Marc’s MSLD Reflection Blog

McKee, Boyatzis, and Johnston (2008) indicated that the “single most important factors in distinguishing great leaders from average leadership” include both emotional and social intelligence.  Daniel Goleman (2012) said that emotional intelligence refers to “how well we handle ourselves and our relationships.” He further indicated that emotional intelligence is composed of four domains; self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and skilled relationships. Self-Awareness “Emotional self-awareness is the ability to process emotional information quickly and accurately, to recognize one’s own emotions as they happen, and to immediately understand their effects on oneself and others” (McKee et al., 2008).   Self-awareness is like being a spectator of your own emotions and being able to see why they happen, what they do to you, and what will happen if you continue to feel that way.   Self-awareness is definitely a competency I have grown into as I have gotten ol...

When I was younger I considered a great leader to be a person that was charismatic, intelligent, powerful, and courageous.  I thought of a leader as a person that would boisterously give orders, and his followers would do as directed.  I thought of a leader as someone who had little compassion for those he led because he had to be focused on results.  I now realize that my earlier concept of leadership was seriously flawed.  Some of the characteristics I envisioned in leaders are important, but my total picture of great leadership was way off.  Now I see that great leaders create resonance (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005).  Great leaders use emotional intelligence, empathy, and compassion to communicate effectively with those they lead (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005).  Great leaders do at least as much listening as they do talking (Jones, 2019).  They know their people individually.  They know how to motivate and inspire them, not simply dictate...

Richard Boyatzis has suggested that as many as 70-80% of organizational leaders are performing at a mediocre level.  He went as far as saying that if these leaders were taken out of their management role, the organization would function more smoothly (2017).  That is an astounding declaration!  Leaders who want to avoid becoming part of this group of mediocre leaders first need to obtain a mental image of what a good leader is.  Luckily, as Boyatzis suggested, most people already have an idea of what a good leader is and how a good leader interacts with the people around them.   In order to solidify the mental image of good leadership and poor leadership Boyatzis (2017) suggested a simple exercise.  He said to get a blank sheet of paper and divide it into two columns.  At the top of the column on the left he said to put the name of a great leader that I have worked with; one who inspired me to be better and to do better, one with whom I re...