Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

A Guide for Students

Marcy Levy Shankman, Scott J. Allen, Paige Haber-Curran

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781118932322
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Student Life

The only book for students which explores the connection between emotional intelligence and effective leadership

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: A Guide for Students is based on a conceptual model that helps students to become emotionally intelligent leaders. Research from around the world has demonstrated that there is a relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership. For the second edition of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership, the authors have incorporated their revised, data-based emotionally intelligent leadership (EIL) model into an engaging text for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students.

The book can be used in conjunction with the Emotionally Intelligent Leadership for Students Inventory and Student Workbook for an immersive and transformative educational experience. Students will appreciate the opportunity to learn more about themselves as they reflect on their experiences as learners and their own leadership journeys.

• The new edition is substantially rewritten based new research on the EIL model
• Its clear structure is organized around the three facets of emotionally intelligent leadership and 19 leadership capacities
• Questions at the end of each chapter encourage purposeful reflection and leadership growth

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership is one of a kind, fostering growth and promoting intense self-reflection. Students are empowered to enhance the campus experience and develop into effective leaders of the future. Emotionally Intelligent Leadership is the perfect introduction to leading with emotional intelligence.

Chapter 1
Introduction

We are thrilled that you are reading this book! We each have a genuine passion and love for the topic of leadership and have given much of our professional careers to understanding what it means to lead effectively. After all, leadership is needed in all walks of life. Whether it is at your school, in your community, or at your place of worship, people who bring about positive change are energizing. They breathe life into a cause. They bring others together in powerful ways. We hope you have worked with someone like this—someone who has inspired you to work for a vision, cause, movement, or goal. We hope you are (or will be) that person for others.

We are inspired by the potential you hold. Regardless of your interests, academic focus, aspirations, career direction, and ultimate goals, you will have many opportunities to lead others, now and for the rest of your life. This may be in a formal role in an organization, as a volunteer, in a job, or even among your friends. We hope this book will help you see effective and ineffective leadership more clearly so that you can diagnose or assess a situation with greater skill. Ultimately, every organization needs individuals who have the ability to see what is needed and intervene skillfully (Meissen, 2010). We are surrounded by leadership each and every day, and we hope this book will help you think more critically about what it means to lead effectively.

Finally, we are excited because we believe that school is the perfect place to practice leading others. The three of us each had incredible learning experiences while in high school, college, and graduate school. In many ways, those experiences have helped shape our careers. Although we each bring different values, experiences, and perspectives to the table, we believe this book can accompany and strengthen your growth and development. As you continue to explore the concept of leadership, we encourage you to get involved, become engaged, and practice leadership.

You Are in the Right Place

Just like school is a place for you to practice mathematics, physics, drama, English, and athletics, it is also an outstanding practice field or laboratory for leadership. Here are a few real stories of students just like you engaging in some difficult scenarios that require thoughtful practice.

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After three years as an orientation leader, John was happy to accept the position of senior orientation leader. This role required him to oversee his peers in a managerial role. The transition from friend to supervisor was not easy. John received minimal respect from the orientation leaders, and they often ignored or even blatantly disobeyed his requests. He lost control of his temper and lashed out at them, not only demonstrating poor self-control but also poor friendship. How can he control his emotions better? How can he be more emotionally intelligent in his leadership?

Ty has always been an extremely sociable person, and he feeds off of relationships. His passion for working with others inspired him to lead a service immersion trip to Latin America. He adapts to the lifestyle well, but not knowing the language creates a barrier. He always viewed himself as having great interpersonal and social skills, but finds he has to adapt and quickly build relationships in a new way. Likewise, he has to influence others to do so as well. How does Ty remain flexible and inspire others given the language barrier?

