Dynamic.docx
ASSESSMENT 1 BRIEF
Subject Code and Title Dynamic Leadership
Assessment Assessment 1: Emotional Intelligence: Self Reflective Analysis
Individual/Group Individual
Length Up to 1,000 words
Learning Outcomes
a) Explore and reflect on self- development as a leade
to build self-awareness
e) Demonstrate the technique of reflective and reflexive
practice as a means of continuous learning and
self-development.
Assessment Task
Your task in Assessment 1, is to reflect on your cu
ent level of emotional intelligence by
completing the Genos Emotional Intelligence Report, analysing your results and preparing a
ief
eport on your results and their implications for your development as a leader or influencer of
people in your communities, social networks and workplaces.
Instructions for accessing the Genos Emotional Intelligence Report will be provided by
your Learning Facilitato
Please read the instructions carefully and respond to the questions as honestly as possible, so
that you get a meaningful set of results.
Analysing results
When you receive your results, look at your report, read the background material in the
Module 1.2 Resources section and on the Genos website. You should then prepare a
1,000-word report which covers the following issues:
1) A
ief discussion of the theoretical foundation of Emotional Intelligence
and its relevance to effective leadership;
2) Your initial reactions to your results: provide at least two examples of where have
you experienced your level of emotional intelligence assisting or limiting your capacity to
influence other people;
3) Your initial thoughts on how you can continue to develop your level of
emotional intelligence to enhance the effectiveness of your personal and workplace
elationships.
Do not include your results in the body of your report. You will need to submit a copy of your report
with your submission.
Please note that it is quite difficult to cover these three points in 1,000 words – pre-plan what you
intend to say and revise your work repeatedly to increase the impact of your writing. Avoid
unnecessary discussion and ensure every sentence contributes positively to the discussion and is
aligned with the requirements of the assessment
ief.
Reflexive Writing - First Person
You should write in the first person, because this is about YOU, your reflections and you
interpretations. (e.g. “I considered this result to be….. because it had a big impact on my… and
it
helped me to understand my ”)
Try to be as specific as possible, use
ief examples to illustrate your points and try to select
examples that enable you to demonstrate learning against the attributes in the ru
ic.
Requests for copies should be addressed to:TGroenewald,Technikon SA, Private BagX6,
Florida,1710
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCEASADETERMINANTOF
LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL
ANITA D STUART
ANDREA PAQUET
Department of Psychology
Rand Afrikaans University
ABSTRACT
Emotional intelligence scores of employees of a ¢nancial institution who displayed leadership potential (n = 31)
were compared with scores of a groupwho displayed little leadership potential. Leadershipwas rated by ascertai-
ning the presence of transformational behaviour. All rated employees completed an emotional intelligence scale.
Results indicated that the factors of optimism and self-actualisationwere signi¢cantly higher for the leader group.
The non-leader group indicated higher scores on the positive impression scale, indicating possible positive ske-
wing of results for that group. Generally, the research data indicates a link between the fundamental postulates of
transformational leadership theory and emotional intelligence.
OPSOMMING
Emosionele intelligensie-tellings van ’n groep werknemers binne ’n ¢nansie« le instelling wie leierskapspotensiaal
getoon het (n = 31) is vergelyk met ’n groep wat min leierskapspotensiaal getoon het. Leierskapspotensiaal is be-
paal op grond van die teenwoordigheid van transformasionele gedrag. Allewerknemers wat gemeet is het ’n emo-
sionele intelligensieskaal voltooi. Resultate toon dat optimisme en selfaktualisasie beduidend hoe« r was vir die
leiergroep. Die nie-leiergroep het hoe« r tellings getoon op die positiewe indruk-skaal, wat ’n moontlike positiewe
skeefheid van daardie groep se resultate aandui. Die navorsingsdata toon oor die algemeen’n koppeling tussen die
fundamentele beginsels van transformasionele leierskapsteorie en emosionele intelligensie.
Leadership has been de¢ned as the competencies and processes
equired to enable and empower ordinary people to do extra-
ordinary things in the face of adversity. It is also the ability to
constantly deliver superior performance to the bene¢t of on-
eself and the organisation. These de¢nitions include being
skilled in emotional competencies (Bennis & Nanus, 1985, p.
223; Kelly,1986, p. 12; Senge,1991, p. 151).
This study focused on the emotional intelligence factors con-
sidered to be characteristic of e¡ective leaders. Given the cur-
ent South African political and business context, Charlton
(1993) believes that emotional competencies are vital if organi-
sations are to achieve excellence.
People who are unable to maintain a degree of control ove
their emotional life, ¢ght inner battles that sabotage the abili-
ty for focused work and clear thoughts (Goleman, XXXXXXXXXXUn-
clear thinking and a lack of focus may in turn, contribute to
decreased productivity and an overall decline in organisational
success. Emotionally intelligent leaders with the ability to
think clearly whilst being in tune with themselves and others,
would thus be required to lead an emotionally intelligent or-
ganisation (Cooper & Sawaf,1997). Leaders may not necessari-
ly occupy positions of authority in the organisation, yet even
at lower organisational levels they lead by example.Otto (1995,
p.1) refers to such leaders as ‘‘little leaders’’.This study identi¢ed
speci¢c emotional competencies that may be characteristic of
successful ‘‘little leaders’’.
Leadership
Much of the existing leadership research in these ¢elds (e.g.
