What Makes a Leader?

It was Daniel Goleman who first brought the term "emotional

intelligence" to a wide audience with his 1995 book of that

name, and it was Goleman who first applied the concept to

business with his 1998 HBR article, reprinted here. In his

research at nearly 200 large, global companies, Goleman found

that while the qualities traditionally associated with

leadership--such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and

vision--are required for success, they are insufficient. Truly

effective leaders are also distinguished by a high degree of

emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness,

self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill.

These qualities may sound "soft" and unbusinesslike, but

Goleman found direct ties between emotional intelligence and

measurable business results. While emotional intelligence's

relevance to business has continued to spark debate over the

past six years, Goleman's article remains the definitive

reference on the subject, with a description of each component

of emotional intelligence and a detailed discussion of how to

recognize it in potential leaders, how and why it connects to

performance, and how it can be learned.

Every businessperson knows a story about a highly

intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a

leadership position only to fail at the job. And they also

know a story about someone with solid--but not

extraordinary--intellectual abilities and technical skills who

was promoted into a similar position and then soared.

Such anecdotes support the widespread belief that identifying

individuals with the "right stuff" to be leaders is more art

than science. After all, the personal styles of superb leaders

vary: Some leaders are subdued and analytical; others shout

their manifestos from the mountaintops. And just as important,

different situations call for different types of leadership.

Most mergers need a sensitive negotiator at the helm, whereas

many turnarounds require a more forceful authority.

I have found, however, that the most effective leaders are

alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of what

has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It's not that

IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but

mainly as "threshold capabilities"; that is, they are the

entry-level requirements for executive positions. But my

research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that

emotional intelligence is 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 he still won't make a great leader.

In the course of the past year, my colleagues and I have

focused on how emotional intelligence operates at work. We

have examined the relationship between emotional intelligence

and effective performance, especially in leaders. And we have

observed how emotional intelligence shows itself on the job.

How can you tell if someone has high emotional intelligence,

for example, and how can you recognize it in yourself? In the

following pages, we'll explore these questions, taking each of

the components of emotional intelligence--self-awareness,

self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill--in

turn.

Evaluating Emotional Intelligence

Most large companies today have employed trained psychologists

to develop what are known as "competency models" to aid them

in identifying,