Developing emotional intelligence to transform managers into leaders

Leadership Transformation

Introduction
It’s explained a lot of different ways, but the traditional views goes something like this: managers and leaders are not the same thing. A manager is someone who was responsible for execution of the team – forecasting, budgeting, planning and controlling (Ryan, 2016). Leadership was not necessarily part of that equation. Leadership was something different entirely. If a manager was another cog in the machine, the leader was the one running the machine. A leader motivated people, and had the ability to get people to reach their potential. What’s happened in recent years is that the rapid pace of change in most industries has meant that the static nature of work that elevated the importance of managers has been replaced with a state of constant change that requires more leading, and less managing. The latter still matters, but leaders are vital to the success of any organization, and there needs to be leaders throughout. This means that more people who might otherwise have been managers need to learn how to lead. Thankfully, research suggests that bosses should be able to transform into great leaders, because it is possible to develop the emotional intelligence skills and learn how to communicate effectively, and build relationships needed to be effective leaders.”

Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the idea that one’s ability to understand accurately their own emotional state, and the emotional state of others, is a unique form of intelligence. The key components of emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy for others, and social skills. Each of these, in turn, can be developed by somebody, once they are understood. It takes effort to develop these skills, but it can be done, or so goes the hypothesis. As the literature around emotional intelligence has been developed, a couple of key hypotheses were tested. The first was the importance of emotional intelligence to leadership.
By 1998, the links between emotional intelligence and leadership were being explored (Ovans, 2015). Palmer et al (2001) found that emotional intelligence was found to correlate to several components of transformational leadership. In that study, it was assumed as a baseline that transformational leadership is superior to transactional leadership. While not entirely true, it is true in any industry that experiences a rapid pace of change, and where the long-run development of employees is necessary for success. The key finding of that study was that emotional intelligence “may account for how effective leaders monitor and respond to subordinates and make them feel at work.”
George (2000) lends further support to this, noting that emotional intelligence is tied to instilling in others an appreciation of the importance of work activities, generating enthusiasm, confidence and optimism, encouraging flexibility in decision-making and establishing an identity for the organization. By defining what leadership attributes are specifically tied to emotional intelligence, and differentiating those things from management tasks, George has effectively operationalized the role of emotional intelligence in leadership, and allows for a deeper understanding of the value of fostering specific traits of emotional intelligence in managers, and those who might have a future as leaders in the organization.
Further studies looked at the issue from the employee’s view, and found correlations between the emotional intelligence of supervisors and the way those supervisors were evaluated by their subordinates (Kerr et al, 2005). This supports the other studies that focused on total organizational effectiveness – high emotional intelligence in leaders is a trait that is correlated with measures of success, and for all people in the organization. The next step is to determine whether emotional intelligence can be taught, or not.
Daniel Goleman, who was instrumental in developing the concept of emotional intelligence, has long maintained that emotional intelligence can be taught (Goleman et al, 2002). If other forms of intelligence can be developed to some extent, emotional intelligence has been positioned as one of the more elastic forms of intelligence, more likely to be learned than other forms. This means that a manager, with modest emotional intelligence, can over time develop a higher level of emotional intelligence and start to behave more as a leader. That is to say, leaders can be developed. Once one has the analytical skills and technical skills required for senior management, emotional intelligence can be developed as the final step to becoming a true leader (Ovans, 2015).
Thus, the final question with respect to emotional intelligence is how does one learn it? What does that process look like? Can emotional intelligence be learned quickly enough, and to a high enough level, to transform managers into leaders at scale? Much of the early research on teaching emotional intelligence was done in the context of the education system. While there is obvious value in teaching interventions at the university level, especially in business school (Pool & Qualter, 2012), for managers who are already working, there needs to be other strategies, in order for them to reach their leadership potential.
Subsequent research on the specific topic of whether or not emotional intelligence can be learned has been conducted. Dulewicz & Higgs (2007) argue that they found evidence that emotional intelligence can be taught. Their conclusion rests on a couple of key points. The first is that, while some elements of emotional intelligence seem more malleable than others, the different elements have interrelations that mean improvement in one will usually be matched by improvement in others, if to a lesser degree. Training, they found, resulted in improved scores on emotional intelligence tests, especially in these enabler elements, the ones that facilitated the growth of the other elements of emotional intelligence. Their findings also lead down a path to developing a specific method for teaching emotional intelligence, by understanding the mechanics of how emotional intelligence can be learned.
Specific leadership teaching programs have been developed to take those who are interested in nurturing their leadership skills, and giving them the tools to improve their emotional intelligence. Ashkanasy & Dasborough (2010) highlighted the value of emotional intelligence in leadership studies. It is hypothesized that one can increase emotional intelligence, but even its proponents admit the data to support the claim is insufficient. However, by developing awareness of emotional intelligence, using role-playing and scenario analysis, and teaching the individual components of emotional intelligence, is it believed that emotional intelligence abilities can be improved, as with any other skill (Caruso & Wolfe, 2004).
Phipps, Prieto and Ndinguri (2014) outline several ways in which emotional intelligence can impact on one’s leadership abilities. For example, coaching is one of the traits of a leader, and coaching is something that requires a high level of emotional intelligence, some technical skills, effective communication and the ability to build relationships. So the different facets of emotional intelligence and leadership seems to tie in well together for coaching. Action learning and job enrichment are two of the other ways in which emotional intelligence can impact on one’s leadership abilities. Learning and development at the leadership at the managerial level might mean improving on one’s technical skills, or analytical abilities. But at the leadership level, learning and development typically means improving one’s communication, building relationships, and thinking about the human side of business in a more strategic way – fostering long-run relationships and influencing people both over the short and long term.
Managers can improve their emotional intelligence, and by doing so, will increase their leadership skills. Many of the critical differences between managers and leaders are in the realm of interpersonal management, so the ability to understand emotions – one’s own and those of others – is a critical determinant of the ability of someone to shift from a managerial role to a leadership role. Given the critical importance of leadership in many organizations today, given the rapidly changing environments in which most companies operate, the reality is that more people will need to make the shift to being better leaders. To do this, they will need to increase their emotional intelligence. While the evidence is unclear in terms of supporting data, the people who are closest to the concept of emotional intelligence firmly believe that the skills that go into it can be taught, if not systematically then at least by introducing a greater awareness of the core concepts to the business audience, and preferably from an early stage. But even managers who have been around for years can still learn emotional intelligence, which is an encouraging sign for business in general.

