Women in Leadership Roles (2012): Image source: BusinessInsider.com
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According to Northouse (2012), emotional intelligence is one way to assess the influence of traits on leadership. Emotional intelligence involves the interplay between our thinking and emotions; specifically, the ability for one to perceive and use emotions to express, facilitate thinking, understand, and reason (Northouse, 2012, p.27). There has been much debate about emotional intelligence and its significance on leadership. Northouse (2012) points out several researchers such as, Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2000) , who see a weak link between emotional intelligence and leadership. An article, The future of work, Times Magazine (2009) breathed new life into this debate. As one of the “10 ways your job will change”, Shipman and Kay (2009) write explicitly about why women will rule business in the future and how emotional intelligence plays a role.
Catalyst, a workplace research group found Fortune 500 companies with the most women in senior management, had a higher return on equities- by more than a third (Shipley & Kay, 2012). This provides pretty convincing evidence that women are making a change in the future of business, and for the better. When exploring why this is so, what makes women leaders so special? Shipley and Kay (2009) found one of those factors to be emotional intelligence. CMI (Chartered Management Institute, UK) predicts women will be moving rapidly up the chain of command with their emotional intelligence skills in high demand (Shipley & Kay).
What does this all mean? For one, that emotional intelligence is an important tool that can be used to assess how traits are influencing leadership. This has been shown in many studies unexpectedly, such as Catalyst’s study mentioned earlier. Catalyst set out to look at the positive correlation between company success and women employees, however unintentionally linking the traits women have to their success in the corporate world.The idea that women tend to be more nurturing, and too in touch with their feelings, in other words more emotionally intelligent than men, have now become a powerful tool in the corporate world, specifically, in leadership. Emotional intelligence is making a splash in the future of leadership and we have women to thank for it.
Written by: Mai Dolinh
Sources:
Kay, Claire Shipman and Katty. “The Future of Work.” Time. Time Inc., 14 May 2009. Web. 06 Sept. 2014. retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article
/0%2C28804%2C1898024_1898023_1898078%2C00.html.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Amber M Bankerd says
The fact that women are just coming into their own as important leaders is a sad but true story. We were thought of as the weaker sex because we could bare children so that automatically meant that we were really good at cooking and could juggle five children and take care of a house. But, we were expected to do all of this but because we got a menstral period every month we were deemed emotionally unfit due to our spartic hormons. Yea, this seems fair to me…..
There are new studies to suggest now the total opposite. For reasons that some people may think that women are “crazy” are now key to making a business successful. According to Dr. Jack Zenger (cbs.com) women are better at building relationships and keeping them. We are also better listeners which is key in running a business. Those “crazy” hormones such as being emotional people tend to think we would be more empathic to their homes lives in turn they have more flexible work schedules. This doesn’t mean that the work doesn’t get done it just means that you are more understanding to people’s needs.
References:
Heffernan, M. (2013, March 26). Yes, women make better leaders – CBS News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/yes-women-make-better-leaders/
According to Northhouse (2013) one of the key traits in becoming a great leader is having sociability. Asking a simple question such as how someone is doing today can get people to open up to you. If you have employees that trust you (which is were integrity steps in) they are more likely to like you and want to follow you.
I think that this is a great article. Women are finally getting recognized as the leaders that they know that they can be.
Jarreau Christian Francis says
Mai,
That was definitely an interesting read, albeit not very surprising. I have to admit that I was not very surprised to learn that women are utilizing their supreme emotional intelligence (compared to that of men) to ascend the corporate ladder. It also proves that the corporate environment is not what it used to be. Emotions and sociability had little or no role in corporations in the past. Muchinsky, an author of a noted book on I/O psychology quoted a researcher in this field of psychology, Goleman, when he stated that, “People with high cognitive ability alone are ambitious and productive, unexpressive, detached, and emotionally bland and cold.” (Muchinsky, pg.125)
I would argue, however, that it is not solely based on their emotional intelligence but rather a combination of both emotional and social intelligence. This probably makes sense since both of these concepts are interrelated. As stated by Professor Grabarek, “Social intelligence actually encompasses the earlier notion of emotional intelligence, but puts more emphasis on the interactions of people with their environments.” (Grabarek, lesson#2)
The two components of social intelligence: social awareness and social facility are both directly tied to empathy. It probably wouldn’t surprise most then, that women are inherently better than most men at displaying empathy, which is key to both of these concepts, especially when dealing in the corporate arena. This is an important notion to consider since researchers in the field of industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology have finally begun to acknowledge the existence of emotions, particularly in the corporate world. Muchinsky also relayed this point in his book, Psychology Applied to Work, when he stated, “However, we are beginning to realize that moods, feelings, and emotions play a significant role in the workplace, just as they do in life in general.” (Muchinsky, pg.124) With all that being said, you can now understand why more corporations are electing to place women in key leadership roles since they are better at handling the emotional employee.
-Jay
Muchinsky, Paul. M. (2012) Psychology Applied to Work. Hypergraphic Press. Summerfield, N.C.
Grabarek, Patricia (2014) Psych.485 Leadership in Work Settings. Lesson #2: Trait Approach. PSU World Campus.
Tara Olson says
I find the idea that women are heading to the top due to their emotional intelligence interesting, but I have to question if this is a stereotype? Daniel Goleman, who is coined with bringing the term to light describes in an article from Harvard Business Review that the five main components related to emotional intelligence are:
1. Self-Awareness
2. Self-Regulation
3. Motivation
4. Empathy
5. Social Skill
(Goleman, 2004, p.1)(http://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader/ar/1)
Emotional intelligence has been said to be something that can be learned, which makes me question a gender relation (Goleman, 2004). Are the previously listed skills and qualities inherently found more often in women than in men? For instance, are women really in more control of their feelings than men? Are women more aware of how they come across to others? Do women have less bad moods? Are women better communicators than men or have more motivation? What do you think? Do you believe one of the reasons women are rising to the top has to do with gender related emotional intelligence qualities or could it be something else?
Goleman, D. (2004, January). What Makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved September 7, 2014, from http://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader/ar/1