BEST OF HBR1998

It wa5 Daniel Goleman who first brought the term "emotiona! intelligence"toa wide audience with his 1995 book of that name, and it was Coleman who firstapplied the concept to business with his 1998 HBR article, reprinted here. Inhis research at nearly 200 large, global companies, Coleman found that whilethe qualities traditionally associated with leadership-such as intelligence,toughness, determination, and vision-are required for success, they are insuffi-cient. Truly effective leaders are also distinguished by a high degree of emo-tional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation,empathy, and social skill.

These qualities may sound "soft" and unbusinesslike, but Coleman found directties between emotional intelligence and measurable business results. Whileemotional intelligence's relevance to business has continued to spark debateover the past six years, Coleman's article remains the definitive reference on thesubject, with a description of each component of emotional intelligence and adetailed discussion of how to recognize it in potential leaders, how and why itconnects to performance, and how it can be learned.

What Makes a Leader?by Daniel Goleman

EIQ and technical skillsare important, butemotional intelligenceis the sine qua nonof leadership.

,VERY BUSINESSPERSON knOWS aStory about a highly intelligent, highlyskilled executive who was promotedinto a ieadership position only to failat the job. And they also know a storyabout someone with solid-but not ex-traordinary-intellectual abilities andtechnical skills who was promoted intoa similar position and then soared.

Such anecdotes support the wide-spread belief that identifying individu-als with the "right stuff" to be leadersis more art than science. After all, thepersonal styles of superb leaders vary:Some leaders are subdued and analyti*cal; others shout their manifestos fromthe mountaintops. And just as impor-tant, different situations call for differ-ent types of leadership. IVIost mergers

need a sensitive negotiator at the helm,whereas many turnarounds require amore forceful authority.

1 have found, however, that the mosteffective leaders are alike in one crucialway: They all have a high degree of whathas come to be known as emotional In-telligence. It's not that iQ and technicalskills are irrelevant. They do matter, butmainly as "threshold capabilities"; thatis, they are the entry-level requirementsfor executive positions. But my research,along with other recent studies, clearlyshows that emotional intelligence is thesine qua non of leadership. Without it,a person can have the best training inthe world, an incisive, analytical mind,and an endless supply of smart ideas,but he still won't make a great leader.

82 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

BEST OF HBR

in the course of the past year, my col-leagues and I have focused on how emo-tional intelligence operates at work.We have examined the relationship be-tween emotional intelligence and effec-tive performance, especially in leaders.And we have observed how emotionalintelligence shows itseif on the job. Howcan you tell if someone has high emo-tional intelligence, for example, andhow can you recognize it in yourself? Inthe following pages, we'll explore thesequestions, taking each of the compo-nents of emotional intelligence-self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation,empathy, and social skill-in turn.

Evaluating EmotionalIntelligenceMost large companies today have em-ployed trained psychologists to developwhat are known as "competency mod-els"to aid them in identifying, training,and promoting likely stars in the lead-ership firmament. The psychologistshave also developed such models forlower-level positions. And in recentyears, i have analyzed competency mod-eis from i88 companies, most of whichwere large and global and included thelikesof Lucent Technologies, British Air-ways, and Credit Suisse.

in carrying out this work, my objec-tive was to determine which personalcapabilities drove outstanding perfor-mance within these organizations, andto what degree they did so. I grouped ca-pabilities into three categories: purelytechnical skills like accounting and busi-ness planning; cognitive abilities like an-alyticai reasoning; and competenciesdemonstrating emotional intelligence,such as the ability to work with othersand effectiveness in leading change.

To create some of the competencymodels, psychologists asked senior man-agers at the companies to identify thecapabilities that typified the organiza-tion's most outstanding leaders. To cre-ate other models,the psychologists usedobjective criteria, such as a division'sprofitability, to differentiate the star per-formers at senior levels within their

organizations from the average ones.Those individuals were then extensivelyinterviewed and tested, and their capa-bilities were compared. This process re-sulted in the creation of lists of ingredi-ents for highly effective leaders. The listsranged in length from seven to 15 itemsand included such ingredients as initia-tive and strategic vision.

