What Makes a Leader? (Goleman, HBR) Flashcards
(38 cards)
What distinguishes great leaders from merely good ones, according to Daniel Goleman?
Emotional intelligence, a group of five skills that enable the best leaders to maximize their own, and their followers’ performance.
What are the five EI skills?
- Self-awareness
- Self-regulation
- Motivation
- Empathy
- Social skill
What is self-awareness?
Knowing one’s strengths, weaknesses, drives, values, and impact on others
What is self-regulation?
Controlling or redirecting disruptive impulses and moods
What is motivation?
Relishing achievement for its own sake
What is empathy?
Understanding other people’s emotional makeup
What is social skill?
Building rapport with others to move them in desired directions
How can we strengthen our levels of EI skills?
Through persistence, practice, and feedback from colleagues or coaches
What are the hallmarks of self-awareness?
- Self-confidence
- Realistic self-assessment
- Self-deprecating sense of humor
- Thirst for constructive criticism
What are the hallmarks of self-regulation?
- Trustworthiness
- Integrity
- Comfort with ambiguity and change
What are the hallmarks of motivation?
- Passion for the work itself, and for new challenges
- Unflagging energy to improve
- Optimism in the face of failure
What are the hallmarks of empathy?
- Expertise in attracting and retaining talent
- Ability to develop others
- Sensitivity to cross-cultural differences
What are the hallmarks of social skill?
- Effectiveness in leading change
- Persuasiveness
- Extensive networking
- Expertise in building and leading teams
What did Goleman find, in his research at nearly 200 large, global companies?
That while the qualities traditionally associated with leadership (intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision) are required for success, they are insufficient.
What distinguishes truly effective leaders?
A high degree of EI.
What is the tie between EI and business results?
Goleman found direct ties between EI and measurable business results.
What type of capabilities are IQ and technical skills considered to be?
Threshold capabilities, the entry-level requirements for executive positions.
What do “competency models” that large companies have employed trained psychologists to develop aid them with?
Identifying, training, and promoting likely stars in the leadership firmament.
When Goleman tried to determine which personal capabilities drove outstanding performance, and to what degree they did so, in which categories did he group capabilities?
- Purely technical skills
- Cognitive abilities
- Competencies demonstrating EI
What did Goleman find about the three capability categories he analyzed?
Intellect was a driver for outstanding performance, and cognitive skills like big-picture thinking and long-term vision were important.
However, when calculating the ratio of technical skills, IQ, and EI as ingredients for excellent performance, EI proved to be twice as important as the others, for jobs at all levels.
Where does EI play an increasingly important role?
At the highest levels of the company, where differences in technical skills are of negligible importance.
When comparing star performance with average ones in senior leadership positions, nearly 90% of the difference in their profiles was attributable to EI factors, rather than cognitive abilities.
What is emotional intelligence linked to?
- Distinguishes outstanding leaders
- Links to strong performance
What did the findings of the late David McClelland conclude?
In a 1996 study of a global food and beverage company, McClelland found that when senior managers had a critical mass of EI capabilities, their divisions outperformed yearly earning goals by 20%,m while division leaders without that critical mass underperformed by nearly the same amount.
What do people with a high degree of self-awareness recognize?
How their feelings affect them, other people, and their job performance.
