What makes a Leader?

By Daniel Goleman Best of HBR 1998, 9 pages Statement: Leaders require Emotional Intelligence In this article what makes a Leader? Daniel Goleman forces us readers to delve i nto the makings of the Leader. What are the qualities that make a leader, what g oes into the Leadership mix? He focuses on the fact that Leaders may have intell igence, zeal, innovativeness but without Emotional Intelligence no leader is com plete. He talks about the parameters of the much needed Emotional Intelligence such as Self Awareness, Self Regulation, Self Knowledge, Empathy and Social skill as the main quality a leader should have to guarantee his success. With this article h e has found direct ties between emotional intelligence and measurable business r esults. I have often wondered is Emotional Intelligence is really needed for a leader to be a successful one, the thought has often crossed my mind that is a p erson who is not in tune with his emotional side, can he/she become a good leade r. I guess a lot of people including corporate pundits and corporate have though t the same as Ive thought, which is why the importance of this article is more. T his article has entered the concept of Leadership into new frontiers; to say Emo tional Intelligence is one of the most important things a leader is to have is t o broaden the dimensions of Leadership. Hence the articles importance as it serve s as a guide to finding the spirit of Leadership; it helps in studying the dynam ics of leadership and as a tool to become a good leader. It also shows the quali ties that a needed for becoming a good leader. There are five basic arguments or assumptions the writer makes in the article. A fter extensive study and analysis of competency models from 188 companies, he ha s derived these arguments. The five arguments are listed and explained below: Self-Awareness: He writes that self awareness is the first component of emotional intelligence a nd it is also the first step towards realising a persons emotional quotient. It i s quite true because of the fact that only if you are aware of your strengths an d limitations then only can you move towards attaining your realistic goal. Bein g self aware is being realistic and setting realistic goals and not goals based on your whims and fancies. Being self aware is also to realise your feelings and being in tune with yourself. He gives examples as to where self awareness can b e helpful for example performance appraisals, dealing with demanding consumers, to make judgements etc. Self-Regulation: Goleman states that Biological impulses drive our emotions. If a person is not o n self regulation mode then those people definitely control his/her impulses and emotions and leaders should be able to control their impulses and emotions. A s elf regulated person can control his/her impulses and not make decision that the y will regret in future and control their emotions that neither others nor they can take advantage over them. With self regulation comes reason and with reason come structured processes and an openness to change. Motivation: In the article he states that motivation is one essential thing that all effecti ve leaders virtually have and need. Motivation in leadership is directly linked with Achieve, which is quite true; for other people motivation might mean more mon ey, prestige, benefits but for a leader motivation is the desire to achieve. Lea ders have passion and like creative challenges and these are the motivation for them to be the best of the best. Also motivation brings along optimism which is also required for the leader. A punch line from the American army comes into min

d, be all that you can be. He has followed up his logic with examples of a cosme tic manager. Empathy: A leader who has no or little empathy is no worthy leader someone close to me on ce said is held true by this article. A great man is known by how he treats men below him and not above him, my father once said to me. In this article, the wri ter is trying to home in these thoughts in our minds. He writes Empathy means th oughtfully considering employee feelings-along with other factors in the process of making intelligent decisions. A leader who is empathetic towards his followe rs will have large and willing followers and who are not have usually no followi ng. The leader must be able to harness all the emotions of his followers and hav e them follow his goals and missions. To make us understand the concept he has g iven examples of two brokerage firms and a marketing manager at a large informat ion technology firm. Social Skill: In this article according to the writer, the first three components of emotional intelligence are self-management skill and the last tow, empathy and social ski ll concern a persons ability to manage relationships with others. What he writes is true to its last word, a leader to succeed needs to have social skills which just does not border along friendliness but also have the skill to move people i nto the direction to which he/she chooses them to move. Best leaders have social skills that involve huge social acquaintances and find common ground with peopl e of all kinds; they build rapport with all kinds of people. For this he has sta ted a example of an executive of a global computer manufacturer. The author addresses the issue by giving various examples of sorts but what is l acking here is a structured research and empirical evidences to support his assu mptions. Yes he has given examples and dealt the issue with various concepts yet there is a gap of factual and empirical data to support his claim. The five con cepts he has used are self awareness, self regulation, motivation, Empathy and S ocial Skill, they are very much important and linked to todays world of corporate affairs and provide valuable insight into the domain of emotional intelligence. If emotional intelligence is the key component of leaders, has he written about various leaders who have demonstrated emotional intelligence, no he has not. Th is is where i find the article very disappointing, his failure to give plausible or credible examples which would have lent some credence to his tall claim. In his concluding remarks he states that Emotional Intelligence is needed for a leader to be an effective leader. He is very convincing but still his conviction lacks the fire power had is needed. He does not say that a leader who has high emotional intelligence but is low on creativity and innovation can be a good lea der. By putting stress just on emotional intelligence, he is negating other fact ors that are needed to be a good leader, is it worth it if a person just has emo tional intelligence. His concluding statement fails to broach on the subject of visions, does he believe that a leader must not have visions instead just have e motional quotient, i wonder. I do not believe that the conclusion are justified, they need to be more refined and specific. The conclusions are important becaus e of the subject matter and yes emotional intelligence is important as a part of the whole leadership package but is not important as the whole emotional packag e. He also states that emotional intelligence can be learned which is very true, not all humans are born emotionally intelligent, and they must be trained and s harpened into shinny razor blades. It is true when he say emotional intelligence is now a need of leaders not just nice to have in the leader. But as Ive said be fore that emotional intelligence must be a part and not made the whole package. How this work can further be extended (Recommendations)

 Successful Leaders must be tested on the emotional intelligence front as to whet her they succeeded due to emotional intelligence or other factors More Research must be conducted and more empirical and factual evidences should be presented not just some made up examples The measurability of E.Q. should be made as to this amount of E.Q coupled with o ther factors would make a successful leader should be established Even rating system should be given to the five essentials of E.Q. and the most i mportant one should be established Maybe other factors such as Culture, Religion and Beliefs should be added into t he essentials of emotional intelligence