Emotional Intelligence and Leadership 3 of 5

Excerpt from John J. Errigo's Thesis titled "Emotional Intelligence: A Positive Influence on Leadership Effectivness and Cohesive Team Development" (J. Errigo, Saint Joseph's University P. 25-26, 2009).

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Pt3

Leadership generally consists of such dimensions as having a vision, power, utilization, delegation, discipline, supervision and external monitoring (Killburg, 2000). “The term team implies a strong cohesive, complementary group of people who pull together in support of the leader’s vision and aspirations” (Blattner & Bacigalupo, 2007 p. 210). The team is primarily influenced by the leader. It is the function of the team to carry-out the mission of the leader and it is the leader who sets the tone and develops the team. The leader has a tremendous influence on the emotions of the team and how the team see themselves. Sosik and Megerian (1999) stated “emotionally intelligent leaders provide the impetus for individuals to collectively perform” (p.368). “The leaders overall charisma, motivational influence, intellectual stimulation, and individualized attention to team members creates an atmosphere of empowerment (Prati, Douglas, Ferris, Ammeter, & Buckley, 2003 p. 28).”
The leader also influences the team’s behavior. If a leader makes each team member feel important and fosters the growth of each individual team member then the leader will effectively build a team. The leader has to have the emotional intelligence present to be able to identify how to foster growth of each team member. This happens with observing others and having an awareness of others and their subsequential motivations. George (2000) reasoned that the emotionally intelligent leader can accurately assess others’ emotions and contructively influence those emotions. “The leader needs to know exactly when and how to access and subsequently influence the emotions of the individual team members to achieve a collective goal or objective” (p. 1032). “Therefore, one who is emotionally intelligent might use emotion to create charismatic authority over team members in order to ensure team transformation” (Prati, Douglas, Ferris, Ammeter, & Buckley, 2003, p. 28). The leader has to know when to regulate those emotions for the common good of the team and use them effectively for a given purpose. The degree of emotional intelligence of a leader is closely connected to their ability and efficiency in their ability to arouse, inspire and lead individuals (Riggio & Pirozzolo, 2002). The emotional intelligence of the leader is closely tied to their ability to influence others and this influence helps nurture and guide each individual team member.

All rights reserved (2010) and my not be duplicated or refernced without written permission of author: John Errigo, M.S., by corporate authorization, HODT, Inc. (synergy@hodtinc.com)