Effective Communication
As George (2000) outlines, key traits that differentiate leadership from management include generating enthusiasm, encouraging flexibility in decision-making, instilling in others an appreciation of the importance of work activities, and other aspects that are directly tied to communication. Indeed, one of the most important aspects of emotional intelligence is to be able to form the types of direct, human connections that allow for more effective communication. Building emotional intelligence is one way of improving communication, which will help someone become a better leader. But there are other ways as well.
Griffith (2002) outlines the communications competencies required in business. The first is the cognitive competencies, which is “the individual’s ability to ascertain meaning from verbal and nonverbal language” (p.258). In other words, the ability to understand the words, and the context in which those words are used, which may shift the meaning of those words. Knowing the audience is important, or if you are the audience, knowing the speaker. Affective competence “relates to an individual’s emotional tendencies in relation to communication” (p.259). This reflects how somebody responds to communication, such as with empathy, with defensiveness, or other emotional responses. Affective competence can also include one’s ability to tolerate ambiguity in communication, which can be especially important in international business, as in many countries communication is far less direct than in the United States. The third competence is behavioral competence, which is defined as “an individual’s flexibility and resourcefulness in reacting to communication encounters” (p.260). These three are the core competency categories in which individual skills such as listening, messaging, use of different media and other skills are developed.
The elements of good communication are fairly easy to teach. There are university degrees in communication. By understanding how messaging works, how media works, and how to listen and to understand, managers can become more like leaders. Indeed, effective communication ties directly into emotional intelligence. Some of the building blocks of emotional intelligence that were defined by Dulewicz and Higgs (2004) tie directly into communication. For a leader, understanding emotional states, and how to create them, is just the first step. Effective communication is the mechanism by which the value of emotional intelligence is converted into actual leadership – without the ability to communicate one’s knowledge and insight, that knowledge and insight may well be squandered.
Emotional intelligence also supports good communication. A manager can be an effective communicator in the sense of explaining clearly what needs to be done, and how to do it. But a leader is able to instil attributes such as empathy and motivation into this communication. Knowing what to do is important, of course, but when the worker knows why to do it, objections are less likely to occur, and they are more likely to have a sense of intrinsic motivation to perform, and to sustain that performance over longer periods of time. This is the value that leadership brings, and it all comes back to the elements of emotional intelligence and how emotional intelligence is put into action with effective communication skills.

