Leadership and emotional intelligence

Leadership in organisations is demonstrated through the interaction of the leader and the followers in a given situation. It reflects the value of the people in the organisation. The kind of leaders that emerges will depend on the decisions made in the group which in turn reveal what balance has been achieved between the mind and the heart.

The development of leaders today focuses on their technical or cognitive skills while ignoring emotional intelligence. This oversight can come back to bite leaders – or worse still, their organisations – when they are least prepared for it.

Who takes responsibility for the development and measurement for the empathy, which is so critical for a leader’s success? There is evidence to show that 67 per cent of the abilities deemed essential for effective leadership is related to emotional intelligence. Yet leadership and those responsible for its development seem to ignore it.

We have the collective responsibility to invest in developing the moral fibre of our leaders so they will be able to negotiate the moral dilemmas of the kind referred to earlier.

If leaders lead with both their hearts and minds, they and the people they lead would live far more fulfilling lives.

Excerpted from an article published in The Straits Times, 10th March, 2010