Daniel Goleman - What Makes a Leader?

Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough ideas in management practice. The Harvard Business GOLEMANN Review Classics series now offers you the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues C L A S S I C S to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the world. WHA W H A T M A K E S A L E A D E R ? T MAKES A LEADER? Text tk text tk D a n i e l G o l e m a n Cover design: Kelly Blair $xxx | Management hbr.org W h a t M a k e s a L e a d e r ? FM.indd 1 3/17/17 9:59 AM FM.indd 2 3/17/17 9:59 AM HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW C L A S S I C S W h a t M a k e s a L e a d e r ? d a n iel G ole m a n harvard Business review Press Boston, Massachusetts FM.indd 3 3/17/17 9:59 AM HBR Press Quantity Sales Discounts Harvard Business Review Press titles are available at significant quantity discounts when purchased in bulk for client gifts, sales promotions, and premiums. Special editions, including books with corporate logos, customized covers, and letters from the company or CEO printed in the front matter, as well as excerpts of existing books, can also be created in large quantities for special needs. 800-988-0886, or www.hbr.org/bulksales. 800-988-0886, or www.hbr.org/bulksales.

Copyright 2017 harvard Business school Publishing Corporation Originally published in Harvard Business Review in January 2004 reprint #r0401h all rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. requests for permission should be directed to permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu, or mailed to Permissions, harvard Business school Publishing, 60 harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163. the web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the books publication but may be subject to change. Cataloging-in-Publication data is forthcoming. eIsBN: 978-1-63369-261-9 FM.indd 4 3/17/17 9:59 AM the harvard business review classics series since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough ideas in management practicemany of which still speak to and influence us today. each volume contains a groundbreaking idea that has shaped best practices and inspired countless managers around the worldand will change how you think about the business world today. { v } FM.indd 5 3/17/17 9:59 AM FM.indd 6 3/17/17 9:59 AM W h a t M a k e s a L e a d e r ? FM.indd 7 3/17/17 9:59 AM FM.indd 8 3/17/17 9:59 AM Every businessperson knows a story about a highly intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail at the job. { v } FM.indd 5 3/17/17 9:59 AM FM.indd 6 3/17/17 9:59 AM W h a t M a k e s a L e a d e r ? FM.indd 7 3/17/17 9:59 AM FM.indd 8 3/17/17 9:59 AM Every businessperson knows a story about a highly intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail at the job.

And they also know a story about someone with solidbut not extraordinaryintellectual abilities and technical skills who was promoted into a similar position and then soared. Such anecdotes support the widespread belief that identifying individuals with { 1 } Chapter.indd 1 17/03/17 2:14 PM Daniel Goleman the right stuff to be leaders is more art than science. After all, the personal styles of superb leaders vary: Some leaders are subdued and analytical; others shout their manifestos from the mountaintops. And just as important, different situations call for different types of leadership. Most mergers need a sensitive negotiator at the helm, whereas many turnarounds require a more forceful authority. I have found, however, that the most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence.

Its not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but mainly as threshold capabilities; that is, they are the entry-level { 2 } Chapter.indd 2 17/03/17 2:14 PM What Makes a Leader? requirements for executive positions. But my research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still wont make a great leader. In the course of the past year, my colleagues and I have focused on how emotional intelligence operates at work. We have examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective performance, especially in leaders.

And we have observed how emotional intelligence shows itself on the job. How can you tell if someone has high emotional intelligence, { 3 } Chapter.indd 3 17/03/17 2:14 PM Daniel Goleman for example, and how can you recognize it in yourself ? In the following pages, well explore these questions, taking each of the components of emotional intelligence self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skillin turn. evaluating emotional intelligence Most large companies today have employed trained psychologists to develop what are known as competency models to aid them in identifying, training, and promoting likely stars in the leadership firmament. The psychologists have also developed such models for lower-level positions. And in { 4 } Chapter.indd 4 17/03/17 2:14 PM What Makes a Leader? recent years, I have analyzed competency models from 188 companies, most of which were large and global and included the likes of Lucent Technologies, British Airways, and Credit Suisse. In carrying out this work, my objective was to determine which personal capabilities drove outstanding performance within these organizations, and to what degree they did so.

I grouped capabilities into three categories: purely technical skills like accounting and business planning; cognitive abilities like analytical reasoning; and competencies demonstrating emotional intelligence, such as the ability to work with others and effectiveness in leading change. { 5 } Chapter.indd 5 17/03/17 2:14 PM Daniel Goleman To create some of the competency models, psychologists asked senior managers at the companies to identify the capabilities that typified the organizations most outstanding leaders. To create other models, the psychologists used objective criteria, such as a divisions profitability, to differentiate the star performers at senior levels within their organizations from the average ones. Those individuals were then extensively interviewed and tested, and their capabilities were compared. This process resulted in the creation of lists of ingredients for highly effective leaders. { 6 } Chapter.indd 6 17/03/17 2:14 PM What Makes a Leader? When I analyzed all this data, I found dramatic results. { 6 } Chapter.indd 6 17/03/17 2:14 PM What Makes a Leader? When I analyzed all this data, I found dramatic results.

To be sure, intellect was a driver of outstanding performance. Cognitive skills such as big-picture thinking and long-term vision were particularly important. But when I calculated the ratio of technical skills, IQ, and emotional intelligence as ingredients of excellent performance, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others for jobs at all levels. Moreover, my analysis showed that emotional intelligence played an increasingly important role at the highest levels of the company, where differences in technical skills are of negligible importance. In other words, the higher the rank of a person { 7 } Chapter.indd 7 17/03/17 2:14 PM Daniel Goleman considered to be a star performer, the more emotional intelligence capabilities showed up as the reason for his or her effectiveness. When I compared star performers with average ones in senior leadership positions, nearly 90% of the difference in their profiles was attributable to emotional intelligence factors rather than cognitive abilities.