Kathmandu University School of Management

What Makes a Leader?

Individual Write-up

Submitted to,
Asst. Prof. Jyoti Regmi

Submitted by,
Amit Pathak
14325, MBA 5th
Date: 28/09/2015

Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 5th

What Makes a Leader Writeup

What Makes a Leader?

Summary:
What Make a Leader is an article written by Daniel Goleman. It was published in 1998 on
Harvard Business Review. The article What makes a leader? written by Daniel Goleman. In
this journal, Goleman lightened each concept and detailed discussion of emotional intelligence
people about how potential leaders understand it, how and why emotional intelligence is
concerned with performance, and how emotional intelligence can be learned.
He advocates emotional intelligence which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation,
empathy, and social skill distinguishes leaders from others. Goleman found that truly effective
leaders are distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence. Without it, a person can
have first-class training, an incisive mind, and an endless supply of good ideas, but he still wont
be a great leader.
Daniel Goleman opens his article with a quick reference about a leader who fails and a leader
who soars when given similar opportunities. Goleman believes each leadership situation is to
be studied as unique but one common thread is undeniablea high level of emotional
intelligence. He enlighten that the Leadership is fully achieved through emotional intelligence,
which in itself can only be achieved through time, persistence, and commitment. Without
emotional intelligence, leadership is ineffectual, remote, and distant. True leaders show empathy,
humanity, and relate to their peers and subordinates alike.

Analysis:
The factors of leadership has always been a subject to talk and discuss about. Majority of the
research and experts come up with a conclusion that the qualities of leadership include
intelligence, vision, and technical knowledge. There are kind of acceptance on these qualities
until Daniel Goleman limited these qualities with the strong evidence of his own research and
finding.
The pre requisites such as intelligence, vision cannot be denied but the real life example of a
managers with average IQ and technical skill have successful leadership are plentiful. At a same

What Makes a Leader Writeup

Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 5th

time, people with high IQ and technical skill have failed miserably in respective leadership
position which creates a sense of doubt to consider of IQ and technical skill as the major pre
requisites of the leadership.
An individual with an ability of a leadership quality has a clear understanding of strength,
weakness, needs and drives. They have a belief on their potentials and very clear about how the
things should be done, how things should be done and at what extent. Thus they are self-aware
and hence are honest with themselves, with others. Goleman points that these people are neither
overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful. It gives them the consideration of their potential
performance in a given task. Those people who takes decision with no self-awareness usually are
hurriedly. Self-aware people are also honest even when they are to disclose their weaknesses and
accept their failure. People with a high sense of self was able to speak accurately and open
although unnecessary exaggeration and full of regrets. Self-awareness can also be identified
when assessing performance. Those who have become executive or Manager is usually difficult
to accept feedback and this is currently a major problem within the company when those in
power feel cannot be contradicted in any case.
Biologically, there is something that moves our emotions, we cannot ignore it, but we can control
it. Self-Regulation is like talking to yourself, is a component of Emotional Intelligence that
deliver us. Self-Regulation makes us able to control my feelings and moods that affect our
performance. There are several reasons why self-regulation is so important in leadership. First,
people who are able to control his feelings are the ones who could create a work environment
that is full of trust and fairness. This will reduce the dispute and improve the productivity of
employees. Second, Self-regulation are important for competitive reasons, everyone knows when
this business is filled with ambiguity and change. A self-regulated boss commands self-regulated
sub-ordinates making the work environment highly productive and also diluting rivalry,
commands commitment and responsible behavior. These qualities and influence may not be
expected of all individuals with high IQ, technical skills and vision. A person with the qualities
of leadership understands that his goals cannot be achieved alone by himself, he knows the
importance of his team and would rather inspire than indulge in blame-games. Goleman argues
that self-regulation enhances integrity giving no room for unethical conducts.

