What Makes a Leader
IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership.
What Makes a i Leader?
BY DANIEL GOLEMAN
E
(VERY BUSINESSPERSON
knows a story about a highly intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail at the joh. And they also know a story about someone with solid-but not extraordinary-intellectual abilities and technical skills who was promoted into a similar position and then soared.
Such anecdotes support the widespread belief that identifying individuals with the "right stuff" to be leaders is more art than science. After all, the personal styles of superb leaders vary: some leaders are subdued and analytical; others shout their manifestos from the mountaintops. And just as important, different situations call for different
Daniel Goleman is the author of Emotional Intelligence (Bantam, i99s) and Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam.
1998}. He is cocbairman of the Consortium for Research on
Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, which is based at Rutgers University's Graduate School of Applied and Professional
Psychology in Piscataway. New Jersey. He can be reached at
Goleman@iavanet.com.
ARTWORK BY CRAIG FRAZIER
93
W HAT MAKES A LEADER?
abilities like analytical reasoning; and competencies demonstrating emotional intelligence such as the ahility to work with others and effectiveness in leading change.
To create some of the competency models, psychologists asked senior managers at the companies to identify the capabilities that typified the organization's most outstanding leaders. To create other models, the psychologists used objective criteria such as a division's profitability to differentiate the star performers at senior levels within their organizations from the average ones. Those individuals were then extensively interviewed and tested, and their capabilities were compared. This process resulted in the
What Makes a i Leader?
BY DANIEL GOLEMAN
E
(VERY BUSINESSPERSON
knows a story about a highly intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail at the joh. And they also know a story about someone with solid-but not extraordinary-intellectual abilities and technical skills who was promoted into a similar position and then soared.
Such anecdotes support the widespread belief that identifying individuals with the "right stuff" to be leaders is more art than science. After all, the personal styles of superb leaders vary: some leaders are subdued and analytical; others shout their manifestos from the mountaintops. And just as important, different situations call for different
Daniel Goleman is the author of Emotional Intelligence (Bantam, i99s) and Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam.
1998}. He is cocbairman of the Consortium for Research on
Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, which is based at Rutgers University's Graduate School of Applied and Professional
Psychology in Piscataway. New Jersey. He can be reached at
Goleman@iavanet.com.
ARTWORK BY CRAIG FRAZIER
93
W HAT MAKES A LEADER?
abilities like analytical reasoning; and competencies demonstrating emotional intelligence such as the ahility to work with others and effectiveness in leading change.
To create some of the competency models, psychologists asked senior managers at the companies to identify the capabilities that typified the organization's most outstanding leaders. To create other models, the psychologists used objective criteria such as a division's profitability to differentiate the star performers at senior levels within their organizations from the average ones. Those individuals were then extensively interviewed and tested, and their capabilities were compared. This process resulted in the