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Abstract
The Emotional Intelligence School of Leadership Styles major paper invites readers to uncover the six different styles of leadership that compose the school. The paper identifies and summarizes the following styles: Visionary, Coaching, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting, and Commanding. Additionally the paper outlines the positives and negatives associated with each style of leadership as well as provides an example of those styles in use. Lastly, the paper concludes with the literature review and synopsis of how these styles can be effectively integrated into modern project management.
Introduction
Leadership is defined as, the power or ability to lead other people (Bass,1960). Project leadership is defined as, the ability to persuade others to enthusiastically and diligently pursue the projects objective (Salovey & Mayer, 1989). A project is always evolving dynamically and likewise, project leadership is situational. In a project, the leader is required to have cognitive, social, and emotional intelligence in order to assess the situational and organizational needs and adjust the pace of leadership accordingly (Mayer, Caruso & Salovey, 1989).
Emotional intelligence is defined by Salovey and Mayer (1989) as the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own, and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's own thinking and actions. For a long time emotional dimension of leadership was associated with the Visionary or Charismatic School of Leadership (Popper & Zakkai, 1994). Since the mid 1990's, emotional intelligence has established itself as a leadership competence in its own right, as well as numerous books, publications, and exploratory studies, that lend credence and justify its importance. Goleman (1998) first synthesized and presented this idea of a new school, and it soon found its way into mainstream acceptance.
Great leaders are the ones who drive people to deliver optimum performance. A critical way of doing this is by tapping into employees emotions while taking control of self-emotions. Leading and performing is not easy under pressure, more so in a project with hard deadlines. The ability to manage self and teams emotions, as well as connect to the emotions that drive their behaviors is a competency that is necessary in a modern project leader.
According to the proponents of the emotional intelligence school, the...