When I analyzed all this data, I founddramatic results. To be sure, intellect wasa driver of outstanding performance.Cognitive skills such as big-picture think-ing and long-term vision were particu-larly important. But when I calculatedthe ratio of technical skills, iQ,and emo-tional intelligence as ingredients of ex-ceilent performance, emotional intelli-gence proved to be twice as importantas the others for jobs at ail levels.

Moreover, my analysis showed thatemotional intelligence played an in-creasingly important role at the high-est levels of the company, where differ-ences in technical skills are of negiigible

importance, in other words, the higherthe rank of a person considered to bea star performer, the more emotionalinteliigence capabilities showed up asthe reason for his or her effectiveness.When I compared star performers withaverage ones in senior leadership posi-tions, nearly 90% of the difference intheir profiles was attributable to emo-tional intelligence factors rather thancognitive abilities.

Other researchers have confirmed thatemotional intelligence not only distin-guishes outstanding leaders but can alsobe linked to strong performance. Thefindings of the late David McClelland,

the renowned researcher in human andorganizational behavior, are a good ex-ample. In a 1996 study of a global foodand beverage company, McClellandfound that when senior managers hada critical mass of emotional intelligencecapabilities,their divisions outperformedyearly earnings goals by 20%. Mean-while, division leaders without that crit-ical mass underperfomied by almost thesame amount. McClelland's findings,interestingly, held as true in the com-pany's U.S. divisions as in its divisions inAsia and Europe.

In short, the numbers are beginningto tell us a persuasive story about theiink between a company's success andthe emotional inteiligence of its lead-ers. And just as important, research isaiso demonstrating that people can, ifthey take the right approach, developtheir emotional intelligence. (See thesidebar "Can Emotional intelligence BeLearned?")

Self-AwarenessSelf-awareness is the first component ofemotional inteliigence-which makessense when one considers that the Del-phic oracle gave the advice to "knowthyself" thousands of years ago. Self-awareness means having a deep under-standing of one's emotions, strengths,weaknesses, needs, and drives. Peoplewith strong self-awareness are neitheroverly criticai nor unrealistically hope-ful. Rather, they are honest - with them-selves and with others.

People who have a high degree of self-awareness recognize how their feelingsaffect them, other people, and their jobperformance. Thus, a self-aware personwho knows that tight deadlines bringout the worst in him plans his timecarefuliy and gets his work done wellin advance. Another person with highseif-a ware ness wiil be able to work witha demanding client. She will under-stand the client's impact on her moodsand the deeper reasons for her frustra-tion. "Their trivial demands take usaway from the real work that needs tobe done," she might expiain. And she

84 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

What Makes a Leader?

will go one step further and turn heranger into something constructive.

Self-awareness extends to a person'sunderstanding of bis or her values andgoals. Someone who is highly self-awareknows where he is beaded and wby; so,for example, he will be able to be firm inturning down a job offer that is tempt-ing financially but does not fit with hisprinciples or long-term goals. A personwho lacks self-awareness is apt to makedecisions that bring on inner turmoil bytreading on buried values. "The moneylooked good so I signed on," someonemight say two years into a job,"but thework means so little to me that I'm con-stantly bored." The decisions of self-aware people mesh with their values;consequently, they often find work tobe energizing.

How can one recognize self-aware-ness? First and foremost, it shows itselfas candor and an ability to assess one-self realistically. People witb bigh self-awareness are able to speak accuratelyand openly-altbough not necessarilyeffusively or confessionally-about theiremotions and the impact they have ontheir work. For instance, one managerI know of was skeptical about a new per-sonal-shopper service that her company,a major department-store chain, wasabout to introduce. Without promptingfrom her team or her boss, she offeredthem an explanation: "It's hard for me toget behind the rollout of this service,"she admitted, "because I really wantedto run the project, but I wasn't selected.Bear with me while I deal with tbat."Tbe manager did indeed examine her

Daniel Goleman is the author of Emo-tional Intelligence (Bantam. 1995) anda coauthor of Primal Leadership: Realiz-ing the Power of Emotional Intelligence(Harvard Business School, 2002). He isthe cochairman of the Consortium forResearch on Emotional Intelligence inOrganizations, which is based at RutgersUniversity's Graduate School of Appliedand Professional Psychology in Piscat-away. New Jersey. He can be reached atDaniel.Goleman@verizon.net.

feelings; a week later, she was support-ing the project fully.