What Makes a Leader Writeup

Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 5th

The other difference maker between a leader and an ordinary individual is the motivation.
Motivation is the prime mover in the achievement of the above expectations. The key word here
is achievement. With the presence of human motivation was more appreciative of the process to
achieve something desirable. The motivation here is more than anything a human moves the
material but rather to a willingness to do something for the sake of the advancement of self and
others. Usually people who have high motivation is people who like challenges, love of learning,
and feel satisfied and proud of the top results that can be achieved with difficulty. They use their
energy to something useful. Goleman suggests that people with leadership potential are
motivated by a deeply embedded desire to achieve for the sake of achievement. These people
have little value for external rewards and they strive for excellence, they have a passion for their
work and they do not associate it with external outcomes but to a deep rooted personal need and
take satisfaction in that. They take work as a passion and their performance bar is always rising.
Empathy doesn't mean we must adopt and accept other people's moods to ourselves and try to
make others happy. This in fact will destroy us. Better empathy means full thought in
considering the feelings of others, due to another factor in the process of making the best
decision. The ability of empathy is very important in order to maintain the employees who
perform well. Empathy also desperately needed in teamwork, in the era of globalization is very
quick and the need to maintain those talented in the team. A leader in the team should be able to
feel and understand the other person's point of view. Leaders should encourage members to talk
more openly about their problems and help others to perceive a criticism as something that build
themselves. In the end, empathy plays a vital role in maintaining their talent. Leaders need to
have the attitude of empathy to develop and retain workers who Excel. Usually a great coach and
mentor to know the contents of the heads of the people they help, they understand how to give
effective feedback. They know when to push its members provide better performance and when
to maintain the performance that's been good.
Social skill is the ability to control or manage a relationship with others. Those who have high
social skill is able to drive the others according to their desires, the very focus on a common
goal. Social skill is a form after the culmination of another dimension about EQ. Those who have
the social skills to effectively govern the relationship when they understand and control their
own emotions and can empathize with the feelings of others. Those who have this skill is an
expert in it persuasive or influence others, a reliable collaborator, passion and her passion to

What Makes a Leader Writeup

Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 5th

spread and affect other people and other people being compelled to together find a solution of the
problem. Social skill is the key to becoming a leader in almost all organizations. The high
motivation of a leader will not be useful if he is not able to communicate a sense of enthusiasm
and passion of the organization. Social skill provides a way for leaders to be able to capitalize on
his success for the sake of EQ organization.
In Context of Nepal:
Whenever we talk about leadership in Nepal, the immediate image that comes to mind is of
politicians, who make promises but never deliver. The discourse of leadership in Nepal has been
judged not by performance, but by the number of titles one carries on ones business card, or the
number of sycophants that hang out with one, the number of interviews and pictures that one
sees in the newspaper or the minutes of exposure on television.
One of the prominent example which fits the article is the spiritual leader Gautam Buddha.
Because of his emotional intelligence, he is followed not only in Nepal but also in whole world.
Spirituality starts with self-awareness and understanding of one's interests and strengths is the
first step in this direction. He is the best example of Servant Leader. He as a spiritual leader had
all those emotional intelligence. He knew his strength, weakness, needs and desire and hence his
self-awareness was very high. He left his kingdom in search of peace and self-actualization. He
had a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status; a propensity to pursue goals
with energy and persistence. He understood the emotional make up of other people skill in
treating people according to their emotional reactions.
Conclusion:
Golemans emphasis on emotional intelligence as the major determinant of leadership ability in
an individual certainly has valid reasons. He however misses in his article if emotional
intelligence is sufficient enough as a leadership potential. The article does not say anything on
whether people with high emotional intelligence but with less than mediocre visionary skills,
intelligence and knowledge can be effective leaders or not. No doubt that people who have high
score in emotional intelligence backed by knowledge, visionary skills can be good leaders but
emotional intelligence still is something that is scrutinized in organizations. For example people
are criticized for accepting their failures and weakness for being rather shameless and

What Makes a Leader Writeup

Amit Pathak || 14325, MBA 5th

irresponsible while when they speak of their strengths they might be called arrogant and over
confident. Self-regulated people are tagged to be stone hearted, cold and unappreciative. When
an individual fails to acknowledge others achievement or fails to acknowledge as expected he is
called cold and thankless. As for empathy people argue that when managers, decision makers,
policy makers think too much about others they fail to make strong decisions, effective
strategies. We have ourselves seen people who despite being helpful, jolly and friendly are
tagged as gossip mongers and cheaters. Unless organizations have culture that makes it easy to
distinguish between emotional intelligence and real nuisance, it has very grim chance to find a
leader.