Effective leadership and emotional intelligence

Abstract

There are many factors that influence employee’s job satisfaction. Pay, benefits, co-workers, location, the type of work done, even the room temperature can make a difference. However, leaders make a huge difference in whether employees like their jobs or not. As the adage states, employees don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses. A good leader can motivate employees to achieve outstanding results. A bad leader can do the reverse, and prompt dissatisfaction, mass turnover, poor performance, strikes, and even sabotage. We can draw upon our emotional intelligence to improve employees’ job satisfaction, task performance, and organizational citizenship behaviours. Research has provided solid evidence that emotional intelligence is important to both job satisfaction and leadership.

The workplace can be a frustrating place. Problems both big and small crop up every day. When problems occur, employees may feel frustrated, demoralized, and downhearted. Leaders may also feel the effects of the work problems and be irritated. Naturally, leaders may sometimes take their frustrations out on their employees, which would make the employees even more frustrated and distracted, and unable to focus on their work tasks. Both subordinates and leaders can experience emotional hijacking, which occurs when our emotions overwhelm our rational thought processes, and we respond to events with anger, fear, or panic. Emotional intelligence helps leaders avoid emotional hijacking. Recognizing “trigger points” early on, before the emotional hijacking is well underway, is a key to remaining calm and in control.