Transforming Emotions to Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership There is a definite correlation between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. Although it might be a little extreme to define that relationships as causal and imply that emotional intelligence is what begets or enables transformational leadership, it certainly enhances it.

This fact is discussed at length in various passages in "Transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: A potential pathway for an increased understanding of interpersonal influence." An analysis of some of the more incisive passages in this article indicate that emotional intelligence is of immense benefit for transformational leaders. The overall impact of a leader's emotional intelligence on transformational leadership is that it allows him or her to understand how to best inspire people.

Inspiration is frequently the crux of transformational leadership because this leadership methodology is predicated on effecting positive change. Change will not simply happen unless people are motivated and moved to create it. Thus, inspiration is a key component of the "interpersonal influence" (Brown and Moshavi, 2005, p. 867) that makes people want to produce change. Moreover, emotional intelligence is directly related to transformational leadership in that this leadership methodology functions effectively when leaders can attain the emotional involvement of their followers.

This sort of involvement is pivotal to transformational leadership because it can help actuate people; additionally, it is intrinsically related to getting those followers to believe in transformational leaders and for the "interpersonal effectiveness" of these leaders (Choi et al., 2015, p. 46). Viewed from this perspective, the efficacy of a transformational leader is actually rooted in his or her ability to get people to believe in him or her.

Once followers actually believe in a leader, they can then believe in the leader's missive which is a critical prerequisite for transformation throughout organizations in various vertical industries. Emotional intelligence correlates to the ability of a leader to get his or her followers to believe in him or her in that leaders must understand the right way to foster such beliefs.

Specifically, then, an effective transformational leader is not only able to detect the emotions of his followers and harness them in a way that helps that leader achieve organizational objectives, but he or she should also be able to transmute his own emotions to his followers in such a way to achieve the same end. One example of a positive emotion that can impact transformational leadership is determination. Determination is an emotion that people can feel when they are encountering adversity and are resolved to overcome it.

Determination, then is vital to transformational leadership in that there is sure to be some degree of resistance, or certain obstacles, that an organization will have to endure in order to effect positive transformation. By both inspiring and emoting determination, transformational leaders are able to prepare organizations for any obstacles and to help steer them beyond them. Patience is another emotion that can play a significant role in transformational leadership.

Although patience is frequently considered a virtue, people can feel patience as well -- particularly when they believe in long-term objectives and not just the short-term effects of them. Therefore, patience is important to transformational leadership because it can help both leaders and followers to remain focused on their long-term objectives, despite whatever.