Building Relationships
The metaphor of the manager is being a cog in the machine, just like the other workers albeit with a slightly different role. The leader is a different role, one build on the human side, with key competencies rooted in effective communication and high emotional intelligence. Building relationships is another key attribute of leadership, because these relationships allow for the other attributes to flourish. For example, communication skills can be put to better use over time. Where high emotional intelligence can allow someone to identify the emotional state of another person more accurately, not all transactions are done with such immediacy – some things take time. Building relationships allows the leader to gain much deeper insight into the motivations of others, and to use those motivations to bring about deals that benefit both parties. This is true both when dealing with subordinates – like determining which subordinates are hungry for greater opportunity versus those who are not – and with other leaders. Remember that leading subordinates is just the first step in leadership; the next step is to be a leader of leaders, and to get there requires relationship building on a much higher level.
Building relationships is also facilitated by emotional intelligence. The long-range benefits of higher emotional intelligence helps leaders to build relationships of different types, and then know when and how to leverage those relationships to get things done. Ultimately, emotional intelligence has tremendous value in being able to build the type of long-term relationships that allow leaders to have a transformational impact on their organizations, rather than merely a transactional one at a higher level. All told, building relationships is not something that one learns as a skill, but is something that occurs after one increases their skills in emotional intelligence, and in effective communication,. Relationship building is an output of higher leadership skills. Indeed, one might not understand the value of relationship building if they have too much of a transactional mindset. Having a higher level of emotional intelligence is something that will help them to become a better leader in the future.
The role that relationship building plays in leadership cannot be understated. The managerial metaphor does not really require strong relationship building skills. The manager can simply assign tasks, do so with little or no empathy, and then govern performance the same way. But a team that is only motivated to the extent that they will not be punished for substandard performance might be okay in some work situations, but for an organization that has more of a transformative goal, or one where there is constant change, needs a leader that can do more than task management. Such an organization needs to develop leaders who can motivate, inspire, and take employees through challenges. That is where leadership comes into play, and leadership is simply more effective when there are strong relationships that underlie that leadership.

Conclusions
Emotional intelligence, effective communication and relationship building are at the heart of leadership, especially as leadership is juxtaposed with the more traditional view of management. This isn’t to say that managers are unimportant – they are still valuable to organizations – but that as our understanding of leadership has evolved, the differences between leadership and management are quite stark. The leader plays a critical role in the organization, especially in an environment where change and transformation are the norm. The leader’s roles are rooted in the relationships that they form over the long run, and their ability to communicate effectively with their team. Being able to raise the level of the team is an absolutely critical leadership function in any company that wants to grow, because there always needs to be a talent pipeline.
Over the past twenty years, emotional intelligence has been identified as a key trait that lies at the heart of what leadership is really about. In today’s rapidly-changing environment, there is more need for quality leadership than ever before. What this means is that organizations of today need to turn more leaders into managers. Research suggests that this is possible. Even as universities begin to introduce emotional intelligence into leadership training, there remains a need to take existing managers, and train them to become leaders. It is essential that even older managers start to learn the key leadership skills that will help them become better at what they do.
Thankfully, most experts on emotional intelligence believe that EI can be taught. There remains some work to be done in terms of identifying the best ways to do this, especially with older managers, but it is certainly possible. Introducing the principles of emotional intelligence and simply creating the awareness of key points is a starting point. Effective communication and relationship-building can also be taught, and those skills tie directly into emotional intelligence. That symbiotic relationship between each of these critical leadership skills means that getting a basis in emotional intelligence and improving one’s level is going to be an important piece to turning managers into leaders, in any organization.





References

Ashkanasy, N. & Dasborough, M. (2003) Emotional awareness and emotional intelligence in leadership teaching. Journal of Education for Business. Vol. 79 (1) 18-22.

Caruso, & Wolfe, (2004) Emotional intelligence. Leader Development for Transforming Organizations: Growing Leaders for Tomorrow. Routledge. New York.

Dulewicz, V. & Higgs, M.(2004) Can emotional intelligence be developed? The International Journal of Human Resource Management. Vol. 15 (1) 95-111.

George, J. (2000) Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence. Human Relations. Vol. 53 (8) 1027-1055.

Goleman, D., Royatzis, R., McKee, A. (2002) Primal leadership: Realizing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business School Press.

Griffith (2002) The role of communication competencies in international business relationship development. Journal of World Business. Vol. 37 (2002) 256-265.

Kerr, R., Garvin, J., Heaton, N. & Boyle, E. (2005) Emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal. Vol. 27 (4) 265-279.

Ovans, A. (2015) How emotional intelligence became a key leadership skills. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved April 7, 2019 from https://hbr.org/2015/04/how-emotional-intelligence-became-a-key-leadership-skill

Palmer, B., Wells, M., Burgess, Z., Stough, C. (2001) Emotional intelligence and effective leadership. Leadership & Organizational Development. Vol. 22 (1) 5-10.

Phipps, S., Prieto, L. & Ndinguri, E. (2014) Emotional intelligence: Is it necessary for leader development? Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics. Vol. 11 (1) 73-89.

Pool, L. & Qualter, P. (2012) Improving emotional intelligence and emotional self-efficacy through a teaching intervention for university students. Learning and Individual Differences. Vol. 22 (2012) 306-312.

Ryan, L. (2016) Management vs leadership: Five ways they are different. Forbes. Retrieved April 7, 2019 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/03/27/management-vs-leadership-five-ways-they-are-different/#5304765769ee