What makes a leader?

The Harvard Business Review regards Daniel Goleman's paper on what

makes a leader as one of its 10 must-read articles of all time.
Daniel Goleman's pioneering research with 200 global companies showed that certain qualities
that sound soft and un-businesslike are absolutely crucial for stellar work performance,
outstanding leadership and creating happiness.
In this video, we will discuss Goleman's ideas on emotional intelligence and leadership.
We've all been recruited into our organizations, largely on the basis of our IQ.
This refers to our quantitative, language, analytical and other such abilities.
IQ is required to deal with the cognitive complexity we confront in our jobs.
While IQ is important, it is considered a social capability. It is a door opener.
The people who are selected into a profession may have an IQ that is about one standard
deviation above the normal, say, IQ of 115. When everyone is about as smart as everyone else,
in terms of IQ, it is how people manage themselves and their relationships that gives the best
performers their competitive edge. In other words, you have to be smart in a different way.
That is where emotional intelligence, or EQ, comes in. EQ is the ability to manage ourselves
and our relationships effectively.
Goleman's research showed that EQ is twice as important as domain skills and IQ for
middle-level managers. The importance of EQ increases as you move up the organization.

At senior and top levels, as high as 90 percent of your success flows from EQ.
There are four components of emotional intelligence at work.
Two of these are intrapersonal components and two are interpersonal.
Then you have dimensions of awareness and actions.
Thus, the four components are self-awareness, self-management, empathy and social skills.
First,
self-awareness is the capacity of individuals to do self-reflection and monitor themselves. It
is the ability to do self-observation, even as we are functioning. When we are self-reflective,
we are aware of what we are feeling or experiencing while we are actually doing it. This is
crucial for making good decisions.
Key decisions have a number of elements that are somewhat intangible. So you need a felt, or
gut-sense. Does it feel right? This ability of discernment and making informed choices is
critical for good decision-making.
When self-reflection is missing.
People have difficulty learning from their experience,
particularly in a conflict or a stressful situation.
They blame others or feel like a victim.
On the other hand, when self-reflection is highly developed,
individuals are able to focus on themselves, observe themselves and take a third person
perspective on their feelings and thought processes.
This contributes to realistic self-assessment.
As a result, they feel confident to change direction in mid-course by assessing and observing
themselves in mid-flight.
Second, self-management deals with how we manage our emotions. How do we deal with
distressing our crippling emotions? Are we able to think well even when things are not going
our way? Can we stay focused and motivated?
The ability to remain adaptable and stay flexible is a function of internal self-management.
In today's fast changing environment, we are often taken out of our comfort zones and into a
state of disequilibrium. We may experience disappointment, anxiety, fear, anger or distrust.
We need to regulate these difficult feelings and find a way to calm the waters and
reestablish our sense of equilibrium.
When self-regulation is missing, individuals are unable to accept negative information.
They deny it, discount others or feel undervalued. When self-regulation is highly developed,
people allow others to be free and frank.
They are not unduly upset when disturbing information is surfaced.
This contributes to tolerance of ambiguity, trustworthiness and openness to change.

Third, empathy refers to the ability to understand how other people are thinking about the
situation.
Do we know how they feel? Do we care? Are we concerned? Do we want to help? In a highly
interdependent environment,
empathy is an important capacity.
When empathy is missing,
managers don't listen and are not able to get in touch with people anymore.
They don't recognize or appreciate differences and diversity of opinion.
On the other hand, star performers with highly developed empathy
are able to get into other's shoes;
relate to people who are different,
as well as to those people who are similar.
Since they value differences, seek to learn from others and communicate well, they build and
retain talent, exhibit cross-cultural sensitivity and provide superior client service.

Finally,
social skills refers to the proficiency in managing relationships and building networks.
It is an ability to find common ground and build rapport.
Can we inspire people, motivate them to pursue shared mission?
Can we build strong team bonds? Can we maintain personal friendships amongst work
associates? Articulate and arouse enthusiasm for shared goals?
For employees, how a leader makes them feel plays a large role in their level of motivation and
commitment.
With high EQ leaders,
employees are in the optimal internal state for working at their best in terms of cognitive
abilities and skills they bring to the job.

Emotional intelligence competencies are not innate talents; they are learned abilities. The keys to
learning are:
 number one, strong self-motivation. You have to undo at the brain level certain or
rehearsed habits which are our habitual ways of reacting.
This requires strong intention, motivation and commitment to growth.
  Number two, you should recognize where you need to make improvements and be
focused on that improvement area. You will build on feedback and your priorities to
choose the improvement area.
 Number three, you will need to practice new behavior 'til it becomes more strongly
embedded in your brain structure than the old behavior.
Then you will do it naturally. So you need the real effort and real motivation.
 Number four, you should give time, attention and focus, as this involves unlearning and
relearning.

