Leadership
In times of challenge, excellent leadership will be the common factor for the majority of those businesses who thrive, so it’s probably timely to share a couple of thoughtful insights about leadership.
Social Intelligence (Daniel Goleman)
“The leadership competencies of self-confidence, the drive to improve performance, staying calm under pressure, and a positive outlook . . . can be seen at full force, in outstanding individual performers . . . and that’s the rub for, when it comes to leaders, effectiveness in relationships makes or breaks.”
“Solo stars are often promoted to leadership positions and then flounder for lack of people skills.”
In comparative studies of failed and successful CEOs in America, Germany and Japan, Claudio Fernando-Araoz (Egon Zehnder International) found that those who were hired on the basis of their drive, IQ, and business expertise, failed – and were fired – for their lack of emotional intelligence.
“They simply could not win over, or sometimes even just get along with, their board of directors, or their direct reports, or others on whom their own success depended.”
Claudio cites three cases of social intelligence counting more than self-mastery in leadership positions:
At a transportation company, those leaders strongest in the social intelligence competencies led greater revenue growth than did executives with strengths only in the self-mastery competencies.
At a major nationwide bank, high social intelligence (but not self-mastery alone) predicted executive’s yearly performance appraisal, which in turn reflects business success.
Among Catholic priests, greater social intelligence predicted more satisfied parishioners.
Dacher Keltner PhD found that “power is given (long term) not to those with the cash, votes and muscle, nor to the schemers and wheeler-dealers, nor those who manoeuvre against the interests of rivals or the group as a whole – it is given “to those individuals, groups, or nations who advance the interests of the greater good in a socially-intelligent fashion”.
But, Power Corrupts
Chillingly enough, in a finding that resonates with Bishop Creighton’s observation that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Keltner observed that, “unfortunately, having power renders many individuals as impulsive and poorly attuned to others as your garden variety frontal lobe patient, making them prone to act abusively and lose the esteem of their peers.”
Keltner’s piece is worth the read, and I’d recommend it to you if you are a leader at any time. We are being called on to do more and more work on intelligent leadership development so if you recognise any of the leadership challenges here, it’s probably worth a few minutes’ chat to see what we have developed. You can email me now , if you like.
