Review Of Daniel Goleman’s Article ‘Leadership That Getting Results’

EDUC6353 Leading and Managing Educational Change

What is the article about? What does it tell us about the particular issue?

In this study, Daniel Goleman’s article Leadership That Getting Results has been chosen for review. This article was published in Harvard’s Business Review journal in 2000 in March-April edition. In this article, Goleman’s talked about the leaders’ job that can ensure the results. Effective leadership styles help to handle the organisations and people at the workplace. Team leaders provide advice based on the experience, instinct and interference, but they do not provide the advice on quantitative data. Goleman did research on more than 3,000 executives and he explored in his research that precise and right leadership behaviour can facilitate the positive results within the organisation. In this study, Goleman’s article will be reviewed based on a few questions that are given. Article’s topic, issue, concept and assumptions will be discussed thoroughly. Moreover, the argument and ideologies of the article will be explained in this study. Finally, a comprehensive conclusion will be given at the end of this study.

Goleman in his article talked about different leadership styles and he explained that leadership behaviour can give significant results in the workplace, Goleman outlines six types of different leadership styles and he argued that each leadership style has a significant and distinct effect on the workplace. Different leadership styles can pose effect on the organisation, on its team, financial performance and employees also. The article talks about the six leadership styles and each one of them gas various components of emotional intelligence. Goleman described six leadership styles by name and he briefly resonates the ideas of each leadership style with examples. At first, he talked about coercive leaders and they mostly demand immediate compliance. Authoritative leaders accelerate employees towards a set vision. In addition, affiliative leaders most of the time create emotional bonds with the employees and make harmony. Democratic leaders always take a decision through the participation of the employees. Additionally, pacesetting leaders put the employees in self-direction and they strive for excellence since the beginning (Lussier & Achua 2015, p.45). However, coaching leaders improve the quality of the employees for the future. Most importantly, Goleman stated that the leaders can take more than two or three leadership styles in order to get the best results as one leadership style is not reliable for all situations. Goleman suggested business situations in which the styles of leadership can be best suited. Goleman also suggested switching the leadership in order to produce results and switching the leadership can be defined as science. Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to recognise and manage the emotions of own and the people who are surrounding. However, the emotional intelligence has four elements; self-awareness, self-management, social skills and social awareness.

What concepts from this unit does the article demonstrate?

Goleman pointed out that there are two ways of thinking about people’s conundrum in the organisation and employees do it repeatedly with the same worries. In the workplace, people’s lack of motivation is the recipe for the depression. Renko et al. (2015, p.56), supported this by saying productive reflection cannot be seen in the workplace that can solve the issues. Leaders often take the upper hand in taking the decision without taking consent of team members’ emotions. Team leaders have been facing the issues of what they know and what they need to know. Daniel Goleman pointed out about the focused leader as these leaders can help coming up with potentially positive solutions. Leaders sometimes get hesitates to solve the team issues and productive reflection of the psychotherapy of the team leaders remain unsolved. This mind meandering happens mostly in creative moments and team leaders need to solve these issues.

Reference List

Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C.F., 2015. Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. London: Nelson Education.

Renko, M., El Tarabishy, A., Carsrud, A.L. & Brännback, M., 2015. Understanding and measuring entrepreneurial leadership style. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), pp.54-74.

Goleman talked about six types of leadership and Goleman suggested the flexible leadership. Each type of leadership can bring the emotional intelligence in the workplace. As stated by Johnston and Marshall (2016, p.34), leadership is important in the workplace and its theoretical perspectives, as well as practical implication both, are important. Leadership has three perspectives, leadership is a process or relationship between employees and leaders, leadership is a combination of characteristics and leadership is the behaviour of the employees. Leadership skills are significant as it is related to the influence of the groups. Nahavandi (2016, p.65), supported that by saying leadership is a complex process and it is related to the realisation of goals of the team members. In addition, leaders set some goals for the team members and team members have to achieve these goals. Most importantly, the objectives of the team leaders must in line with the organisational objectives. In this article of Goleman, he highlighted the six types of leadership styles and molecular view of the researchers brought the view that leadership has linked with the emotional intelligence. Specific behaviours of the employees on workplace climate, manage change in the workplace, handling the crises are related to the emotional intelligence capabilities. Goleman segregated the six different leadership styles in some factors that can impact on the climate in the workplace, these factors are flexibility, responsibility, standards, rewards, clarity and commitment.

