Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-On ... - always yours

2 LEADING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
3. Driving to work, he was thinking about the two people from
his department he would have to let go at the end of the day.
He still wasn’t sure how he was going handle this, and it
added to his feeling of being overwhelmed.
4. He had gotten only four and a half hours of sleep the night
before, as he was worried about the presentation. In addition,
he was anxious about telling his wife about two upcoming
business trips he would have to take with the new position.
He knew she would be upset as she worried this new position
would have him traveling more and she was concerned about
the impact on the family.
5. He had left the house in a rush this morning with his mind full
of all the tasks ahead of him and “mindlessly” walked right
past his memory stick, even though he had placed it by the
front door with his notes so he would not forget anything.
All of these emotional events influenced each other, and they
impacted Jim’s cognitive functioning and his performance. His
brain was spent, his emotions were fragile, and his ability to control
them and perform at his best was impaired.
Warren Bennis, the founding father of leadership writings and
insights, has called for “the field of leadership studies to attend to
how we can develop leaders who understand relationships and communication,
who can manage themselves and others with wisdom,
creativity, and values.” He identified resilience as the most important
quality of a leader or anyone wanting to lead a healthy and
meaningful life. 1
Jim failed to manage himself or successfully manage others in
these interactions. He was like a quarterback who threw two interceptions
for touchdowns in the first half of the game and couldn’t
shake it or recover to perform in the second half. He didn’t have the
plays or strategies to rebound, recover, stay flexible, and continue
to perform at his best. He needed more Emotional Intelligence to
prevent this catastrophe in his first big activity in his new role.