Leadership is the ability to draw people to higher levels of
personal performance and development. Without the ability to understand other
people it will be difficult to raise their performance to new levels.
Transformational leadership and emotional intelligence can work together to
create stronger organizational performance based upon the ability to understand
oneself and the social group they are working with. The development of
transformational leadership skills along with emotional intelligence is a
worthwhile endeavor for higher levels of personal and group influence.
Organizational leaders with high levels of emotional
intelligence create stronger organizational performance. According to Jandaghi
et. al. (2009), successful organizations contain higher levels of
transformational leadership within their ranks. Understanding how
transformational leadership and emotional intelligence combine to create higher
group performance is important for choosing and developing future company
executives.
Transformational leadership describes a leader’s ability to
connect with employee’s self-identity and project that into visions that enhance
group performance. The trait can be defined as the ability to create mechanisms
wherein leadership and followers work together to develop enhanced levels of
morale and motivation (Bass & Avolio, 1994). This type of leader is uses
clearly defined visions and charismatic approaches to achieve goals.
Emotional intelligence is a significant predictor of
performance success. The concept of emotional intelligence entails the ability
to be self-aware, self-managed, self-motivated, have empathy and utilize social
skills. Research highlights the concept that emotional intelligence and
transformational leadership are associated (Esfahani & Soflu, 2013). It is
through this self-awareness that such leaders can better understand themselves
to better manage their environments.
There is a connection between awareness of oneself and the
awareness of the environment. Transformational leaders and emotionally
intelligent leaders are associated with each other in terms of traits (Mandell & Pherwani,
2003). This means that the traits seem to work with and influence each other to
create stronger leadership approaches. Traits overlap and manifest themselves in
positive group influence.
Does emotional awareness create group awareness? Available
research seems to support the concept that understanding oneself (emotional
intelligence) helps leaders to understand others perceptions of themselves (self-identity/group
identity) to create a dynamic combination of skills that push groups to perform
at higher levels to achieve clearly defined personal and organizational goals.
Such leaders understand that goals that do not have much
meaning for employees are unlikely to be fulfilled. Employees will simply be
dragged along because the work does not conform to their self-identity or the
nature of how they see themselves within their wider social networks.
Transformational leaders understand how these social mechanisms operate in
order to create enhanced levels of financial performance. It is difficult to
understand social structure and its motivating mechanisms unless one has first
conquered their inner emotional understandings of self. To master the self allows the mastery of
groups and in turn enhance financial performance. Social and financial aspects
are associated concepts that rest in the development of group performance. It takes many hands to build something worthwhile.
Bass, B. & Avolio, B. (Eds.) (1994). Improving
organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
Esfahani, N. & Soflu, H. (2013).
Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in physical education
managers. Cypriot Journal of Educational
Sciences, 8 (1).
Jandaghi, G. et. al. (2009). Comparing transformational
leadership in successful and unsuccessful companies. International Journal of Social Sciences, 4 (3).
Mandell, B. & Pherwani, S. (2003). Relationship between
emotional intelligence and transformational leadership style: a gender comparison.
Journal of Business & Psychology, 17
(3).
