Nursing Leadership: Emotional and Social Intelligence

Running head: NURSING LEADERSHIP
NURSING LEADERSHIP
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Introduction
In the profession of nursing, there is an increased demand of an individual who would
be a great leader. Leadership is a skill that an individual must possess to guide and make the
subordinates accomplish a goal for the betterment of the organization. It is the characteristics
of a great leader to mould other individuals in the team for increasing the efficiency in
delivering the care. In nursing, nurses play a key role in leading the organization. Nurses are
a part of situations where their critical thinking is required to solve the issue efficiently
(Grossman & Valigia, 2017). It is researched that nursing professionals who have high
emotional quotient tend to have more positive relationship building abilities with patients and
colleagues. Many studies have been conducted where it is found that nurses with higher
emotional intelligence are better leaders with less work exhaustion. The interaction of the
nurses with the people outside of their profession can be termed as a social interaction which
plays a key role in building healthy social intelligence quotient. In the following essay, a
comparison between the emotional and the social intelligence and the benefits will be
discussed. In addition to that, a work situation will be presented using the John’s model for
structured reflection to critically evaluate the areas where improvement is required.
Compare and contrast EI and SI. Discuss how understanding EI and SI may benefit you
and those you work with. How can it help or hinder your current and potential
leadership ability?
It has been observed that organizations have been recruiting psychologists for the
evaluation of their employees in the emotional and the social intelligence aspect. According
to Goleman, (2004), cognitive skills like broader vision and intellect of an individual drive
outstanding performance for the employee towards the organization. It was also reported that
higher the rank of the employee in the organization, higher is the efficiency for the

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management of their emotional and social intelligence. In the healthcare sector, the nurses are
to possess different skill sets in meeting the requirements and providing the holistic care to
the patient as well as their families. Intelligence is the ability of the individual in problem
solving and linguistic procurement. Each and every human being possesses different variants
of intelligence which will generate different kinds of productivity for the organization they
are working for (Piaget & Inhelder, 2015). Emotional intelligence is a variant of intelligence
that mainly circles around the ability of the individual to identify and manage their and others
emotions to a satisfactory level. Social intelligence can be regarded as an individual’s ability
to interpret and learn from the failures that are taking place in a social setting.
Individuals who have been found to possess higher emotional intelligence are
emotionally aware with proper management and application of their emotions in critically
resolving problems and controlling their emotions as well as others (Rezvani et al., 2016).
For the proper evaluation of the emotional intelligence of an individual in an organization,
self-awareness and self-regulation is assessed. Self-awareness is the person’s ability to
understand their own strengths and weaknesses. The individual is honest with themselves
about their needs, beliefs and emotions (Rasheed, 2015). It is easier for a self-aware person to
recognize the effect their emotions will have on them, other people and job performance.
Understanding of their values and goals is extended in a self-aware individual. Low self-
awareness of an individual can give rise to inner turmoil and confusion regarding their goals
in life. Self-regulation is the controllability factor of an individual towards their emotions
while responding to critical situations. Being able to adapt to different situations and working
with various kinds of people increases the flexibility of the individual. Achieving self-drawn
goals increases the efficiency of the performance to excel in their profession.
Individuals who possess higher social intelligence tend to have some critical
behaviour which distinguishes them from people with lower social intelligence. Social