Some of the learning strategies for development include seeking new challenges or projects to
gain exposure to new leadership paths, developing ongoing feedback with close work associates,
identifying role models and coaches for help and monitoring your leadership growth and
development on a regular and periodic basis.
To conclude, EQ is the bedrock of successful leadership and it can be learned. It is the
combination of
EQ and domain knowledge that separates star performers from average ones. What makes a
leader? The Harvard Business Review regards Daniel Goleman's paper on what: Added to
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In many ways, self-awareness can be 
considered the linchpin of emotional intelligence.
It enables the other aspects of self management, empathy, and social skills.
Enhancing self-awareness is hard, yet it is crucial if you want to achieve leadership excellence. 
Professor Thomas DeLong of the Harvard Business School underlines the importance of
self awareness when he states that a leader should be able to answer two key questions. 
One, how do people experience you? Two, how do people experience themselves when they are
with you? He adds that many leaders struggle to answer these two questions. 
For instance, let us say that a subordinate approaches the front-line leader with a bright
innovative proposal. The leader takes a hard look at the idea and then he starts to make
modifications in the subordinate's proposal.And then hands it back. In the leader's mind, he has
seriously considered the idea.And has used his expertise to improve the proposal. But the leader
has no awareness that in the subordinate's mind,the leader had needlessly interfered and even
tried to steal credit by trying to assume ownership of that innovative proposal. For those reasons,
the subordinate has significantly lost interest in pursuing the idea.Perceptions are realities.
For the leader, he is contributing and adding value.On the other hand, for the subordinate,
the leader is interfering and being unappreciative.A wide divergence between others' perceptions
and one's own perception reflects low self-awareness.
Managers get so focused on their tasks and priorities that emotional and relationship aspects
become their blind spots. In our story, the manager was just not aware that while 
he may have improved the quality of the proposal by 10 to 15%, 
he may have reduced the direct reports motivation by 80%. 
Often there is little self-awareness of the impact of one's behavior. 
Daniel Goleman, an important top leader in the field of emotional intelligence, 
says that there are three competencies under the domain of self-awareness. 
Number one, emotional awareness. 
This refers to recognizing your emotions and their effects. 
Number two, accurate self-assessment.
Which means you know your strengths and your limits, 
and number three, self-confidence. 
This reflects a strong sense of your self-worth and capabilities. 
Let us understand that these three aspects through a real life story.
A leader in a staff position was required to initiate a significant change, 
and so she would hold a meeting with key stakeholders from the line functions. 
These staff professional put together and elaborate and detail presentation. 
But soon she has started to worry about the negative attitude and 
the likely resistance of the individuals in line functions 
to whom she had to make the presentation. 
At some stage she realized that her unproductive self talk
nd negative internal chatter in her mind were making her 
anxious and causing self-doubt. 
She became aware that her anxiety was making her feel insecure and defensive.

