Assignment: Intelligence and Leadership

According to the article "Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership", one of the most important constructs in leadership today is the concept and application of emotional intelligence (EI) (Batool, 2013). Imagine that you are an internal consultant to an organization of your choosing. The CEO has tasked you with preparing a presentation for the Board of Directors on what emotional intelligence is, and its influence on leadership and the people within the organization. Submit this assignment as a PowerPoint or other equivalent visual software.

PREWORK

In preparation for this assignment, review the following additional resources on emotional intelligence:

Resources

"Cultivating emotional intelligence" (See below)

Batool, B. F. (2013). Emotional intelligence and effective leadership. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 4(3), 84-94. (Attached separately)

Prepare an eight to ten slide presentation (PowerPoint) in which you:

1. Fully explain emotional intelligence, and give two examples of the concept. Next, examine the concept of "emotional quotient" compared to traditional "intelligence quotient."

2. Suggest two to three reasons why leaders' need emotional intelligence to manage today's workforce. Speculate on at least two possible consequences should a leader not possess emotional intelligence.

3. Explore the elements of emotional intelligence that leaders must be aware of to increase leadership effectiveness.

4. Recommend a strategy that the organization could undertake in order to improve the social skills of leaders within the organization and thereby positively influence their emotional intelligence. Support your recommendation with specific examples that illustrate why the strategy would be effective.

5. Include speaker's notes for each slide to indicate what you would say as you were delivering the presentation to the Board of Directors.

6. Use at least two quality academic resources. Note: Wikipedia does not qualify as an academic resource, neither do Web-based blogs.

7. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:

a. Include a title slide containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date. The title slide is not included in the required page length.

b. Include a reference slide. Citations and references must follow APA Annotated Bibliography format. The reference page is not included in the required slide length.

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence

One of your goals will be to help others learn emotional intelligence. One of the questions I often get from my clients is, can people really learn how to be emotionally intelligent? And the answer is yes. Unless they have a physical or chemical block that prevents them from tuning into emotions, any person can learn and build skill in all of the competencies. So let's talk about how.Just like any other skill, emotional intelligence is essentially a set of behaviors. These behaviors can be taught and with practice they can be learned and honed. When designing any kind of training, you must first assess where people are at.

I like to use this model that compares the awareness of the skill to the competence in the skill.The highest level is someone who is conscious of a skill, and also competent in that skill. This person knows about emotional intelligence, and is good at it. This is professional status, and affiliated with the phrase, I know that I know. Contrast that with another level, where someone isconscious of the skill, but incompetent at it. This means they know about emotional intelligence, but don't know how to do it. The phrase that describes this status is, I know that I don't know.

This is where traditional training comes in. You can provide courses or coaching on the various competencies of EQ. And the person can learn the skill, building mastery with practice. The lynda.com library has several relevant courses. This is different from the next level, where the person is unconscious of the skill, and also incompetent in the skill. This would mean that they don't exhibit emotional intelligence, nor do they know what EQ is or it's value. The phrase to describe this status is " I don't know that I don't know." and it represents a blind spot.

For this group, you first have to address consciousness, by providing information on the skill, and its importance, or value. Often this includes a range of data or evidence that demonstrates its value. Once the person has moved to conscious, but incompetent, you can then implement training on the skill itself. And finally, you have the category of people who are unconscious, but competent. This would be people who are naturally good at emotional intelligence, but have not really learned about it as a concept or skill.

The phrase here is, "I don't know that I know," and is often seen as a natural talent or gift. You would work with this group by designing "aha" moments that allow them to connect what they do with information about EQ and its affiliated skills. This group benefits from both the information and training sessions on EQ competencies, and then you can add customize coaching, that draws ties between their actions and what they're learning. Ideally, you want to move people to the level of conscious and competent.

And you use the tools of training and coaching to get them there. But don't stop there. All the training in the world won't help, unless you help them turn that knowledge into a behavior that's a habit. You must give people opportunities for applied practice. In fact, your training should include this. But in addition, there must be a period of time dedicated to practice, to help them hone the skill until it becomes a well-grooved habit. It takes time to build any new habit and, at first, new behaviors feel awkward or even uncomfortable. But, with repetition, and 40's always a good number to shoot for, any new skill can be built into a habit.

As you move through this course, consider each competence a separate area to develop. As you learn and hone each one into a habit, you'll see a significant shift occur. As each one becomes second nature, you can reap the real benefits that emotional intelligence provides.

Article: Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership by Bano Fakhra Batool.