Getting Emotional about Management Development

Understanding leadership and what it means

Virtually all management development programmes incorporate some element of leadership. Models such as Blanchard’s ‘Situational Leadership’ will typically be included, alongside the work of Kotter and other strategic thinkers. And these are certainly valuable.

For many organisations, as Dr. Deepak Chopra said in his address to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development: "Leadership is still based on the old paradigm of control, manipulation and power.

"Organisations are like biological organisms; they are composed of people, and the environment they create is an extension of what is going on inside them. Leaders must understand what motivates people spiritually and emotionally, to lead them in ways that fulfil their needs and those of the organisation."

Perhaps because academic qualifications and career experience seem more tangible than anything in the emotional arena, they are more likely to be used as indicators of managers’ development needs. Current research, however, shows clearly that emotional intelligence (EQ) is a significantly more accurate predictor of success than IQ. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised; most of us know people who, while academically brilliant, lack the ‘people skills’ needed to get the best from their people.

Thankfully, as a result of extensive research in to emotional intelligence, through instruments such as the BarOn EQi, EQ can now be accurately and reliably measured. And for those of us who may believe we already know our own EQ, it’s worth noting that 75per cent of us believe we’re better looking than average and 82 per cent of us think we’re a better driver than average.

Measuring empathy and its role

So what is emotional intelligence? According to Mayer and Salovey, it "involves the ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion, and regulate emotion in the self and others." Handy capabilities for a manager. So emotional intelligence could be regarded as the ability to manage the relationship between head and heart.

The most widely used EQ inventory, the BarOn EQi, for example, uses five scales:

• Intrapersonal - the inner self
• Interpersonal – relationship skills
• Adaptability – ability to grasp problems and devise solutions
• Stress management – managing and controlling emotions
• General mood – outlook on life

One of the aspects measured under Intrapersonal is a manager’s level of assertiveness. An orthodox management development programme may cover the theory of performance management. Without assertiveness however, managers are unlikely to tackle the more difficult performance management issues. When this has been identified and acknowledged the real manager development can start. Oakridge typically uses actors in such situations to provide the opportunity to practice and provide feedback.

On the interpersonal scale, amongst other things, empathy is measured. Few management development programmes address empathy in any depth, yet a manager low on empathy is unlikely to be able to put themselves in the shoes of their people.

It is difficult to motivate people when you don’t understand them. As with all aspects of emotional intelligence empathy can be developed, but it first needs to be highlighted as a development need. Feedback from an objective assessment tool is usually more readily accepted than feedback from a colleague brave enough to offer it.

Finally, under general mood we have happiness and optimism. Our outlook on life exerts an enormous impact on our leadership style. People want enthusiasm from their managers. How can we expect our followers to be enthusiastic if we as leaders appear miserable. We may feel as though we have the weight of the world on our shoulders but if we can’t get balance in our lives we’ll be less effective as managers.

Those of us who are most successful have a good balance of IQ and EQ. Perhaps our management development programmes should be achieving the same balance.