Such self-knowledge often shows it-self in the hiring process. Ask a candi-date to describe a time he got carriedaway by bis feelings and did somethinghe later regretted. Self-aware candi-dates will be frank in admitting to fail-ure - and will often tell their tales witha smile. One of the hallmarks of seif-awareness is a self-deprecating senseof humor.

Self-awareness can also be identitiedduring performance reviews. Self-aware people know-and are com-fortable talking about-theirlimitations and strengths,and they often demon-strate a thirst for con-structive criticism. Bycontrast, people with lowself-awareness interpretthe message that theyneed to improve as athreat or a sign of failure.

Self-aware people canalso be recognized by theirself-confidence. Tbey havea firm grasp of their capabili-ties and are less likely to setthemselves up to fail by, for example,overstretching on assignments. Theyknow, too, when to ask for help. And therisks they take on the job are calculated.They won't ask for a challenge that theyknow they can't handle alone. They'llplay to their strengths.

Consider the actions of a midlevel em-ployee who was invited to sit in on astrategy meeting with her company'stop executives. Although she was themost junior person in tbe room, she didnot sit there quietly, listening in awe-struck or fearful silence. Sbe knew shehad a head for clear logic and the skill topresent ideas persuasively, and she of-fered cogent suggestions about the com-pany's strategy. At the same time, herself-awareness stopped her from wan-dering into territory where she knewshe was weak.

Despite tbe value of having self-awarepeople in the workplace, my research

indicates that senior executives don'toften give self-awareness the credit itdeserves when they look for potentialleaders. Many executives mistake can-dor about feelings for "wimpiness" andfail to give due respect to employees whoopenly acknowledge tbeir shortcomings.Such people are too readily dismissed as"not tough enough" to lead others.

In fact, the opposite is true. In the firstplace, people generally admire andrespect candor. Furthermore, leadersare constantly required to make judg-

ment calls that require a candidassessment of capabilities-

their own and thoseof others. Do we have

the managementexpertise to acquirea competitor? Canwe launch a newproduct within sixmonths? People whoassess themselveshonestly-that is,self aware people-

are well suited to dothe same for the orga-

nizations they run.

Self-RegulationBiological impulses drive our emotions.We cannot do away with them -but wecan do much to manage them. Self-regulation, which is like an ongoinginner conversation, is the component ofemotional intelligence that frees usfrom being prisoners of our feelings.People engaged in such a conversationfee! bad moods and emotional impulsesjust as everyone else does, but they findways to control them and even to chan-nel them in useful ways.

Imagine an executive who has justwatched a team of bis employeespresent a botched analysis to the com-pany's board of directors. In the gloomthat follows, tbe executive might findhimsetf tempted to pound on the tablein anger or kick over a chair. He couldleap up and scream at the group. Or hemight maintain a grim silence, glaringat everyone before stalking off.

INSIDE THE MIND OF THE LEADER (ANUARY 2004 85

BEST OF HBR

But if he had a gift for self-regulation,he would choose a different approach.He would pick his words carefully,acknowledging the team's poor perfor-mance without rushing to any hastyjudgment. He would then step backto consider the reasons for the failure.Are they personal-a lack of effort? Arethere any mitigating factors? What washis role in the debacle? After consider-ing these questions, he would call theteam together, lay out the incident's con-sequences, and offer his feeiings aboutit He wouid then present his analysisof the probiem and a well consideredsoiution.

Why does self-regulation matter somuch for leaders? First of all, peoplewho are in control of their feeiings andimpulses-that is, people who are rea-sonable - are able to create an environ-ment of trust and fairness. In such anenvironment, politics and infightingare sharply reduced and productivityis high. Talented people flock to theorganization and aren't tempted toleave. And self-regulation has a trickle-down effect. No one wants to be knownas a hothead when the boss is known forher calm approach. Fewer bad moodsat the top mean fewer throughout theorganization.

