Effective leaders have something in common — and it isn’t necessarily technical skills or a high IQ. Research indicates that effective leaders have a high degree of emotional intelligence.
Daniel Goleman, a Rutgers psychologist who has studied the link between emotional intelligence and business leadership for decades, calls emotional intelligence 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 [they] still won’t make a great leader.”
But what is emotional intelligence, and how can CEOs cultivate it? For answers, we checked in with Amanda Madorno, a Vistage speaker and coach who specializes in helping leaders develop this critical skill.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage your emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. Leaders can “use this understanding to guide their behavior, solve problems and manage the behavior of others,” explains Madorno.