EQ

Picture retrieved from: http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19951002,00.html

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For the most part all of us interact with each another to some degree. This is not news to anyone. However, why, how, and for what reasons is commonly associated with social psychology. Much can be explained by the underlying, or obvious, reasons we interact—though not all are completely understood, even by the producer, all have reasons or instigations—even if they are not purposeful or self actuated. Having resolute control of our exchanges, particularly in the identification and response to our own emotions, can have a profound impact in how we present ourselves, handle situations, and ultimately accomplish goals with the collective force of individuals within a group—through leadership.

Within the world of academia, the study of how leadership is best developed has just recently begun to gain momentum (Luthans & Avolio 2003). Concurrently, within the last decade, the emergence of emotional intelligence has demonstrated strong research correlations to academic achievement, quality of social interaction, and leadership (Bar-On, 1997; Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004). As such, emotional intelligence stands to collectively participate in providing better leadership development and training.

Intrinsic to human social interaction resides two common ideals: the innate ability and need of socialization and the self conceptualization and enhancement of social skills needed to progress and even thrive far beyond just merely existing (Saarni, 1999; Holodynski, & Friedlmeier, 2005). As such, much of the foundation can be associated to Darwin’s understanding of the “emotional expression in survival and adaptation” (1872). This was further predicated by the Bar-On’s model of emotional intelligence that utilizes the view of emotional intelligent behavior as effective adaptation in Darwinian terms (Bar-On, 2006). With further connotations from positive psychology, Bar-On progressed away from psychopathology by highlighting “the importance of the ability to ‘thrive’” and not just survive through the optimization of controlling one’s emotions (Bar-On, 1997). From this, the drive of much of emotional intelligence research has been towards its correlation with various other psychological constructs—much like the overwhelming correlation data of general intelligence or IQ.

Generally, IQ (or g-factor) is the most commonly associated trait of perceived leadership, as we typically think good leaders are inherently smart (Lord, De Vader, & Alliger, 1986). It has also been explained that, “No other trait—not even conscientiousness—predicts so many important real-world outcomes so well” (Schmidt, & Hunter, 2000, p. 4). However, the positive correlation between intelligence and leadership is only moderate—p₁= .21, whereas the correlation between extroversion is p₁ = .31 (Judge, Colbert, & Ilies, 2004). Interestingly enough, there exists no positive correlation between emotional intelligence and IQ— p₁ = > 0.1(Ciarrochi, Chan, & Caputi, 2000). More importantly, the correlation between extroversion and emotional intelligence was very significant, p₁= 0.26, in the same study.

Finding that both emotional intelligence and extroversion are positively correlated AND extroversion and leadership ability are strongly correlated could, though not prematurely or falsely indicate a direct relationship or causality, predict that those who are more emotionally intelligent are better leaders. As such, this does not negate the fact that all but neuroticism of the big Five Factor Model positively correlates to emotional intelligence—where extroversion stands as the strongest (Dehghanan, Abdollahi, & Rezaei, 2014).

Further, one study does demonstrate just this. Through a longitudinal study, researchers demonstrated that higher levels of extroversion in adolescence strongly correlate to leadership qualities later in life (Guerin, Oliver, Gottfried, Gottfried, Reichard, & Riggio, 2011). Additionally, an enormous amount of data suggests very strong relations between social skills and leader competency and abilities (Riggio, & Lee, 2007; Riggio, Riggio, Salinas, & Cole, 2003).

Ultimately the importance of emotional intelligence on leadership ability is dynamic. Understanding the interplay between one’s emotions and their effectiveness as a leader by the utilization of social skills and analysis of intrinsic emotions is well beyond the scope of this conversation. However, the bond between emotional intelligence, extroversion, and leadership ability is strong and can stand to optimize leadership development through a collaborative effort to secure and instigate social skills and promulgate gregariousness throughout the lifespan.

Written by: Morgan DeBusk-Lane

References

Bar-On, R. (1997). The emotional quotient inventory (EQ-i): Technical manual. Toronto, Canada: Multi-Health Systems, Inc.

Bar-On, R. (2006). The Bar-On model of emotional-social intelligence (ESI)d. Psicothema, 18, 13-25.

Ciarrochi, J. V., Chan, A. Y. C., & Caputi, P. (2000). A critical evaluation of the emotional intelligence construct. Personality and Individual Differences, 28(3), 539-561. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00119-1

Darwin, C. (1872/1965). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dehghanan, H., abdollahi, H., & Rezaei, M. (2014). A study on effect of big five personality traits on emotional intelligence. Management Science Letters, 4(6), 1279-1284. doi:10.5267/j.msl.2014.4.016

Guerin, D. W., Oliver, P. H., Gottfried, A. E., Gottfried, A. W., Reichard, R. J., & Riggio, R. E. (2011). Childhood and adolescent antecedents of social skills and leadership potential in adulthood: Temperamental approach/withdrawal and extraversion. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(3), 482-494. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.04.006

Judge, T. A., Colbert, A. E., & Ilies, R. (2004). Intelligence and leadership; A quantitative review and test of theoretical propositions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(3), 542-552.

Lord, R. G., De Vader, C. L., & Alliger, G. M. (1986). A meta-analysis of the relation between personality traits and leadership perceptions: An application of validity generalization procedures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 402–410.

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In Salovey, P and Sluyter D. (Eds.). (1997). Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Implications for educators.New York: Basic Books.

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). Emotional intelligence: Theory, findings, and implications. Psychological Inquiry 15(3), 197-215.

Riggio, R. E., & Lee, J. (2007). Emotional and interpersonal competencies and leader development. Human Resource Management Review, 17, 418–426.

Riggio, R. E., Riggio, H. R., Salinas, C., & Cole, E. J. (2003). The role of social and emotional communication skills in leader emergence and effectiveness. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 7, 83–103.