NSG4029: Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

Introduction

Effective leadership entails one of the most important components in the success and growth of an organization. The healthcare industry involves multiple stakeholders who are directly and/or indirectly involved with the operations and services provided. Effective leaders are directly responsible for ensuring that the organization achieves its set goals and objectives. In the healthcare environment, the primary goals of healthcare providers and professionals are to ensure that patients are provided with quality health care services as well as uphold patient safety. It’s for these reasons that the aspect of emotional intelligence is critical in shaping the skills and qualities of the organizational leader. This paper will address the issue of emotional intelligence and its effects on effective leadership.

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Effects of emotional intelligence on effective leadership

Emotional intelligence refers to the capacity of people to recognize and understand their personal emotions as well as those of other individuals. It’s the capability to recognize and control one’s emotions and those of the individuals around. Individuals with a high level of emotional intelligence tend to know and understand their feelings, the meaning of those feelings, as well as the how they affect people around them. In order for leaders to be regarded effective leaders, they need to possess a high level of emotional intelligence. According to an American psychologist, Daniel Goleman, there are five essential elements that an effective leader must possess in respect to emotional intelligence. These elements are; self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills. According to Goleman, the more a leader possesses these elements, the higher his/her levels of emotional intelligence (Mittal, Sindhu, 2012).

The capability of an individual to be sensitively in tune with his/her emotions, and also have logic situational consciousness can be an essential tool for leading a healthcare environment. The ability of understanding, knowing, and reacting to emotions, overcoming psychological problems, and being aware of the emotions of other people is typically described as emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is broadly known to be a primary element of effective leadership. Understanding and acknowledging how the emotional response system operates determines the effective level of any organizational leadership.

Typically, high emotional intelligence enhances effective leadership in any environment. From the emotional intelligence quiz, my EI is low (below average). This means that the low emotional intelligence greatly hinders effective leadership in the healthcare environment. Typically, leaders with low emotional intelligence have communication problems because they are unable to understand the emotions and behaviors of the organizational stakeholders. Ineffective communication in the healthcare environment causes healthcare professionals, patients, and other internal and external stakeholders to have trust issues as well as doubt. A leader with low emotional intelligence is not capable of effectively projecting and measuring the wants, needs and expectations of the employees and other stakeholders. An organizational leader who responds to his/her emotions without assessing them can develop the culture of mistrust amongst the employees and thus disastrously threaten their working relationships (McCleskey, 2014).

Based on the emotional intelligence quiz, I have a low EI level. This means that the low EI level negatively affects my leadership in the healthcare environment. In other words, the low EI causes me as a leader to respond with unpredictable and inconsistent emotions which can result in unfavorable effects on the organization’s overall behavior, and culture. The healthcare providers and professionals play a very crucial role in ensuring that the organization’s predetermined goals and objectives are met. However, with low emotional intelligence level, a leader is unable to connect emotionally with the organization’s staff, and this can result in low productivity and performance (Goleman, Boyatzis, McKee, 2013).

Results of the EI Quiz

From the emotional intelligence questions, I scored 8 out of 20. This means that I have low emotional intelligence level because I scored below average. As stated above, low emotional intelligence can be detrimental to the growth and success of the healthcare professionals and other stakeholders as well as the organization in general. In other words, as a leader with low EI, I am less connected with the emotions of the staff. The following are some of the challenges that come with low emotional intelligence level;

Negative emotions-this means that as a leader, I often feel flabbergasted and controlled by various negative emotions such as fear, guilt, anger, and shame among others.
Negative perceptions-this entails that am not able to control negative emotions and thus can cause behavioral issues like uncontrolled outburst (Goleman, Boyatzis, McKee, 2013).

Conclusion

In conclusion, emotional intelligence is a very critical aspect of effective leadership. Typically, emotional intelligence entails the capacity of an individual to understand and control his/her emotions as well as those of other people. Leaders with a high level of emotional intelligence tend to exhibit effective leadership. On the other hand, those with low emotional intelligence level tend to exhibit ineffective leadership. For the EI quiz, I have low emotional intelligence level because I scored a below average score. However, according to psychologists Paul Ekman and Dacher Keltner, individuals with low emotional intelligence level have an opportunity to improve on their emotional skills.

References

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. E., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Press.

McCleskey, J. (2014). Emotional intelligence and leadership: A review of the progress, controversy, and criticism. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 22(1), 76-93.

Mittal, E. V., & Sindhu, E. (2012). Emotional intelligence and leadership. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 12(16).

NSG4029: Emotional Intelligence and Leadership