Second, self-regulation is importantfor competitive reasons. Everyone knowsthat business today is rife with ambigu-ity and change. Companies merge andbreak apart regularly. Technology trans-forms work at a dizzying pace. Peoplewho have mastered their emotions areable to roll with the changes. When anew program is announced, they don'tpanic; instead, they are able to suspendjudgment, seek out information, and lis-ten to the executives as they explain thenew program. As the initiative movesforward, these people are able to movewith it.

Sometimes they even lead the way.Consider the case of a manager at a largemanufacturing company. Like her col-leagues, she had used a certain softwareprogram for five years. The programdrove how she collected and reported

Can Emotional Intelligence Be Learned?

For ages, people have debated if leaders are born or made. Sotoo goes the debate about emotional inteliigence. Are peopleborn with certain levels of empathy, for example, or do theyacquire empathy as a resuttof life's experiences? The answer isboth. Scientific inquiry strongly suggests that there is a geneticcomponent to emotiona! intelligence. Psychological and develop-mental research indicates that nurture plays a role as well. Howmuch of each perhaps will never be known, but research andpractice clearly demonstrate that emotJonat intelligence canbe learned.

One thing is certain: Emotional intelligence increases withage. There is an old-fashioned word for the phenomenon: matu-rity. Yet even with maturity, some people stiil need training toenhance their emotional intelligence. Unfortunately, far toomany training programs that intend to build ieadership skills-including emotional jntelligence-are a waste of time andmoney. The problem is simple: They focus on the wrong partof the brain.

Emotional intelligence is born largely in the neurotransmittersof the brain's limbic system, which governs feelings, impulses,and drives. Research indicates that the limbic system teams bestthrough motivation, extended practice, and feedback. Comparethis with the kind of learning that goes on in the neocortex,which governs analytical and technical ability The neocortexgrasps concepts and logic. It is the part of the brain that figuresout how to use a computer or make a sales call by reading abook. Not surprisingly-but mistakenly-it is also the part of thebrain targeted by most training programs aimed at enhancingemotional inteliigence. When such programs take, in effect.

data and how she thought about thecompany's strategy. One day, senior ex-ecutives announced that a new programwas to be installed that would radicallychange how information was gatheredand assessed within the organization.While many people in the companycomplained bitterly about how disrup-tive the change would be, the managermulled over the reasons for the new pro-gram and was convinced of its potentialto improve performance. She eagerlyattended training sessions - some of hercolleagues refused to do so-and was

eventually promoted to run several di-visions, in part because she used thenew technology so effectively.

i want to push the importance of self-regulation to leadership even furtherand make tbe case that it enhances in-tegrity, which is not only a personal vir-tue but also an organizational strength.Many of the bad things that happen incompanies are a function of impulsivebehavior. People rarely plan to exagger-ate profits, pad expense accounts, dipinto the till, or abuse power for selfishends, instead, an opportunity presents

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

What Makes a Leader?

a neocortical approach, my research with the Consortium forResearch on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations hasshown they can even have a negative impact on people's jobperformance.

To enhance emotional intelligence, organizations must refo-cus their training to include the limbic system. They must helppeople break old behavioral habits and establish new ones. Thatnot only takes much more time than conventional training pro-grams, it also requires an individualized approach.

imagine an executive who is thought to be low on empathyby her colleagues. Part of that deficit shows itself as an inabilityto listen; she interrupts people and doesn't pay close attention towhat they're saying. To fix the problem, the executive needs tobe motivated to change, and then she needs practice and feed-back from others in the company. A colleague or coach could betapped to let the executive know when she has been observedfailing to listen. She would then have to replay the incident andgive a betterresponse; that is, demonstrate her ability to absorbwhat others are saying. And the executive could be directed toobserve certain executives who listen well and to mimic theirbehavior.

With persistence and practice, such a process can lead tolasting results, I know one Wall Street executive who sought toimprove his empathy-specifically his ability to read people'sreactions and see their perspectives. Before beginning his quest,theexecutive'ssubordinates were terrified of working with him.People even went so far as to hide bad news from him. Natu-rally, he was shocked when finally confronted with these facts.He went home and told his family-but they only confirmed

what he had heard at work. When their opinions on any givensubject did not mesh with his,they, too, were frightened of him.

