The Interplay of Intelligence, Leadership, and Emotional Intelligence

This essay delves into the critical concepts of intelligence and leadership, examining their profound impact on organizational success. It defines intelligence, highlighting its various facets, including intuition, creativity, and consciousness, and explores its connection to adaptive behavior. The essay also defines leadership, differentiating it from leader development and emphasizing the importance of social context and interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, it introduces emotional intelligence, discussing its significance in recognizing and managing emotions, both in oneself and others. The essay investigates the interplay between these elements, emphasizing how intelligence and emotional intelligence contribute to effective leadership and organizational adaptability. It highlights the need for comprehensive leadership development across all organizational levels and underscores the value of experiential learning. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of developing both individual leaders and fostering social relations within groups to support leadership development and achieve high-performing, adaptive organizations. It also touches on the various skills required for leadership, including technical, tactical, conceptual, and leadership competencies and how the level of intelligence of individual leaders is crucial for an organization.

Question 1
Explain the following:
• Intelligence and Leadership
• Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
[50 marks]
Introduction
There are indications that our nation’s leadership is in crisis. Financial and other
scandals, bankruptcies, and forced resignations afflict our corporate, religious, educational,
and political institutions. Although the so-called newsworthy stories that dominate the
headlines may exaggerate the true extent of any leadership problem, there is reason to believe
that organizations may not be prepared for the leadership challenges of the future. Recent
(proprietary) survey data indicate that only about one fifth of the chief executive officers
surveyed believed that they and their colleagues to this feeling of a leadership gap is the
profound transformation that continues in business, education and the military – basically in
every domain.
The challenges faced by organizations have become increasingly complex. As a result,
businesses and other organizations are changing their structures, reducing layers of
management control and striving to become more agile and responsive to their environments.
The result of these ongoing transformations is that there is a pervasive need for people at
every level to participate in the leadership process. No single leader can possibly have all the
answers to every problem, especially if those problems are in the form of adaptive challenges
– those problems for which an organization has no preexisting resources, tools, solutions or
even sensemaking strategies for accurately naming and describing the challenge (Heifetz,
1994). Consequently, all organizational members need to be leaders and all leaders need to

be better prepared to participate in leadership. The full extent of a current leadership “crisis”
may be arguable; however, there is little arguing that there is an acute need to develop
leadership more comprehensively across all organizational levels and to do so as quickly as
possible. This will require considerable attention from today’s leaders and the willingness to
commit significant resources to leadership development. It will also require greater
responsibility on the part of those being developed to be active and intentional experiential
learners. Organizations can only do so much; most of the really meaningful development
experiences occur in the context of ongoing work (McCall, Lambardo, & Morrison, 1988).
Why is leadership so important to organizations? Rather than purely an illusory effect
or attribution artifact, leadership is associated with distinct tasks, duties, functions and
responsibilities. These have been conceptualized in many different ways, including task
orientation and socioemotional orientation (Bales, 1958); consideration and initiating structure;
influence, motivation, consideration and intellectual stimulation and setting direction, building
commitment and facing adaptive challenges. It is instead more important to recognize that
there are discernible leadership functions that contribute to organizational adaptability and
effectiveness. Put simply, accomplishing these leadership tasks adds value to organizations.
Research on implicit leadership theories (e.g., Eden & Leviathan, 1975) has found a
diversity of perspectives on the meaning of leadership. These differing implicit theories are
important because they determine the perceived relevance of various types of leader behavior
in an organization. Because the role of leader is susceptible to influence not only from external
factors but also from intraorganizational perspectives, we focus on those attributes or
characteristics that contribute to an overall ability to participate in leadership responsibilities
(broadly defined) and that can also be developed in individuals.
Define & Describe Intelligence
Intelligence is natural to all of us. We use it with great ease. Intelligence was an
emotional topic long before computers started to spread. Intelligence is a descriptive term. It

