What Makes a Leader?

In today's world, what makes a leader? In today's world, how much emotional intelligence is needed to make good leaders? The evidence suggests that emotional intelligence is an integral part of both leadership development and organizational performance today."?studies indicate that emotional intelligence may be the key attribute that distinguishes outstanding performers from those who are merely adequate." (Daniel Goleman , 2004) To gain improvements in organisational performance, great leadership even today depends on the balance between how much EQ is nurtured and trained. In today's economic environment, it is not enough to design an induction programme by the Learning and Development department and fly through the order course model of learning and performance. EQ training initiatives must be exercised by key business decision makers led by C-Suite. It will be more effective for companies to develop EQ curriculums aligned with leadership practices today and to create sustainable competitive advantages in the future by aligning EQ curriculums with leadership practices.(Fahey, 2022)

In today's business environment, emotional intelligence training can also benefit servant leadership practices. I define EQ training as initiatives that increase a leader's ability to manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors under different project management scenarios. (Fahey, 2022) Posing a business challenge and providing time and mentorship to allow an employee to grow, whether as a mentor or coach with execise EQ training. Moreover, there does need to be the right stablises and condtions to support EQ training to be effective. One-to-one feedback and self assessment have been proven to boost leadership performance even in personal life where stressful events like death of a sibling can initially lower morale. (Fahey, 2022) Slow walking and exercise are also known to boost EQ levels by helping one understand how they feel even during stressful times. (Fahey,2022) Moreover, investing time in the right organisational structure and culture thresholds will improve leadership development under the domain of EQ. (Fahey, 2022) Organizational structure thresholds indicate the amount of autonomy given to project teams that allows them to develop emotional intelligence leadership skills. (Fahey,2022)

Today's underlining problem in business leadership is that the C-Suite understands that EQ positively impacts organization performance, but little is known how to properly implement the behavior to practice the art. Sales and marketing targets should be driven toward teams that are strong for business survival - without EQ training - then leaders risk burnout, like lost sheep in a farmer's field.

Evaluating Emotional Intelligence

Organizational performance is pinned on the competency models that human resources use to design recruitment and selection practices. Refer to the Great Resignation - the concept is flawed when recruiters do not assess the value of emotional intelligence during an interview. Despite the fact that assessment centers provide some insights into potential leaders, detailed long-term assessments of how a candidate will perform later with coaching practice are not well predicted by assessment centers. ( Stephen Fahey ,2022) Furthermore, in recent years, too much emphasis has been placed on hiring employees based on their experience, not on their EQ, which determines their leadership classification, such as being a moderate or excellent leader.

In modern business management, emotional intelligence and leadership practices are misunderstood. The problem occurs when leadership development is only addressed in training workshops. Training workshops do increase organisational performance through-out the CPD (continus profesional development) cycle. (Fahey, 2022) The danger arises, however, when management expects results faster than an employee can gain motivation and self-regulation. Self regulation according to Daniel Goleman is the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods. A syndrome known as "Don't bring me problems - bring me solutions " can also affect the ability to evaluate emotional intelligence.

A significant part of leadership development occurs over the timeline of the supply chain of learning and performance. "A supply chain of learning and performance refers to the learning experiences humans have between educational institutions and work placements in order to progress in life." (Fahey, 2022)

Training Emotional Intelligence Leadership

In modern society, however, stress and work-life balance shake up the alignment of traditional education for leadership development. Therefore, EIT (Emotional Intelligence Training) alters its success range. An employee's annual performance review could determine the range of success in this instance, such as the score they receive from human resources or their manager. In contrast, EIT can be improved through lifetime learning, where gains can be made to improve overall leadership performance. "One thing is certain: Emotional intelligence increases with age. There is an old-fashioned word for the phenomenon: maturity. Yet even with maturity, some people still need training to enhance their emotional intelligence.?" (Goleman, 2004)

The times of feeling stressed and having negative thoughts can be argued to most signicant opportunties of increasing emotional intelligence. Moreover, EQT does not operate in aone stop workshop scenerio. More often than not gains in EQ for employees happen when they experience instances of motivation and inspiration. "One thing is certain: Emotional intelligence increases with age. There is an old-fashioned word for the phenomenon: maturity. Yet even with maturity, some people still need training to enhance their emotional intelligence." (Goleman, 2004)

Motivation and inspiration can even coexist when self-doubt or toxic leadership practices strain our rational thinking. (Fahey, 2022) To reduce risk for a higher return on investment, rational thinking in leadership practice is the command center for valid justifications to business decisions. (Fahey, 2022) Thus, investing in EQT is a worthwhile investment for the performance of an organization.

Enhanced feedback has also been found to be effective in increasing leadership development in an organization, as supported by Goleman (2004). According to educational researchers, feedback comes in two forms: formal and informal. In addition, when an employee is given formal feedback one-to-one, such as an annual performance review, the original feedback comes from the line manager's subjective perspective. Due to this, there can sometimes be lost opportunities for learning in gains for higher EQT. As well as not supporting the supply chain theory of learning and performance - where more opportunities for individuals to self-reflect exist.

It is important to note that the learing cubes for gains in EQ are there in that complicated learning model, regardless of whether we see them in our conscious or unconscious minds. If we unpack the learning carefully, slowly over time, a bucket of EQT can be filled up with both positive and negative experiences. The long walk of lifetime learning in terms of increasing our EQ sparks more when we decide to give our brains conscious feedback (Fahey, 2022) Furthermore, taking a different perspective, such as going for a walk after a difficult meeting, can allow higher cognitive processes to work faster and more efficiently. (Fahey, 2022)

Conclusions

According to research, there is a strong link between organizational performance and emotional intelligence. As a result, firms are able to improve their core leadership development principles and practices. Furthermore, business development also provides sustainable competitive advantages. Even so, it's a mistake to believe that attending a single workshop will increase EQ in an organization. Opportunities must be created to allow conscious and unconscious self-feedback, for example, in project management - to allow emotional intelligence to grow. Having emotional intelligence is a lifelong learning skill that is strongly correlated with events and emotions that override our rational reasoning. When humans recognize they are experiencing stress and slowly allow their brains to enter rational thought, where notions of self-awareness can increase, they can master EQ at work or at home and become more effective leaders.

"We can all be great leaders, but how we engage with our EQ determines how successful we are."

STEPHEN FAHEY

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