Enlisting the help of a coach, the executive went to work toheighten his empathy through practice and feedback. His firststepwastotakea vacation to a foreign country where he didnot speak the language. While there, he monitored his reactionsto the unfamiliar and his openness to people who were differ-ent from him. When he returned home, humbled by his weekabroad, the executive asked his coach to shadow him for partsofthe day, several times a week, to critique how he treated peo-ple with new or different perspectives. At the same time, he con-sciously used on-the-job interactions as opportunities to prac-tice "hearing" ideas that differed from his. Finally, the executivehad himseif videotaped in meetings and asked those whoworked for and with him to critique his ability to acknowledgeand understand the feelings of others. It took several months,but the executive's emotional intelligence did ultimately rise,and the improvement was reflected in his overall performanceon the job.

It's important to emphasize that building one's emotionalintelligence can not-wi l l not-happen without sincere desireand concerted effort. A brief seminar won't help; nor can onebuy a how-to manual. It is much harder to learn to empathize-to internalize empathy as a natural response to people-thanit is to become adept at regression analysis. But it can be done,"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm," wroteRalph Waldo Emerson. If your goal is to become a real leader,these words can serve as a guidepost in your efforts to develophigh emotional intelligence.

itself, and people with low impulse con-trol just say yes.

By contrast, consider the behavior ofthe senior executive at a large food com-pany. The executive was scrupulouslyhonest in his negotiations with localdistributors. He would routinely lay outhis cost structure in detail, thereby giv-ing the distributors a realistic under-standing ofthe company's pricing. Thisapproach meant the executive couldn'talways drive a hard bargain. Now, onoccasion, he felt the urge to increaseprofits by withholding information

about the company's costs. But he chal-lenged that impulse - he saw that it mademore sense in the long run to counter-act it. His emotional self-regulation paidoff in strong, lasting relationships withdistributors that benefited the companymore than any short-term financialgains would have.

The signs of emotional self-regulation,therefore, are easy to see: a propensityfor reflection and thoughtful ness; com-fort with ambiguity and change; and in-tegrity-an ability to say no to impul-sive urges.

Like self-awareness, self-regulationoften does not get its due. People whocan master their emotions are some-times seen as cold fish-their consideredresponses are taken as a lack of passion.People with fiery temperaments are fre-quently thought of as "classic" leaders-their outbursts are considered hall-marks of charisma and power. But whensuch people make it to the top, their im-pulsiveness often works against them.In my research, extreme displays of neg-ative emotion have never emerged asa driver of good leadership.

INSIDE THE MIND OF THE LEADER JANUARY 2004 87

BEST OF HBR

MotivationIf there is one trait that virtually alleffective leaders have, it is motivation.They are driven to achieve beyond ex-pectations-their own and everyoneelse's. The key word here is achieve.Plenty of people are motivated by ex-ternal factors, such as a big salary or thestatus that comes from having an im-pressive title or being part of a presti-gious company. By contrast, those withleadership potential are motivated bya deeply embedded desire to achievefor the sake of achievement.

If you are looking for leaders, how canyou identify people who are motivatedby the drive to achieve rather than byexternal rewards? The first sign is a pas-sion for the work itself-such peopleseek out creative challenges, love toleam, and take great pride in a job welldone. They also display an unflaggingenergy to do things better. People withsuch energy often seem restless with thestatus quo. They are persistent with

their questions about why things aredone one way rather than another; theyare eager to explore new approaches totheir work.

A cosmetics company manager, forexample, was frustrated that he had towait two weeks to get sales results frompeople in the field. He finally trackeddown an automated phone system thatwouid beep each of his salespeople at5 PM every day. An automated messagethen prompted them to punch in their

numbers-how many calls and salesthey had made that day. The systemshortened the feedback time on saiesresults from weeks to hours.

