Mood matters

TOTAL REWARD

Mood matters

We have become accustomed to hearing that emotional intelligence improves business performance. Now, new research suggests that a leader’ s mood plays a key part in that dynamic, according to a recent issue of Harvard Business Review.

It is often said that inspirational leadership is the ultimate perk. Even the most dazzling reward creation won’ t get you very far if your leadership is second rate. New research by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatis and Annie McKee, who were responsible for formulating the concept of emotional intelligence, suggests that of all the elements affecting bottom-line performance, the importance of the leader’ s mood and its attendant behaviours are most surprising. They found that powerful combination set off a chain reaction.

Writing in the December 2001 issue of Harvard Business Review, Goleman, Boyatis and McKee conclude: The leader’ s mood and behaviours drive the moods and behaviours of everyone else.

A cranky and ruthless boss creates a toxic organisation filled with negative underachievers who ignore opportunities an inspirational, inclusive leader spawns acolytes for whom any challenge is surmountable.

How does EI affect performance?

The investigation was designed to discover how emotional intelligence "drives" performance — in essence, how does it "travel from the leader through the organisation to bottom-line results?" What Goleman and his colleagues found is that emotional intelligence is carried through an organisation like electricity through wires .

The inescapable conclusion of their research was that a leader’ s mood and accompanying behaviour are potent drivers of business success. Managing your mood and the moods of your followers is the task of primal leadership, the authors conclude.

But what is emotional intelligence?

Put simply, Goleman, Boyatis and McKee discovered that a leader’ s emotional intelligence establishes a certain organisational culture or work environment. They found an incontrovertible link between an executive’ s emotional maturity, exemplified by such capabilities as self-awareness and empathy, and his or her financial performance.

According to the theory, high levels of emotional intelligence create climates in which information sharing, trust, healthy risk taking and learning flourish. But low levels of emotional intelligence results in climates rife with fear and anxiety.

Emotional intelligence comprises four main components:

• self-awareness: the ability to read your own emotions.
• self-management: the ability to control your own emotions and act with honesty and integrity in reliable and adaptable ways.
• social awareness: includes the key capabilities of empathy and organisational intuition.
• relationship management: the ability to communicate clearly and convincingly, disarm conflicts and build strong personal bonds.

Want to know more?

Title: Primal leadership: The hidden driver of great performance , by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatis and Annie McKee, Harvard Business Review, December 2001.

Availability: Visit the Harvard Business Review web site for subscription details . . .

www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbr/index.html

Posted 1 March 2002