The New Leaders – Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results

Citation

Simpson, P. (2005), "The New Leaders – Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 26 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2005.02226cae.003

The New Leaders – Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results

The New Leaders – Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results

Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyzatis and Annie McKeeLittle, BrownLondon305 pp.£17.99 hardbackISBN 0-316-85765-3

Keywords: Leadership, Emotional intelligence, Transformation, Relationships

Review DOI 10.1108/01437730510591806

In these days when organizations are looking for leaders the title of the new book by David Goleman (in collaboration with Richard Boyzatis and Annie McKee) looks to have it all. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the title of Goleman's first book on the subject of how individuals (and in this case, particularly, leaders) deal with people and how this can define how successful we are in our personal and working lives.

This latest book looks to delve further into the subject by exploring the three main threads of: further explanation of EI (with anecdotal examples of its application in the workplace and beyond), research (both qualitative and quantitative) into application of EI in the workplace and thirdly, the physiological background to EI and how the body performs to generate EI. An early section of the book deals with the brain circuitry and the separate but interwoven systems responsible for intellect and emotion.

This book is a vehicle for understanding the concept of EI through the EI competencies:

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  self awareness – knowledge of one's own feelings and how they affect the decisions we make;

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  self management – ability to manage one's own emotions (which might be disruptive if uncontrolled);

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  social awareness – ability to “read” other people's emotions both individually and in the organization's culture; and

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  relationship management – ability to use the skills above to make a difference through the organization by providing leadership, developing individuals and teams and managing conflict

There is an attempt to link EI to the “smart guess” where an organization's leader chooses a strategy without or despite detailed analysis of data. This idea asks more questions than it answers, but presents research evidence further in the passage to show that organizational results are linked to positive EI behaviours, particularly the coaching style.

Throughout the piece there are reality checks contrasting resonant (EI positive) with dissonant (EI negative) styles. One of the successes of the book for me is the opportunity to compare the examples with echoes we all must have of managers we have worked with at one time or another.

The text analyses behaviour into the four competencies of EI. EI identifies the need to apply different styles to the situations a leader encounters in their work, mixing the resonant and dissonant styles to achieve results.

There are some well worn themes through the book for example, the Peter Principle with examples of leaders promoted to a level where their EI fails to be adequate for the role, the ubiquitous boiling frog analogy and another slant of the nature vs nurture debate. This leads to the self help section potentially of most value to readers whereby an individual can set out on a series of five discoveries – based on a model developed by Richard Boyzatis – to assess current and desired future state and develop a plan for how to get to a higher EI state. This is also taken into the context of developing these skills in team and organizational change situations.

New Leaders is a difficult book to summarize. Perhaps it struggles to live up to its title. The three threads could hang together better, but it does reflect a reality we know to be true that the organization leaders are not necessarily the most intellectual people but they are the people who understand us and can provide a direction for the organization that we are all willing to buy in to and work towards following. It also provides a framework for each of us to improve our own EI.

Paul SimpsonBusiness Development Director, XBS Business Solutions Ltd, Northamptonshire, UK