That story illustrates two other com-mon traits of people who are driven toachieve. They are forever raising the per-formance bar, and they like to keepscore. Take the performance bar first.During performance reviews, peoplewith high levels of motivation might askto be "stretched" by their superiors. Ofcourse, an employee who combines self-awareness with internal motivation willrecognize her limits-but she won't set-tle for objectives that seem too easy tofulfill.

And it follows naturally that peoplewho are driven to do better also wanta way of tracking progress-their own,their team's, and their company's.Whereas people with low achievementmotivation are often fuzzy about re-sults, those with high achievement mo-tivation often keep score by tracking

The Five Components of Emotional Intelligence at WorkDefinition

Self-Awareness ^^^ ability to recognize and understand yourmoods, emotions, and drives, as well as theireffect on others

Hallmarksself-confidencerealistic self-assessmentself-deprecating sense of humor

Self-Requlation ^^^ ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses trustworthiness and integrityand moods comfort with ambiguitythe propensity to suspend judgment-to thinkbefore acting

openness to change

Mot iva t ion ^ passion to work for reasons that go beyondmoney or statusa propensity to pursue goals with energy andpersistence

strong d rive to ach ieveoptimism,even in the face of failureorganizational commitment

Empathy ^^^ ability to understand the emotional makeupof other peopleskill in treating people according to their emotionalreactions

expertise in building and retaining talentcross-cultural sensitivityservice to clients and customers

Social Skill proficiency in managing relationships and building effectiveness in leading changenetworks persuasivenessan ability to find common ground and build rapport

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

What Makes a Leader?

such hard measures as profitability ormarket share. I know of a money man-ager who starts and ends his day on theInternet, gauging the performance ofhis stock fund against four industry-setbenchmarks.

Interestingly, people with high moti-vation remain optimistic even when thescore is against them. In such cases, self-regulation combines with achievementmotivation to overcome the frustrationand depression that come after a set-back or failure. Take the case of an an-other portfolio manager at a large invest-ment company. After several successfulyears, her fund tumbled for three con-secutive quarters, leading three large in-stitutional clients to shift their businesselsewhere.

Some executives would have blamedthe nosedive on circumstances outsidetheir control; others might have seen thesetback as evidence of personal failure.This portfolio manager, however, sawan opportunity to prove she could leada turnaround. Two years later, whenshe was promoted to a very senior levelin the company, she described the ex-perience as "the best thing that everhappened to me; I learned so muchfrom it."

Executives trying to recognize highlevels of achievement motivation intheir people can look for one last pieceof evidence: commitment to the orga-nization. When people love their jobsfor the work itself, they often feel com-mitted to the organizations that makethat work possible. Committed employ-ees are likely to stay with an organiza-tion even when they are pursued byheadhunters waving money.

It's not difficult to understand howand why a motivation to achieve trans-lates into strong leadership. If you setthe performance bar high for yourself,you will do the same for the organiza-tion when you are in a position to doso. Likewise, a drive to surpass goals andan interest in keeping score can be con-tagious. Leaders with these traits canoften build a team of managers aroundthem with the same traits. And of course.

optimism and organizational commit-ment are fundamental to leadership-just try to imagine running a companywithout them.

EmpathyOf all the dimensions of emotional in-telligence, empathy is the most easilyrecognized. We have al! felt the empa-thy of a sensitive teacher or friend; wehave all been struck by its absence in anunfeeling coach or boss. But when itcomes to business, we rarely hear peoplepraised, let alone rewarded, for their em-pathy. The very word seems unbusi-nesslike, out of place amid the toughrealities of the marketplace.

But empathy doesn't mean a kind of"I'm OK, you're OK" mushiness. For aleader, that is, it doesn't mean adoptingother people's emotions as one's ownand trying to please everybody. Thatwould be a nightmare-it would makeaction impossible. Rather, empathymeans thoughtfully considering em-ployees'feelings-along with other fac-tors-in the process of making intelli-gent decisions.

For an example of empathy in action,consider what happened when twogiant brokerage companies merged,cre-ating redundant jobs in all their divi-sions. One division manager called hispeople together and gave a gloomyspeech that emphasized the number ofpeople who would soon be fired. Themanager of another division gave hispeople a different kind of speech. Hewas up-front about his own worry andconfusion, and he promised to keep peo-ple informed and to treat everyonefairly.