In a research, people are asked how many of  their former bosses would they again be willing to
work for. 
Two out of three respondents, that is about 65 percent,  reported that they would not be willing to
work again for their former bosses.  In another study, people were asked if  their boss was
competent or incompetent. What percentage of managers do you think  were rated as
incompetent by their subordinates?  Sixty to 75 percent.  What percentage of leaders, with a good
performance history, failed subsequently to reach expected levels of achievement, and ended up
stagnating in their career or even getting fired from their jobs? Almost 50 percent. In other
words, one out of two bright and hardworking individuals, who do well in the initial phase of
their career, subsequently get derailed. When we look at these statistics, most of us think of our
bosses, 0but these findings are a warning sign for all of us. Why do so many bright people
derail? What can we do to avoid this trap of leader derailment? In this video we will explore this
question. There are two kinds of challenges that we'll discuss. 
We will begin with the first problem that is posed by transition. For example, promotion to a
senior job, or a move to a new boss, or an unfamiliar challenge. Let us take an example: An
eager and hard working technical professional took up a front-line leadership position in a startup
company. Soon she faced a seemingly endless stream of operating problems, 
inexperience across the board, lack of clear procedures, disputes among her people, and
uncooperative senior management. She did not create these problems, but now it was her job to
resolve them. 
Given her position of interdependence,  she had to learn to build relationships with people inside
and outside of the organization. 
She had to let go of tactical details, and adopt a big picture perspective, work out clear
priorities, and lead a team-based decision making.
 But her own approach, was to shut herself up in her office, and work long hours on a narrow set
of familiar problems. Unfortunately, she neither sought nor received timely and helpful
feedback. As she ran into one crisis after another, she found it more and more difficult to sustain
her motivation. After some time, she was fired from her job. As we see from this case
example, managerial derailment results from non-adaptation to new challenges of a different
context. Changes in job assignment requires people to apply a different skill set. 
But derailed executives fail to notice the need 
to develop new strengths. 
They turn up the volume on those behaviors that they already do well, 
hoping that doing more of the same will save them. 
But, paradoxically, the same talents 
that once brought them early success, 
later lead to failure. 
And flaws and blind spots that 
seemed insignificant earlier in their careers, 
suddenly start to matter a great deal. 
When you move to a new role or a new context, 
you should reflect on your personality, 
skill, and experience profile. 
Then, you compare these with the demands of new job. 
On the basis of the realistic job review and assessment of risk factors, 
you'll create a plan for learning and
adaptation. 
In other words, to avoid the derailment trap, 
you require one, realistic self-assessment, two, 
recognition of the need for new strengths, and three, 
conscious development of a broader set of skills 
and perspectives that can serve you in the new situation. 
Derailment is also caused by another related problem. 
The problem created by success. 
Yes, strangely, we also need to be wary 
of the unintended side effects of rapid and high success. 
Let's again look at a short case illustration. 
A leader was bright, ambitious, 
and highly action-oriented, and so received 
quick promotions to be made the head of a large project. 
Given his strong action bias, 
he had no tolerance for set procedures 
and little patience for considering multiple viewpoints. 
He was seen as abrasive and arrogant, 
but he believed that he was so successful because he 
could intimidate people and was 
not too bothered by individual sensitivities. 
The truth was, that he had been successful despite his arrogance. 
Sometimes people confuse correlation with causation. 
Occasionally, he received direct 
and indirect feedback on his dysfunctional behavior, 
but given his past success, 
he denied the importance of this feedback. 
He discounted the feedback givers, 
and continued with his earlier styles. 
Not surprisingly he could not build a team, 
did not trust people, 
and pursued his personal success so single-mindedly, 
that his colleagues and team members
were 
not inclined to back him. 
The sources of his initial success became fatal flaws. 
Yet he was so self-absorbed, 
that he was unwilling to take responsibility 
for the shortcomings and learn from his mistakes. 
As the project was too large to be run in a centralized manner, 
performance took a beating. 
He was demoted to a smaller area. 
It has been found that most frequent cause of derailment 
is lack of people sensitivity. 
Most derailed managers were found 
to have relationship problems. 
Under stress, derailed managers 
tend to become even more oppressive and intimidating. 
Researchers point out that often, 
managerial failure is less about lacking the right stuff. 
It is more about having the wrong stuff - for instance, 
problems with interpersonal relations, 
inability to build a team, 
or inability to change or adapt during a transition. 
So what are the key lessons? 
First, we must realize that 
failure does not occur in one big swoop. 
It usually involves buildup of little problems 
that eventually reach a critical mass. 
For a leader, importance of self-awareness, 
self-reflection, and mindfulness cannot be overemphasized. 
We should be committed to understanding 
how people perceive us. 
In particular, we need awareness of how 
we tend to behave when we are under stress. 
Learning requires openness to honest feedback. 
Second, by strengthening our conversations 
with key stakeholders, we help clarify expectations, 
monitor progress on a wide set of criteria, 
and generate valuable feedback on what is going well, 
and what is not going well. 
These are of great value in sharpening 
our awareness of the context, improving our self-management, 
and honing our social skills. 
Third, in a changing context, 
over reliance on past package 
of our success factors can be dangerous. 
We should be committed to learning new skills, 
mindsets, and perspectives. 
We shall first believe that we can change. 
We should carefully choose our learning priorities, 
grow beyond initial strengths, 
and develop a broad repertoire of talents 
for the ever-changing demands. 
We should devote time and energy to building 
and maintaining network of developmental 
relationships for deriving feedback, 
advice, and emotional support. 
Finally, derailment research shows that change, 
stress, and lack of self-awareness are big threats. 
We can do little about change and stress. 
Enhanced self-awareness is therefore 
the key to avoiding the trap of derailment.

Chandrashekar
The first one is expertise.  you need to learn yourself. bility I would recommend is the ability to diagnose the situation. 

that leaders have to rely on, it's a journey, but 

the first step to leadership is your ability to see the big picture.

Start transcript at 3 minutes 32 seconds3:32

In any organizational setting, you cannot be a leader unless you are a deep expert, 
at least in one area which you represent, whether it is IT systems, 
software, or it is medicine or research or aeronautics, whatever. 
Wherever you are working, there is a subject you represent.

Start transcript at 3 minutes 55 seconds3:55

The people around you, your manager, your colleagues, the teams that you lead, 
the people who report to you, must see in you an additional capability, 
an ability to add value in the area of expertise.

Start transcript at 4 minutes 12 seconds4:12

So like they say, the T shaped professional. 
Someone who has both depth and width, 
depth, the other side of the T, is the most important. 
Expertise would be my first recommendation. 
Many people think just by networking, through charisma, 
just by carrying yourself, just talking well you can be a leader. 
No. 
People will see that through. 
You can be a leader only if you are good at one particular expertise. 
The second big thing that leaders have to rely on, it's a journey, but 
the first step to leadership is your ability to see the big picture