"Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos uses his self-deprecating humor to make others feel comfortable with him. Elon Musk has thanked Tesla owners on Twitter for taking a chance on his cars when experts said his company wouldn’t work. And then there’s Ford’s former CEO Alan Mulally, who wrote handwritten notes to employees, praising their work."[1]
The last decade has witnessed the rise of a different set of leaders in the world. The CEOs are no longer pictured as ruthless and heartless people willing to do anything for the success of the company. The leaders of today are what we call, emotionally intelligent.
So what is this emotional intelligence that is moderating the direction of progress in the world?
Let us understand this with a story. Adolf Hitler, an amazing leader, controversially unethical, talented orator. He was able to invoke nationalist feelings among large audiences through his speeches. He spoke to connect with people, to amplify the already present feelings among people post the first world war. He capitalized on his ability to understand the audience, moderate his emotions and invoke the emotions in public which were desirable for him. Adolf Hitler is the perfect example of an emotionally intelligent person using his skills to his advantage.
The commonly accepted consensus about emotional intelligence is that it is the ability to understand and regulate one's own emotions as well as other's emotions. While this certainly helps in moving towards an empathetic and happy world, it dose pose certain problems on a larger scale. Being emotionally intelligent helps a person and the society at large. The same intelligence can although easily be used for one's personal gains and benefits as well. The most popular political campaigns of recent times have been created to appease the emotions of the masses. Media has played a major role in the involvement of emotions in political agendas worldwide. "Make America Great Again", "Make in India", two of the greatest democracies in the world have relied on using emotions to invoke nationalist feelings among their people and ultimately win votes. A clear understanding of the what the people of their nation want and how they feel about major issues formed the backbone of such political campaigns.
What is also evident from these campaigns is the role of intertwined marketing in all spheres of our lives. On careful observation one finds out, recent political campaigns are nothing short of well thought marketing campaigns. But then, what essentially is an effective marketing campaign? The ability to understand the needs and wants of the customer, creating and delivering value for the customer, differentiating yourself from others by relating to the customer. In its essence it is nothing more than applied emotional intelligence on a specific target for a specific purpose. It is no surprise that most advertisements today are based on emotions that their target audience can relate to. A lot of advertisements and companies go a step further to further use the power of emotional intelligence to motivate its consumers or people into taking actions, driving movements.
If it is such an important virtue in the world, the next question that one asks is "If we can we learn to be emotionally intelligent and how?"
Experiences shape major part of emotional development in a person. Hence to an extent some people seem to possess this ability inherently. However, there has been a lot of effort in understanding and breaking down the concept of developing emotional intelligence. There isn't a fixed set of steps which can be followed to develop emotional intelligence, as it is highly contextual. However, something that appears to be common among most studies is about gaining relevant experience to develop empathy and regulate one's own emotions. Leadership effectively deals with the part of motivating others using the concept of emotional intelligence and most methods at developing leadership are centered around this. This should come as an obvious observation as most successful leaders in our observable time-frame have frequently exhibited the value they place on emotion of their workers and consumers. They have applied emotional intelligence to achieve their desired goals while also trying to ensure well being of society at large.
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