Alma was promoted to a management role in her organization. She leads a team of three people, which has been a big adjustment. While working full time, she is also attending graduate school and hopes to finish her master's degree in nonprofit management within two years. On top of this, she is planning a wedding. Naturally, she is feeling pressure at work, at school, and in her relationship. She finds that she is struggling to do all three well and finds herself being short with her colleagues, classmates, and fiancé. She is constantly stressed, and her family has mentioned this to her. She knows she is in over her head, and she is struggling to ask for help and eliminate items from her plate. She wants to be known as someone who can “do it all.” How does Alma successfully adjust and alter course? How will existing in a constant state of stress affect her work, school, and relationship?

Laura lands the internship of her dreams. She knows that full-time employment is offered to interns who demonstrate an exceptional work ethic, so she needs to excel. For her final presentation, she works with three other interns who attend another university. However, they have different perspectives on what it means to deliver an excellent presentation. Laura knows that this presentation is a major factor when the company considers her for employment. How can she influence the others to see her vision?

Ken is confident in his leadership abilities as he takes on the position of president of his fraternity. He was captain of sports teams in high school and involved in other organizations around campus. Unfortunately, when he stepped into this new role, it was a different story. He was met with negativity and resistance. Brothers were quick to shoot down new ideas and were slow to get involved in activities. There were some brothers who wanted to support positive change, but they made up only about 60 percent of the chapter. Ken is struggling to keep the members motivated and engaged. How does he inspire others to get behind the changes he thinks will take the chapter to the next level?

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Each of these real-life examples demonstrates the many leadership opportunities and challenges that present themselves to students who want to lead. The campus environment provides a rich and plentiful array of opportunities for students to deliberately practice leadership. School and campus-based organizations, residence halls, athletic teams, classrooms, jobs, internships, and other opportunities offer a number of ways to experiment with different approaches to leadership—honing the philosophy, approaches, and styles that best suit you.

This book will help you enhance your ability to lead and think more critically about what it means to lead others. Although you may know when you are in the presence of great leadership, you may not know why you think that is so. One goal we have is to “pull back the curtain” and de-mystify leadership. Of course, leadership is a complex phenomenon and difficult to master, but the mystery lessens when you know how to take a closer look. In the end, we hope you will work toward becoming:

• someone who continually works at the “edge” of your abilities;
• someone who is acutely in tune with your values and acts on them;
• someone who intentionally practices leadership on and off campus;
• someone who reflects and consistently looks inward as a way to develop and grow;
• someone who is open to giving and receiving feedback;
• someone who develops relationships with ease and builds coalitions;
• someone who is inclusive;
• someone who can work through differences;
• someone who is just as skilled at following as leading; and
• someone whom others look to as a role model and guide.

Our Ten Truths about Leadership

Before introducing you to emotionally intelligent leadership (EIL), we provide some of our assumptions about the broader topic of leadership. You may disagree with some of these ideas, and that is okay. We feel these assumptions can help you succeed as you explore the practice of leadership. So if you disagree with what we've said, consider our perspective and give it a try. Then, after you've tested it for a while, you may come to a deeper understanding of your own truths. Following are the foundational ideas about leadership that influenced the development of EIL.

1. Leadership is art and science. Like any other domain of knowledge and practice (e.g., medicine, law, engineering), volumes of academic research have been written on what it means to be an effective leader (the science). However, this research has not resulted in a simple formula of effective leadership. It does not exist. To become a great leader, we must realize that there is uncertainty, there are a range of contexts, and thus, there is an art to leadership as well. In reality, great leaders know when to rely on the research (science) and when to improvise (art) to blaze a new trail.
2. Leadership can be learned and developed. The notion that one must be born a leader and that people cannot grow and develop leadership capacity is an archaic way of thinking. In fact, research conducted on twins found that as much as 70 percent of leadership is learned (Arvey, Rotundo, Johnson, Zhang, & McGue, 2006). This research suggests that people may be born with some genetic predispositions that may help them more easily engage in leadership (e.g., extraversion, stamina), but the role of the environment is undeniable. From personal experience, we know that through hard work, we have improved our own capacity to lead. And we have worked with students who, through their own hard work and attention, have developed their capacity to lead others as well.
3. Leadership ...