describes certain properties of individuals or groups of individuals. Descriptive terms are
largely arbitrary, nevertheless, all definitions of intelligence have a common denominator
related to novelty and adaptivity. An exact characterization of intelligence is not all that
important to understanding it. What does matter is that we work on the relevant issues.
Generally, if we can give good answers to this question for a broad range of behavior then we
can say that we have gained an understanding of the principles underlying intelligence.
It is important to understand common-sense notions of intelligence, first because they
are a great source of inspiration and second because, ultimately the scientific study of
intelligence must relate to them: It must provide a better understanding of precisely these
concepts. Common-sense notions often specify certain capabilities typical of intelligent beings.
They include, among others, thinking and problem-solving; the competence to speak, read
and write; intuition and creativity; learning and memory; emotions; surviving in a complex world;
and consciousness. They also include the distinction of degrees of intelligence.
Intuition & Creativity in the element of Intelligence
Einstein was creative; so were Beethoven and Picasso. They also had a lot of intuition.
Leaders and managers have intuition, too. Intuition is often taken to mean arriving at
conclusions without a train of logical thought that can be traced to its origins. Likewise,
creativity is a highly complex notion that includes not only the individual in isolation but must
be discussed with respect a particular society’s value criteria. Many regard creativity as the
highest form of human intelligence. Both intuition and creativity seem in some ways to go
beyond thinking. Thinking can be executed in a “cold” manner, independent of emotion,
whereas intuition and creativity require the engaging of emotions.
Consciousness in the element of Intelligence

Consciousness is often seen as an essential ingredient of intelligence. Like creativity
and language, it is a property that we can attribute with certainty only to humans. And like
creativity, there is also something mysterious about consciousness: It is hard to grasp but
considered essential for many other abilities. Thinking, language, and creativity are
understood as requiring consciousness. Creativity, for example, is seen as the result of a
combination between conscious though and unconscious processes. Because of its
subjectivity, consciousness is an elusive concept; it is hard to know what it really is all about.
Academic psychology has deliberately tried to avoid dealing with consciousness at all, arguing
“that the role of consciousness in mental life is a very small, almost frighteningly so. The
aspects of mental life that require consciousness have turned out to be a relatively minor
fraction of the business of the brain”. IQ tests were originally invented to determine whether
certain children would be better off in a special school. Eventually, IQ test was turned into a
general intelligence test, claiming to measure a general intelligence factor. It is now generally
agreed that intelligence is much too complex a phenomenon to be measured by a test yielding
one number.
Define & Describe Leadership
What do we mean by leader development? What kind of things represent leader
development? How is leader development different from leadership development? These are
all reasonable questions that deserve careful attention. There is a fundamental difference
between leader and leadership. Most development approaches focus exclusively on the
individual and ignore the social context. It is presumed that developing individual leaders will
result in better leadership. That approach is equivalent to teaching someone better
communications skills but not considering the roles of others in the communication process. If
someone speaks and there is no one around to listen or respond, there is no communication
occurred. Thus, how can someone lead without others to follow? Leadership is a complex
interaction involving leaders, followers and situations (Fiedler, 1996). It is a function of the

relationships that are created and maintained with others and the resulting interpersonal
context.
Leadership requires a social context and therefore cannot be directly developed unless
groups of people are brought together over time. This is because leadership development
depends on fostering social relations among individuals in a group, team or organization.
However, leadership can develop naturally without direct intervention as a result of people
participating in shared work together. To support and accelerate leadership development is to
help individuals learn how to learn from their experiences so that leader development becomes
one part of ongoing self-development. In other words, leadership can be seen as an outcome
of mutual commitments, interpersonal relationships and social processes. These structures
and processes are partly a function of the development of individual leaders.
Explain the relationship between Intelligence & Leadership
Intelligence can be categorized as the ability to adapt oneself adequately to new
situation in life. The term “adapt” often suggests as something passive, conforming to existing
rules. This is exactly what most people do not mean by intelligence. But there is another
meaning to the term “adapt” to exploit a situation in order to benefit from it. For example, the
business world has changed dramatically in recent years. Computer technology, electronic
communication systems, in particular the Internet, are by now everywhere. Companies that
have adapted to these changes by changing their business practices, by inventing new ways
of doing business. Note that this innovation requires confirming to the rules of information
technology. Both components, conforming and generating are always present. However,
when we take a step back and think what are the mechanisms enabling organisms to adapt
to, cope with, environmental changes? As we noted, adaptation always contains two
components: complying with existing rules and generating new behavior; only if both
components are present do we speak of adaptivity. It then makes sense to tie intelligence to
adaptive behavior. In investigating the relationship between intelligence and leadership, what
deserves greater attention is how to bridge individual leader development with the existing

intelligence ingrown in each person. Strategies are needed to better link individual leader
inputs with the outcomes of group processes.
Leadership development in terms of technical, tactical, conceptual and leadership
competencies. More broadly, it may be argued that leaders must have the fundamental skills
to accomplish their job (technical skills), they must be able to understand how to employ their
own talents and those of others to achieve organizational goals and they must know how to
work with and through others to accomplish those goals (leadership skills). The focus and the
value-added nature of leader development may vary across this range of skills which widely
depend on their intelligence level.
It is worth mentioning that the intelligence level from individual leaders is not the same
as leadership development nor does it guarantee that better leadership will follow. However,
both are necessary for high-performing, healthy and adaptive organizations. Every company
should start with leadership development because it is the foundation on which to build and
bridge with other efforts.