The difference between these twomanagers was empathy. The first man-ager was too worried about his own fateto consider the feelings of his anxiety-stricken colleagues. The second knewintuitively what his people were feel-ing, and he acknowledged their fearswith his words. Is it any surprise thatthe first manager saw his division sink asmany demoralized people, especiallythe most talented, departed? By con-

trast, the second manager continuedto be a strong leader, his best peoplestayed, and his division remained as pro-ductive as ever.

Empathy is particularly importanttoday as a component of leadership forat least three reasons: the increasinguse of teams; the rapid pace of global-ization; and the growing need to retaintalent.

Consider the challenge of leading ateam. As anyone who has ever beena part of one can attest, teams are caul-drons of bubbling emotions. They areoften charged with reaching a consen-sus-which is hard enough with twopeople and much more difficult as thenumbers increase. Fven in groups withas few as four or five members, alliancesform and clashing agendas get set. Ateam's leader must be able to sense andunderstand the viewpoints of everyonearound the table.

That's exactly what a marketing man-ager at a large information technologycompany was able to do when she wasappointed to lead a troubled team. Thegroup was in turmoil, overloaded bywork and missing deadlines. Tensionswere high amongthe members.Tinker-ing with procedures was not enough tobring the group together and make it aneffective part of the company.

So the manager took several steps. Ina series of one-on-one sessions, she tookthe time to listen to everyone in thegroup - what was frustrating them, howthey rated their colleagues, whetherthey felt they had been ignored. And

INSIDE THE MIND OF THE LEADER JANUARY 3004 89

BEST OF HBR

then she directed the team in a way thatbrought it together: She encouragedpeople to speak more openly abouttheir ftristrations, and she helped peopleraise constructive complaints duringmeetings. In short, her empathy allowedher to understand her team's emotionalmakeup. The result was not just height-ened collaboration among members butalso added business, as the team wascalled on for help by a wider range ofinternal clients.

Globalization is another reason for therising importance of empathy for busi-ness leaders. Cross-cultural dialogue caneasily lead to miscues and misunder-standings. Empathy is an antidote. Peo-ple who have it are attuned to subtletiesin body language; they can hear themessage beneath the words being spo-ken. Beyond that, they have a deepunderstandingofboth the existence andthe importance of cultural and ethnicdifferences.

Consider the case of an American con-sultant whose team had just pitched aproject to a potential Japanese client.In its dealings with Americans, the teamwas accustomed to being bombardedwith questions after such a proposal,but this time it was greeted with a longsilence. Other members of the team, tak-ing the silence as disapproval, wereready to pack and leave. The lead con-sultant gestured them to stop. Althoughbe was not particularly familiar witbJapanese culture, he read the client'sface and posture and sensed not rejec-tion but interest-even deep consider-ation. He was right: When the client fi-nally spoke, it was to give the consultingtirm the job.

Finally, empathy plays a key role in theretention of talent, particularly in to-day's information economy. Leadershave always needed empathy to developand keep good people, but today thestakes are higher. When good peopleleave, they take the company's knowl-edge with them.

That's where coaching and mentor-ing come in. It has repeatedly beenshown that coaching and mentoring pay

off not just in better performance butalso in increased job satisfaction anddecreased turnover. But what makescoaching and mentoring work best isthe nature of the relationship. Out-standing coaches and mentors get in-side the heads of the people they arehelping. They sense how to give effec-tive feedback. They know when to pushfor better performance and when tohold back. In the way they motivatetheir proteges, they demonstrate empa-thy in action.

In what is probably sounding like arefrain, let me repeat that empathydoesn't get much respect in business.People wonder how leaders can makehard decisions if they are "feeling" for allthe people who will be affected. Butleaders with empathy do more thansympathize with people around tbem:They use their knowledge to improvetheir companies in subtle but impor-tant ways.