In the theoretical perspectives of the leadership can be seen through the trait theory. This theory talks about the qualities of the leaders that they were born with these. Leaders can be born with some inherited qualities and their cognitive abilities recommendable. Sometimes, the personality of the leaders is one of the most important factors and three most important leadership traits are intelligence, drive and sociability (Pawar 2014, p.13). Goleman added one more quality of emotional intelligence as leaders have the ability to understand the emotions of the team members. If the team leaders can recognise the emotional issues of the team leaders, it can impact on the work performance and relationship between employees and team leaders. Goleman also pointed out that self-control is the ability to control the disruptive emotions and self-management is also related to the trustworthiness, consciousness and initiative to achievement orientation. According to Northouse (2015, p.56), the situational theory is related to the different situations in the workplace is needed to require different leadership styles. It is related to the adaptation and adjustment of the styles of leadership. The primary objective of the shifting of the leadership is determined through the assessment of the commitment towards organisational objectives. The team leaders are needed to be competent enough to the take the situational leadership with supportive leadership styles. However, Goleman’s emotional intelligence can be applied in contingency theory as the effectiveness of leadership concept is contingent. Leaders’ style must match the desired situation and situational theory is about adapting the situation, whereas, contingency theory is about leaders qualities and styles upon a risky situation.

Reference List

Johnston, M.W. & Marshall, G.W., 2016. Sales force management: Leadership, innovation, technology. Abingdon: Routledge.

Nahavandi, A., 2016. The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Sydney: Pearson.

Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. London: Sage publications.

Pawar, D., 2014. Styles of Leadership. International Journal of Research in all Subjects in Multi Languages, 2(7), pp.12-14.

Goleman mainly talked about six different kinds of leadership and his concept of emotional intelligence.

Coercive style: This style of leadership is about pushing the team members through change and the changes are important for the removing the barriers. In coercive style, the employees have their issues as employees lose their motivation and it reduces the innovation. Coercive leadership can be used in extreme situation and it can reduce the responsibility of the employees.

Authoritarian style: This type of leadership gives clear vision and it makes able about communication. As opined by Komives and Wagner (2016, p.34), authoritarian leadership articulates about key performance indicator and team leaders have confidence for their employees. Authoritative leaders do not deal well in case of poor performances of the team members, however, in general condition, this style is most effective. With the example of Tom, Goleman made readers understand the clear vision and vibrant enthusiasm of authoritative leadership.  

Affiliative style: This type of leadership concept is helpful in the building of the new team and it helps in restoring the trustworthiness among the team members. The leaders are comfortable in sharing the experiences and team members listen actively. Affiliative leadership concept can share the emotional intelligence and it can be helpful in avoiding the conflict (McCleskey 2014, p.77). Goleman posed an example of Joe Torre as an example of an Affiliative leader as he used the victory celebration in order to praise the players.

Democratic styles: When an organisation provides extra importance in stakeholders, democratic leadership style is important in this scenario. As stated by Siegling et al. (2014, p.68), Democratic leaders face one challenge as they need to be authentic. Democratic leaders take a decision after discussing with the people. Most importantly, these types of leaders have facilitation in controlling the participatory process.   

Pacesetting style: This style of leadership is natural among the managers who just got promotion as they have been performing really well. This style of leadership works when the employees are motivated and high-performance of the team members have a direction to work. In the workplace, pacesetting workplace, the team members can shape the motivation of the employees and it is helpful in accomplish the great works.

Coaching style: This style of leadership provides performance feedback to the leaders and it helps the employees to be motivated. This leadership requires skills and employees get performance appraisal. The coaching style of leadership can be aligned with the employees’ performance and it can impact hugely on business.

The climate within a business team has an impact on the performance of the employees. However, Goleman made align with each style of leadership with the climate. Climate impacts positively on authoritative, affiliative, democratic and coaching styles of leadership, however, pacesetting and coercive style of leadership have a negative impact.  

During the time of the 1990s, the traditional concept of intelligence is about the cognitive aspect and problem-solving skills in the workplace. However, in 2000, Daniel Goleman introduced the emotional intelligence through competencies and skills that can drive the leadership performance. Team leaders have to know about the strengths, weaknesses, values and goals of the emotions that can be used through understanding the feelings. In this respect, the team leaders can use self-regulation that can direct the disruptive emotions and it can be helpful in changing circumstances. In addition, social skill is about managing the people’s emotions that can move people to have desired actions. Additionally, empathy towards the employees is recognised to consider the employees’ feelings in making the decisions (Ramchunder & Martins 2014, p.10). Motivation is another important factor in the workplace that can be achieved through helping the employees in their emotions. According to Goleman, emotional competencies cannot be explained as innate talents; however, this is the learned capabilities of the team leaders. This emotional intelligence can be helpful in developing the outstanding performance of the team members.

Reference List

Komives, S.R. & Wagner, W.E., 2016. Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development. New Jersey:  John Wiley & Sons.

McCleskey, J., 2014. Emotional intelligence and leadership: A review of the progress, controversy, and criticism. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 22(1), pp.76-93.

Ramchunder, Y. & Martins, N., 2014. The role of self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and leadership style as attributes of leadership effectiveness. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 40(1), pp.01-11.

Siegling, A.B., Nielsen, C. & Petrides, K.V., 2014. Trait emotional intelligence and leadership in a European multinational company. Personality and Individual Differences, 65, pp.65-68.

