Running head: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND NURSING LEADERSHIP

Emotional intelligence and nursing leadership

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Emotional intelligence and nursing leadership

Introduction
Emotional intelligence (EI) is a persons ability to recognize his, other peoples emotions,
and discriminate between the different feelings, label them accordingly, and use the information
as a guide to the persons thinking and behavior (Morand, 2001). According to Marian, et al.,
(2005), emotional intelligence in leaders plays a vital role in encouraging employees to provide
their best through creating a conducive working environment. Institution managers and leaders
who do not develop their emotional intelligence face difficulties in building a good relationship
with subordinates, peers, superiors and clients (Goleman, 1998). Leaders with emotional
intelligence achieve both their personal and institutional goals more effective than those leaders
without emotional intelligence. The reason is that they encourage a sense of enthusiasm,
optimism and excitement as well as an environment of trust and cooperation through the
development of quality interpersonal relationships with their subordinates (Morand, 2001). EI
can, therefore, enhance or hinder leadership in several aspects. Emotional intelligence gets its
basis.
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Enhancement
In nursing, almost all the activities involve the application of emotions. Self-awareness
on what causes a persons emotions and how they react to them helps them manage these
emotions and respond more effectively to arising issues (Morand, 2001). Leaders with a high EI
can engage their thinking capacity and come up with better decisions. When a nurse can manage
his/her emotions, the chances that he will make a decision that will have negative effects on the
patients and or the organization become minimized.

Emotional intelligence and nursing leadership

Another factor from EI that enables one to become an effective leader is

empathy/awareness of others. When leaders have a high self-awareness, they develop an
awareness of others and tend to understand them more as they work together. When nurse leader
has an overview of the subordinates emotions, he can avoid jumping to conclusions or judgment
based on subordinates emotions like anger (Goleman. 1998). Therefore, they can cope and
maintain a good working environment by understanding other peoples feelings and desires.
In most cases, people are unable or do not have control on their speaking skills and tend
to neglect to listen. An emotionally intelligent leader avoids these traps by realizing their need
for listening and understanding what others are saying. Through this, they can then make
decisions that are rational and productive. Emotions behind the words spoken are more important
than the spoken words themselves and its only when these emotions get acknowledged that
people become heard. When a leader can control both his and the followers emotions, they can
connect with their subordinates on deeper levels of working. Through listening, leaders can,
therefore, enhance their leadership and ensure that the medical practitioners in any health
organization work in unison towards a common goal.
Another way in which emotions can enhance leadership is through the ability to
anticipate reactions and to respond to these reactions effectively. Emotionally strong leaders can
anticipate how their followers are likely to react to a situation and always do not wait until
damage occurs to respond (Bliss, 2012). EI enables them identify a potential source of bad news
like anticipated business closure, layoff, and other events, they, therefore, do the best they can
openly in such situations before they happen. They use their emotional and social knowledge to
help the staff through these times creating a trusted relationship between them and the staff.

Emotional intelligence and nursing leadership

Nursing leadership, therefore, relies not only on the knowledge acquired in the book but also in
emotions application to the field of work.
How emotional intelligence may hinder leadership
Despite the great importance of EI in leadership, it sometimes can lead to poor leadership and
subsequent low productivity of a health institution. Nursing involves care for people with
consideration of their positions as a nurses own. In nursing, if a leader has no control of his
emotions, more harm might happen than when he does. Uncontrolled emotions results to poor
decisions making based on factors such as anger (Bliss, 2012). Due to these poor decisions,
subordinates may lack interest in the leadership and perform poorly at the expense of the
patients.
Another way in which EI may hinder leadership is a situation where a leader may concentrate on
valuing other peoples emotions at the expense of the organizations goal and patients need. That
way the leadership becomes poor due to the value accorded to emotions rather than the
objectives of a health institution.
Finally, leadership in nursing may be hindered by emotional intelligence in cases where the
leader has more concerned with listening what the staff has rather than his decisions (Bliss,
2012). The subordinates may at times make decisions that favor them and when the leader is
unable to control his emotions he might fall into their trap. The result is, therefore, poor
performance of the health institution on the basis of health care provision.
Emotional intelligence has a great deal especially in nursing leadership where patients and nurses
need considerations of different aspects. It is, therefore, necessary for leaders to employ the

Emotional intelligence and nursing leadership

necessary skills encompassed with emotional control in ensuring safety for patients and good
working conditions for nurses.

Emotional intelligence and nursing leadership

References
Goleman, D. (1998) from a book called Self-Science: The Subject is me (2nd edition) by Karen
Stone McCown et al. [San Mateo, Six Seconds, 1998].
Marian N. R., Kelly H, Jean, B. L., and Judith L. S. (2001) Making Connections: Leadership and
Emotional Intelligence. Volume, 21(5)
David A. Morand, D. A. (2001) the Emotional Intelligence of Managers: Assessing the Construct
Validity of a Nonverbal Measure of "People Skills" Journal of Business and Psychology,
16(1)
Bliss, E. S. (2012). The Affect of Emotional Intelligence on a Modern Organizational
Leaders Ability to Make Effective Decisions. Retrieved o25 August 2015 from:
http://eqi.org/mgtpaper.htm