Social SkillThe first three components of emotionalintelligence are self-management skills.The last two, empathy and social skill,concern a person's ability to managerelationships with others. As a compo-nent of emotional intelligence, socialskill is not as simple as it sounds. It's notjust a matter of friendliness, althoughpeople with high levels of social skill arerarely mean-spirited. Social skill, rath-er, is friendliness with a purpose: mov-ing people in the direction you desire,whether that's agreement on a newmarketing strategy or enthusiasm abouta new product.

Socially skilled people tend to havea wide circle of acquaintances, and theyhave a knack for finding common groundwith people of all kinds-a knack forbuilding rapport. That doesn't meanthey socialize continually; it means theywork according to the assumption tbatnothing important gets done alone.Such people have a network in placewhen the time for action comes.

Social skill is the culmination of theother dimensions of emotional intelli-gence. People tend to be very effectiveat managing relationships when theycan understand and control their ownemotions and can empathize with thefeelings of others. Even motivation con-tributes to social skill. Remember thatpeople who are driven to achieve tendto be optimistic, even in the face of set-backs or failure. When people are up-beat, their "glow" is cast upon conversa-tions and other social encounters. Theyare popular, and for good reason.

Because it is the outcome of the otherdimensions of emotional intelligence,social skill is recognizable on the job inmany ways tbat will by now sound fa-miliar. Socially skilled people, for in-stance, are adept at managing teams-that's their empathy at work. Likewise,they are expert persuaders-a manifes-tation of self-awareness, self-regulation,and empathy combined. Given thoseskills, good persuaders know when tomake an emotional plea, for instance,and when an appeal to reason will workbetter. And motivation, when publiclyvisible, makes such people excellent col-laborators; their passion for tbe workspreads to others, and they are driven tofind solutions.

But sometimes social skill sbows itselfin ways the other emotional intelligencecomponents do not. For instance, sociallyskilled people may at times appear not tobe working while at work. They seem tobe idly schmoozing-chatting in the hall-ways with colleagues or joking aroundwith people wbo are not even connectedto their "real" jobs. Socially skilled peo-ple, however, don't think it makes senseto arbitrarily limit the scope of their re-

90 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

What Makes a Leader?

lationships. They build bonds widely be-cause they know that in these fluid times,they may need help someday from peo-ple they are just getting to knovy today

For example, consider the case of anexecutive in the strategy department ofa global computer manufacturer. By1993, he was convinced that the com-pany's future lay with the Internet. Overthe course of the next year, he foundkindred spirits and used his social skill tostitch together a virtual community thatcut across levels, divisions, and nations.He then used this de facto team to putup a corporate Web site, among the firstby a major company. And, on his owninitiative, with no budget or formal sta-tus, he signed up the company to par-ticipate in an annual internet industryconvention. Calling on his allies and per-suading various divisions to donatefunds, he recruited more than 50 peoplefrom a dozen different units to repre-sent the company at the convention.

Management took notice: Within ayear of the conference, the executive'steam formed the basis for the com-pany's first Internet division, and he wasformally put in charge of it. To get there,the executive had ignored conventionalboundaries, forging and maintainingconnections with people in every cor-ner of the organization.

Is social skill considered a key leader-ship capability in most companies? Theanswer is yes, especially when comparedwith the other components of emo-tional intelligence. People seem to knowintuitively that leaders need to managerelationships effectively; no leader isan island. After all, the leader's task is toget work done through other people,and social skill makes that possible.A leader who cannot express her empa-thy may as well not have it at all. Anda leader's motivation will be useless ifhe cannot communicate his passion tothe organization. Social skill allows lead-

ers to put their emotional intelligenceto work.

It would be foolish to assert thatgood-old-fashioned IQ and technicalability are not important ingredients instrong leadership. But the recipe wouldnot be complete without emotional in-telligence. It was once thought that thecomponents of emotional intelligencewere "nice to have" in business leaders.But now we know that, for the sake ofperformance, these are ingredients thatleaders "need to have."

It is fortunate, then, that emotionalintelligence can be learned. The processis not easy. It takes time and, most of all,commitment. But the benefits that comefrom having a well-developed emo-tional intelligence, both for the individ-ual and for the organization, make itworth the effort. ^

Reprint R0401H; HBR OnPoint 3790To order, see page 115.