Greetings! Since first reading the book Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ by Daniel Goleman back in 1997, I have understood that EQ (emotional intelligence) is as or perhaps even more important to an individual's success than IQ. But I have only recently come to fully understand how critically EQ is linked to one's ability to be an effective leader. Last week I had Bob Anderson of Leading Challenges visit my Vistage Key Executive group to give a workshop on How to Harness the Power of Emotional Intelligence to improve executive performance. 
Invariably, many of my conversations with the CEOs I work with shift to some aspect of leadership. Leadership is central to the promise Vistage makes to our members: to make CEOs better leaders by helping them make better decisions and drive better performance in their organizations. To deliver on a promise to be better, there needs to be a benchmark from which you measure improvement. Until now I have not had any formal means to measure how well people lead. My training in Strozzi Leadership (www.Strozziinstitute.com) has taught me how to effectively help the CEOs I work with improve their overall leadership abilities. Understanding and working with EQ effectively complements this by helping to identify the specific areas in our social function where we can benefit most from improvement and provides a way of measuring change. In the absence of hard testing, my standard measure has been by rule-of-thumb: the way to assess the quality of a leader is by evaluating the behavior and performance of the people they lead. Good leaders are measured by results - not their efforts. The problem with this approach is that leadership cannot really be measured until it is tested. In good times good companies can function without great leadership. It is when challenges arise that leadership is tested. It's rare to see a successful, highly effective organization run by ineffective or dysfunctional leadership. When I have seen this - it is generally the result of what I call "accidental success." I found this to be the case in some start-ups where leadership lacks the skills and experience to ride the wave of success they encountered - and become overwhelmed trying to manage rapid growth. I also find this in family businesses when a younger generation of leadership takes command before they are prepared to do so - or occasionally have no real interest in doing so. In the cases above, "accidental leaders" may appear to function reasonably well. In good times, a leader's performance is often less critical and companies can practically lead themselves. We are in familiar territory and most decisions can be made on autopilot - and mistakes are often easily absorbed by overall profits. But it's when things go wrong or when profits shrink that leadership really matters. Without strong, capable leadership, performance suffers and companies fail. In my workshops I define Deliberate Leadership as the intersection of vision and reality. Vision often takes us into uncharted waters. Deliberate leadership is the ability to navigate in challenging times and through unfamiliar territory. It is a combination of having sufficient knowledge and using actionable information to make quality and timely decisions; and having sufficient EQ in order to effectively execute plans and realize optimal results. The EQ component is critical to the aspect of leadership that requires that we engage effectively with the people we lead. Great leaders tend to have both strong business acumen and people skills. I see many leaders who lack in business acumen but seem to make it up by having a clear vision and advanced EQ skills. They tend to succeed by attracting talent and building strong teams that carry their vision forward and possess the talent to compensate for the skills the CEO lacks. These teams transform from being management teams to become leadership teams: What began as a result of accidental success by the visionary founder or CEO is mitigated by the deliberate leadership imposed by the team. But leaders who may be brilliant minds, and truly business savvy, but lack in emotional intelligence may not fair nearly so well. When leaders are weak in the components of emotional intelligence: - self awareness,
- self-management
- social Awareness and
- relationship Management,
they may struggle to attract talent, foster trust and build high-performing teams. Without these elements, a company cannot grow effectively or sustain success. Ken Blanchard made popular a truth found in an ancient Japanese proverb: This truth proves out inMalcolm Gladwell's book - demonstrating how no one ever make's it alone. Leading Challenges offers the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory. It is a scientifically validated online assessment that provides a comprehensive scoring and analysis of 15 aspects of emotional intelligence - and guidance for improving your weak areas. Unlike IQ and personality - which are formed early in life and remain roughly constant throughout our lives, EQ can effectively be developed, and the Bar-On assessment provides a tool that can help you reach your fullest potential as a leader. Visit Leading Challenges on the Web here: http://www.leadingchallenges.com Earnest Hemmingway, in wrote, "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know." It is emotional intelligence that enables us to win the battle our mind wages with the world for happiness. It seems that the more intelligent we are, the greater the tendency for us to become our own worst enemies. Abraham Maslow, in his now famous Hierarchy of Needs suggests that "What a man can be, he must be." We all strive internally to become self-actualized human beings. The bottom line is that unless we learn how to get out of our of our own way, we will never become, as the US Army slogan suggests, all that we can be. In the end, the answer to the question is far less important than knowing how you can become a better leader. By making a conscious effort to constantly become more aware of who you are and how you impact those around you- especially by owning your faults, weaknesses and mistakes - and encouraging others to do the same by your example -together with being able to connect with and have a positive influence on others - will improve you effectiveness as a leader, guaranteed. This week I show you why sometimes as a leader your organization benefits from your being an auter as opposed to a consensus-builder. There is also a terrific and timely article by Malcolm Gladwell that will give you some substance to interject the next time a conversation shifts to the oppressive summer heat - that thankfully has taken a break - at least for the next few days.
As always, wishing you a great and successful week ahead. 
Philip R. Liebman Managing Director, Strat4 Group Chair, Vistage International | 
