The Seven Secrets of Leadership - Secret #4

Secret #4 - Unlock performance with emotional intelligence

What makes a great global leader? Page Executive interviewed over forty business leaders across Asia Pacific and Australia, Europe and the Americas for their views on leadership. The result of this work is a series of short articles on the topic of leadership that we are pleased to share with you. These articles encapsulate the opinions of the global leaders we interviewed, who generously shared their views on what constitutes success in a global leader, as well as offering advice to the next generation of leaders.

It is people who are becoming essential to higher performance, not just technology or capital.

So, leaders should not only lead by example, but manage performance by focusing on employee satisfaction. Motivated employees will deliver a stronger brand experience for the customer and in doing so build higher customer loyalty. They generate more ideas for process improvement. They achieve faster, better quality execution. They energise their leaders.

Leadership is not shifting completely away from performance management, but rather emotional intelligence is becoming an imperative skill for leaders to stand out. Increasingly, success will mean putting people first when making critical business decisions. Successful leaders have the knack of involving others, listening to them and building mutual respect.

An equal focus on people and objectives

Do individuals deliver superior, average or poor performance? Leaders are instrumental in their teams’ motivation and should therefore place equal importance on their people and their objectives. As Ed Catmull of Pixar said: “If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they’ll screw it up; but if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something that works.”

Leadership 2.0

This trend is reflected globally as we see a more collaborative, participative and social leadership style emerging, which is being termed ‘Leadership 2.0’. Where once a ‘great’ leader was someone who instilled fear in the workforce, today it is fine for a leader to want to be liked and for people want to like their leader.