Leadership Issues & Organizational Transformation

Leadership Issues and Organizational Transformation

There is little disagreement among current thinkers about the need for widespread organizational transformation. Some focus on the need for cost containment, others on the need for an improved entrepreneurial spirit. All emphasize the need for leaders who can take organizations through radical change successfully. Identifying those potentially successful leaders is not always easy, however.

In his current article about leadership, Daniel Goleman (1998) indicated that effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of emotional intelligence. He contended that emotional intelligence is the prerequisite for successful leadership. Without emotional intelligence, he indicated, a person can have all the knowledge and ideas in the world, but will not be able to lead effectively.

The intention in the following pages is to look at this aspect of leadership, trying to discover if self-awareness, self-regulation motivation, empathy, and social skills seem to be primary components of effective leadership in organizational transformation.

The Components of Emotional Intelligence

Goleman (1998) described the components of emotional intelligence, giving examples of each. He noted that his research at nearly 200 global companies turned up many examples of these emotionally intelligent leaders, and how they led their companies to great success. In describing the components of their successf

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arrested. In the next six years, Bernabe essentially reinvented the company, changing it into a leaner enterprise competitive in the global marketplace. Bernabe himself attributed his success not to his knowledge and skills, but to his emotionally intelligence, although he did not use that terminology. For him, his power to lead came from within, from his values and principles. His focus, he indicated, was also toward leading with, and toward, greater humanity and justice. His focus was not on the bottom line, although that improved, but on the people of the company and the country (Hill and Wetlaufer, 1998). Bernabe clearly exhibited all the traits that Goleman emphasized in his discussion of leadership. He was self-aware, self-regulated, empathic, motivated, and socially skillful. Despite the continuing crises he faced during the early part of his tenure, he focused on his vision for the company, not on reacting to problems. On the opposite end of the spectrum from Eni in terms of size and global reach is the company W.H. Brady Co. However, it too has a story of transformation led by an inspired leader brought in from the outside. CEO Katherine Hudson left Eastman Kodak after 24 years in order to lead W.H. Brady Co.,

Category: Psychology - L