Goleman’s underlying assumptions in leadership are based on three elements:

First, Goleman put stress on six different types of leadership and he emphasised that six types of leadership have different characteristics. Moreover, leaders have to switch their leadership styles based on the business situation. Goleman argued that good leaders are effective in business as they create resonance.

Second, Goleman spoke about the climate that can impact on the leadership styles. Goleman investigated six different types of leadership and they get impacted by the six drivers of climate. Workplace climate that Goleman took is flexibility, responsibility, rewards, standards, clarity and commitment.

Third, Leadership is not a science and it could be improved through business practices. For improvement of leadership, leaders can use more than one leadership style in their workplace. Emotional intelligence can bring out the best leadership qualities and it is comprised with initiative and self-control (Ruiz 2015, p.60).  

In this article, the values of emotional intelligence have been discussed in light of different leadership styles. Moreover, this article has discussed the value of switching the leadership styles according to business situations and not just to stick on one leadership. The leadership style is seamlessly sensitive and they just need to adjust the leadership to have the best result. This article poured the values of growing the emotional intelligence in the leadership and the leaders just need to unlearn the old leadership styles to follow the new one.

The ideologies of Goleman’s article exclusively are of emotional intelligence on leadership. The behaviour of the leaders needs to be changed and they need to alter the leadership styles and habits that should work for them. Leaders need to take the strategies of communication, collaboration and capabilities (Sheppard et al. 2013, p.270). Goleman opined that business situation has been changing and styles of leadership need to change in accordance with these. This article illuminates the ideology of compassion, effective communication, climate, emotions, self-awareness and authenticity in leadership. Most importantly, Goleman suggested changing the leadership in environment wise to respond the situation not to be a stumbling block.    

Reference List

Ruiz, C.E., 2015. Leadership in Mexico: cultural factors affecting organisational leadership. International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 5(1), pp.55-67.

Sheppard, J.A., Sarros, J.C. & Santora, J.C., 2013. Twenty-first century leadership: international imperatives. Management Decision, 51(2), pp.267-280.

Goleman introduced the concept of emotional intelligence and six different types of leadership are told in this article. Goleman suggested that each type of leadership can facilitate the emotional intelligence. Leaders who follow the democratic, authoritative, democratic and coaching styles, they can make best business performance climate for the organisation. The main argument of Goleman is to facilitate the concept of taking many styles in leading a team or an organisation that suits the purpose. Leaders who are a master in more than one style of leadership can effectively change business performance (Mittal & Sindhu 2012, p.50). Leaders need to switch the leadership style based on the situation. However, leaders do not need to mechanically change their leadership styles; however, they can keep a checklist. Moreover, it is needed that growing the emotional intelligence tales commitment and practices. The emotional intelligence of team leaders can grow with the 360-degree evolution of the situation and the needs of intelligence can be diagnosed from multiple views.

Daniel Goleman and other psychologists argued on emotional intelligence in leadership and without this, a leader must have an incisive mind, class training, supply of good ideas and emotional qualities. Emotional intelligence comprises self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, social skills and motivations. However, the argument of Goleman proved that emotional intelligence can result to measurable business results. Six types of leadership and climate of the workplace can recognise the potential leaders that must connect to the performance of the business. Emotional intelligence can be the success mantra for the leaders in moving into best managerial position. According to Cooper and Sawaf (2015, p.23), lack of emotional intelligence in leadership in any kind of leadership can pose to insensitivity, arrogance and rigidity in leadership. However, Acting out in anger for a leader can derail the career as a volatile team can cause dysfunctions. Most importantly, the argument is effective in today’s workplace when emotional intelligence is accepted and considered valuable in a leadership position. In recruitment and selection of employees, HR or management prefer leaders and employees who are adaptable in changing work environment putting the capability of emotional intelligence.

Reference List

Cooper, R.K. & Sawaf, A., 2015. Executive EQ: Emotional intelligence in leadership and organizations. New York: Penguin.

Mittal, E.V. & Sindhu, E., 2012. Emotional intelligence and leadership. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 12(16), pp.45-56.

Conclusion

Emotional intelligence is factored with daily decisions that the leaders take in business objectives, team leading, hiring and promoting the employees. In a business process, Goleman discussed six types of leadership styles with examples and a higher degree of emotional intelligence helps the leaders in taking the decisions in right way. Moreover, employees may have the emotional intelligence that could be their determining factors in leadership potentials. Leadership styles need to be switched in business situation wise and expanding the performance can be helpful. Team members must be chosen in a way that can fulfil the lack within a team. Leaders must recognise the competency they lack and increase the quotient accordingly. Leadership is not a science and it is necessary to practice this to get the result. The leadership can be understood as the elements of behavioural and psychological factors as business conditions are changing and leadership needs to be changed accordingly.