Define & Describe Emotional Intelligence
Humans have emotions. Like consciousness, there are something we consider
essential for humans. Moreover, most people think that higher mammals, in particular apes
and dolphins, but also dogs and cats, have emotions. Whether emotions should be considered
an essential feature of intelligent beings, however, is debatable. Recently, so-called emotional
intelligence, introduced by Peter Salovey and John Mayer (1990), has been the subject of
much discussion. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize emotions in others,
using emotions and regulating emotions. The general idea is that if you recognize your own
emotions, you are better able to perceive the emotions of others and to react appropriately in
social situations (Goleman, 1995). Apparently, this ability can be improved through
appropriate practice.
Numerous tests for assessing intelligence have been developed. A case in point are
IQ tests. The general idea of an IQ test is to measure a capacity that is not dependent on
particular knowledge but is, in a sense, a “general intelligence capacity” or “factor g,” as it is
sometimes called. One of the definitions of intelligence provided by the experts in 1921,
namely, the ability to profit from your experience, to be successful in a particular environment.
If we take as the environment an industrialized society, it seems that IQ is a good predictor of
success in school and in professional life (e.g., Neisser et al. 1996). Recently, some have
suggested that emotional intelligence might be equally important for a successful career (e.g.,
Goleman, 1995). Because tests for emotional intelligence (EQ tests) on the one hand are
controversial and, on the other, have only been around for a short period of time (compared
to IQ tests).
Emotional intelligence has recently been proposed as being equally relevant for
success in life as the kind of abstract intelligence measured by IQ tests. EQ tests measuring
emotional intelligence have been suggested to complement IQ tests. It is still open to debate
to what extend and in what form the EQ will survive. Testing to measure intelligence has raised

the question of whether intelligence is genetically predetermined and to what extend it
influenced by factors other than heredity. This has sparked a heated debate that keeps
remerging periodically: the nature-nurture debate. The nature-nurture debate concerns the
extent to which knowledge is inborn or can be acquired. The behaviors and capabilities of a
human result from a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Thus, the
answer to the nature-nurture question can only be that the origins of intelligence come from
the interaction between nature and nurture.
Explain the relationship between Emotional Intelligence & Leadership
Leadership development could enhance the cognitive and behavioral complexity of
leaders, contributing to greater adaptability and self-awareness. Through leadership
development efforts could increase individual emotional intelligence and the ability to learn
from experience and result in enhanced tacit knowledge. Dialogue skills could be developed
leading to better critical thinking. These are examples of the kinds of attributes that can be
targeted in leader development. Organizational needs and individuals’ personal goals interact
to determine what change actually occurs as a result of leadership development efforts. The
choices that are made regarding what to address in leadership development initiatives can
have a profound impact on the resulting transformation. Choosing to emphasize the
development of emotional intelligence will likely result in leaders who pay close attention to
their own and others’ emotions and also legitimize the role of emotions in organizational life.
The role of emotional intelligence in leading and developing leaders. Emotional
intelligence can be defined as the ability to perceive emotions, access and generate emotions
so as to assist thought, understand emotions and emotional knowledge that reflectively
regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth. Therefore, emotional
intelligence is the key requirement for the development of effective leaders.
Conclusion

In a nutshell, successful leaders share three abilities. The first is the ability to get along
with others and build teams. Another is the ability to make sound and timely decisions. And
the third is the ability to get things done. Ralph Stogdill was the first leadership researcher to
summarize the results of these studies, and he came to two major conclusions. First, leaders
were not qualitatively different than followers; many followers were just as tall, smart, outgoing,
and ambitious as the people who were leading them. Second, some characteristics, such as
intelligence, initiative, stress tolerance, responsibility, friendliness, and dominance, were
modestly related to leadership success. In other words, people who were smart, hardworking,
conscientious, friendly, or willing to take charge were often more successful at building teams
and influencing a group to accomplish its goals than people who were less smart, lazy,
impulsive, grumpy, or not fond of giving orders (Stogdill, 1948). Having “the right stuff” did not
guarantee leadership success, but it improved the odds of successfully influencing a group
toward the accomplishment of its goals.