Being in tune with one’s emotions may just be the secret to success. A recent study published in Leadership Quarterly by Rotman School of Management professor Stephane Cote has found a connection between leadership and emotional intelligence, which is a person’s ability to perceive and understand emotions.
The findings came from two studies of commerce students who were each given an emotional ability test before completing a project in a small group. Upon completion of the project students were asked to identify who they thought had shown the greatest leaders. Those identified by their peers as leaders also scored high on the emotional ability test.
“Traditionally, we’ve had the assumption that leaders have high IQ, are gregarious individuals, or happen to be dominant personalities,” said Cote in a press release. “But this shows it’s not just about these traditional factors… it’s also about being able to process other people’s emotions. Anybody who wants to pursue a position of leadership and power can benefit from these abilities.”
The four attributes used to measure a person’s emotional intelligence were the ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions. “The whole idea [of emotional intelligence] is that there are right and wrong answers to emotional problems,” explained PhD candidate Jeremy Yip.
The term “emotional intelligence” was popularized in 1996 by Daniel Goleman and his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.
The connection between emotional intelligence and leadership is a relatively new idea. “Up until Stephane’s study, only one or two other studies have focused on perceiving emotions as an attribute for leadership,” said Yip.
“Anytime in a management or leadership role, there is a strong emphasis on communication and emotion is a form of communication,” said Yip. “A person’s emotional intelligence could help a person’s leadership strength.”
Rotman teaches emotional intelligence in a fourth-year elective course, though serious study is mainly left for MBA programs. “Emotional intelligence [is mostly] taught at the MBA school level of business. Two or three classes are devoted to learning [the concept].”
Yip believes that the importance of emotional intelligence in business is only going to grow. “It has important implications on how we teach our students and train our leaders. What we have found through research is that emotional intelligence is a distinct ability that is separate from academic intelligence as well as a personality trait.
The study was published in June and was co-authored by Paulo N. Lopes of the Catholic University of Portugal, Peter Salovey of Yale University, and Christopher T.H. Miners of Queen’s University.