Situational leadership theory (Hersey & Blanchard, 1982))
emphasise that successful leadership implies the ability to cope
with, and adapt e¡ectively to environmental demands.
The transactional-transformational paradigmviews leadership
as either amatter of contingent reinforcement of followers by a
transactional leader, or the moving of followers beyond thei
self interests for the good of the group, organisation or society
y a transformational leader. The transformational leader in-
duces in others a greater awareness regarding issues of con-
sequence. This heightening of awareness requires a leade
with self-con¢dence, vision and inner strength to argue fo
what is seen by the leader as good and right, rather than an
accepted societal norm (Lewis,1996).
Leadership has been described as the art of persuading people,
ather than dominating them (Charlton,1993; Goleman,1995;
Locke, XXXXXXXXXXBass (1990, p. 68) suggests that the personal attri-
utes, which enable an individual to exercise transformational
leadership, include both ‘‘vision’’ and the capacity to convey
that vision to others, even in the face of opposing conventional
wisdom.These attributes equip the leader to argue what he o
she sees as right and good, not for what is popular or acceptable
according to established wisdom of the time (Bass, 1990;
Burns,1978).
Emotional Intelligence
Psychologists have been attempting to categorise and de¢ne
intelligence for many years. Emotional intelligence adds new
understanding to the concept of human intelligence, as it ex-
pands the capacity to measure one’s general and overall intelli-
gence (Bar-On, XXXXXXXXXXBroadly speaking, emotional
intelligence addresses the emotional, personal, social and sur-
vival dimensions of intelligence, which are often more impor-
tant for daily functioning than the more traditional cognitive
aspects of intelligence. Emotional intelligence emphasises un-
derstanding one’s self and others, relating to people and adap-
ting to and coping with environmental demands. Salovey and
Mayer XXXXXXXXXXstate that emotions are primarily motivating for-
ces, which arouse, direct and sustain activity. Emotional life
can be handledwith greater or lesser skill and requires a unique
set of competencies
As emotional intelligence is a vital factor in determining ones
ability to succeed in life and is said to directly in£uence one’s
psychologicalwell-beingor overall degree of emotional health
(Bar-On, 1996b), it can be postulated that emotional health
should also have some impact on the presence or absence of
leadership ability.
Vision, self-con¢dence and inner strength are also indicators
of emotional intelligence. Lewis (1996, p. 801) refers to the
transformational leader’s ‘‘inner strength’’.They argue that only
those individuals who have achieved psychological de¢nition,
can exercise the independence needed to transcend interperso-
nal loyalties and organisational pressures in setting forth a
transformational vision (Lewis,1996).
It is postulated that more emotionally intelligent individuals,
Journal of Industrial Psychology, 2001, 27(3), 30-34
Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 2001, 27(3), 30-34
30
are those who are able to recognise and express their emotions,
who possess positive self-regard and are able to actualise thei
potential capacities and lead fairly happy lives.They are able to
understand the way others feel and are capable of making and
maintainingmutually satisfying and responsible interpersonal
elationships without becoming dependent on others (Bar-
On,1992,1996b; Goleman,1995; Salovey &Mayer,1990). Such
people are generally optimistic, £exible, realistic, and fairly
successful in solving problems and coping with stress without
losing control.
Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
The shift in leadership capacity is the result of speci¢c, growing
changes in business life in general, and the realities of managing
increasingly
ief, fast-paced, trusting, collaborative and inno-
vative human interactions at work. Excessive emotions can
temporarily disrupt reasoning or analysis, but recent research
suggests that too little emotion can be even more destructive to
a career or company (Damasio,1994).
Studies reveal that emotions are a vital ‘‘activating energy’’ fo
ethical values such as trust, resilience and integrity. Emotions
also provide the energy for social capital which represents an
individual’s ability to build and maintain trusting, pro¢table
usiness relationships (Whitney, XXXXXXXXXXAt the center of these
traits is something every leadermust have: the capacity to crea-
te excitement (Cooper & Sawaf, XXXXXXXXXXThis coincides with
Goleman’s XXXXXXXXXXobservation that emotional intelligence in-
cludes the ability to motivate self and others, as well as the ob-
servation that charisma is a vital ingredient for successful
leadership.
It also points to the importance of optimism in leadership. Be-
cause optimism is said to protect against depression (Seligman,
1990), it can be speculated that this thinking style has a direct
e¡ect on emotions. If optimism raises achievement levels
whilst enhancing physical well being, those e¡ects are likely
to stimulate positive emotions and produce persistence in the
face of setbacks.
Persistence also forms part of self actualisation. Bar-On (1992)
describes self-actualisation as the ability to realise one’s po-
tential capacities which is characterised by becoming involved
in pursuits that lead to a meaningful, rich life. This involves
working on oneself and persisting to realise individual goals.
Persistence is also characteristic of optimists and the literature
would support the fact that the optimists also strive for self-
actualisation. This means coming to know unique individual
purpose by identifying speci¢c talents and aligning them in
the service of a calling in life. Research indicates that only
when people have discovered their unique potential and pur-
pose are they able to overcome obstacles andmeet the challen-
ges of success (Charlton,1993; Cooper & Sawaf,1997; Munroe,
1993).
Objective
The purpose of this investigation is to determinewhether indi-
viduals of non-managerial status who are identi¢ed as leaders,
show greater emotional competence than those individuals (of
the same organisational level) who display few, if any, leaders-
hip qualities. This study aimed to contribute to evidence that
may in£uence decision makers