Instinct and Emotional Intelligence

The buzz in the corporate world recently has been emotional intelligence. Leading research institutions across the nation continue to present actual, statistical evidence supporting what many of us already know, academic and intellectual knowledge, in and of itself, is not enough to produce a successful leader. Instinct and intuition are required for excellence, not just technical skills and training.

Such studies serve only to underscore the emotional and relational traits that mark the difference between a mediocre leader and an effective leader with lasting impact. Some studies even suggest that up to 75 percent of the competencies that set apart the average leader from the outstanding leader comes down to social and emotional intelligence, not academic intelligence. It is the outstanding leader who genuinely inspire others to wholly commit to a unified, collective group goal and inspires the contribution of their complete individual potential at the same time.

Long before there was the term emotional intelligence, there was an emotionally intelligent leader named Ronald Reagan.

A fortunate few are born with similar emotionally intelligent traits of leadership. For the rest of us, we can be learn,practice, and thoughtfully integrate these traits into daily life, both professionally and personally.

Many companies have discovered the hard way that just because an employee has been successful in sales or another department, it does not automatically make that person a great manager of others.

Leadership requires emotional intelligence,interpersonal wisdom , and savvy in navigating the intricacies of relationships within the business environment.

Although there is great variation on the technical research based characteristics of emotional intelligence, we are going to discuss it here in a general sense, defining it as the ability to read, anticipate, and modify or control the emotional response and actions of yourself and others.