by Lester Coupland

Emotional intelligent leadership; being it or performing it?

The late Maya Angelou once said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Leaders who are serious about developing themselves will have considered Daniel Goleman's research and statistics on Emotional Intelligence (EI). For example, that EI accounts for around 90% of the difference between good and great leaders.

In our own leadership development and coaching work here at LSC, we have noticed a pattern in leaders' approach to EI.

We will categories this pattern into two broad types which we will call 'being' and 'performing.'

1. BEING EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT: for these leaders, they aspire to 'be' emotionally intelligent and embody EI in a way that is authentic and natural. They stay true to themselves and don't 'do' EI in order to impress. They embrace self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness (empathy) and relationship management.

2. PERFORMING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: for these leaders, EI appears more procedural and mechanistic; a process that can be 'done' to other people by using the right words and phrases. So they might outwardly logically manifest the elements of EI, but not consistently; and, not in a way that is experienced by others as being heartfelt and genuine.

Here at LSC, our approach to developing great leaders is evidence-based and issue-driven. Our mission is to support you in your growth and tailor a program or an individual coaching pathway to help you blossom into the best emotionally intelligent leader you can be.