish that by using a mysterious blend of psychological abilities known as emotional intelligence. Theyâre self-aware and empathetic. They can read and regulate their own emotions while intuitively grasping how others feel and gauging their organizationâs emotional state.
But where does emotional intelligence come from? And how do leaders learn to use it? The management literature (and even common sense) suggests that both nature and nurture feed emotional intelligence. Part genetic predisposition, part life experience, and part old-fashioned training, emotional intelligence emerges in varying degrees from one leader to the next, and managers apply it with varying skill. Wisely and compassionately deployed, emotional intelligence spurs leaders, their people, and their organizations to superior performance; naively or maliciously applied, it can paralyze leaders or allow them to manipulate followers for personal gain.
We invited 18 leaders and scholars (including business executives, leadership researchers, psychologists, a neurologist, a cult expert, and a symphony conductor) to explore the nature and management of emotional intelligenceâits sources, uses, and abuses. Their responses differed dramatically, but there were some common themes: the importance of consciously and conscientiously honing oneâs skills, the double-edged nature of self-awareness, and the danger of letting any one emotional intelligence skill dominate. Here are some of their perspectives.
Be Realistic
John D. Mayer is a professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire. He and Yale psychology professor Peter Salovey are credited with first defining the concept of emotional intelligence in the early 1990s.
This is a time of growing realism about emotional intelligenceâespecially concerning what it is and what it isnât. The books and articles that have helped popularize the concept have defined it as a loose collection of personality traits, such as self-awareness, optimism, and tolerance. These popular definitions have been accompanied by exaggerated claims about the importance of emotional intelligence. But diverse personality traits, however admirable, donât necessarily add up to a single definition of emotional intelligence. In fact, such traits are difficult to collectively evaluate in a way that reveals their relationship to success in business and in life.
Even when theyâre viewed in isolation, the characteristics commonly associated with emotional intelligence and success may be more complicated than they seem. For example, the scientific jury is out on how important self-awareness is to successful leadership. In fact, too much self-awareness can reduce self-esteem, which is often a crucial component of great leadership.
From a scientific standpoint, emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately perceive your own and othersâ emotions; to understand the signals that emotions send about relationships; and to manage your own and othersâ emotions. It doesnât necessarily include the qualities (like optimism, initiative, and self-confidence) that some popular definitions ascribe to it.
Researchers have used performance tests to measure peopleâs accuracy at identifying and understanding emotions; for example, asking them to identify the emotions conveyed by a face or which among several situations is most likely to bring about happiness. People who get high scores on these tests are indeed different from others. In the business world, they appear better able to deal with customersâ complaints or to mediate disputes, and they may excel at making strong and positive personal connections with subordinates and customers over the long term. Of course, emotional intelligence isnât the only way to attain success as a leader: A brilliant strategist who can maximize profits may be able to hire and keep talented employees even if he or she doesnât have strong personal connections with them.
Is there value in scales that, based on popular conceptions, measure qualities like optimism and self-confidence but label them âemotional intelligenceâ? Certainly, these personality traits are important in business, so measuring and (sometimes) enhancing them can be useful. But recent research makes it clear that these characteristics are distinct from emotional intelligence as it is scientifically defined. A person high in emotional intelligence may be realistic rather than optimistic and insecure rather than confident. Conversely, a person may be highly self-confident and optimistic but lack emotional intelligence. The danger lies in assuming that because a person is optimistic or confident, they are also emotionally intelligent, when, in fact, the presence of those traits will tell you nothing of the sort.
Never Stop Learning
Daniel Goleman is the cochair of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations based at Rutgers Universityâs Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology in Piscataway, New Jersey.
You can be a successful leader without much emotional intelligence if youâre extremely lucky and youâve got everything else going for you: booming markets, bumbling competitors, and clueless higher-ups. If youâre incredibly smart, you can cover for an absence of emotional intelligence until things get tough for the business. But at that point, you wonât have built up the social capital needed to pull the best out of people under tremendous pressure. The art of sustained leadership is getting others to produce superior work, and high IQ alone is insufficient to that task.
The good news is that emotional intelligence can be learned and improved at any age. In fact, data shows that, on average, peopleâs emotional intelligence tends to increase as they age. But the specific leadership competencies that are based on emotional intelligence donât necessarily come through life experience. For example, one of the most common complaints I hear about leaders, particularly newly promoted ones, is that they lack empathy. The problem is that they were promoted because they were outstanding individual performersâand being a solo achiever doesnât teach you the skills necessary to understand other peopleâs concerns.
Leaders who are motivated to improve their emotional intelligence can do so if theyâre given the right information, guidance, and support. The information they need is a candid assessment of their strengths and limitations from people who know them well and whose opinions they trust. The guidance they need is a specific developmental plan that uses naturally occurring workplace encounters as the laboratory for learning. The support they need is someone to talk to as they practice how to handle different situations, what to do when theyâve blown it, and how to learn from those setbacks. If leaders cultivate these resources and practice continually, they can develop specific emotional intelligence skillsâskills that will last for years.
Get Motivated
Richard Boyatzis is a professor and the chair of the department of organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve Universityâs Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland.
People can develop their emotional intelligence if they really want to. But many managers jump to the conclusion that their complement of emotional intelligence is predetermined. They think, âI could never be good at this, so why bother?â The central issue isnât a lack of ability to change; itâs the lack of motivation to change.
Leadership development is not all that different from other areas in which people are trying to change their behaviors. Just look at the treatments for alcoholism, drug addiction, and weight loss: They all require the desire to change. More subtly, they all require a positive, rather than a negative, motivation. You have to want to change. If you think youâll lose your job because youâre not adequately tuned in to your employees, you might become determinedly empathetic or compassionate for a time. But change driven by fear or avoidance probably isnât going to last. Change driven by hopes and aspirations, change thatâs pursued because itâs desired, will be more enduring.
Thereâs no such thing as having too much emotional intelligence. But there is a danger in being preoccupied with, or overusing, one aspect of it. For example, if you overemphasize the emotional intelligence competencies of initiative or achievement, youâll always be changing things at your company. Nobody would know what you were going to do next, which would be quite destabilizing for the organization. If you overuse empathy, you might never fire anybody. If you overuse teamwork, you might never build diversity or listen to a lone voice. Balance is essential.
Train the Gifted
Elkhonon Goldberg is a clinical professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine and the director of the Institute of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Performance in New York.
In the past, neuropsychologists were mostly concerned with co...
