Page 16 - Leadership Basics 4

The Emotional Dimension

In 1983 Howard Gardner challenged the existing view of intelligence and proposed 7 multiple
intelligences, including social intelligence. In 1995 Daniel Goleman published the best seller
“Emotional Intelligence”. The work of these authors and many others have clarified what most
school leaders already knew, that emotional intelligence is essential in school leadership.
Emotional influence is about influencing things like passion to make the changes that every school
needs to make to the catch the next educational wave. It is also about courage, enthusiasm,
excitement and compassion, factors that have little to do with rational professionalism and
everything to do with emotions and success in schools. As a leader, you need to manage your
emotions and understand those of others.

Motivation, Change & Emotions

When leaders ask, “How can we motivate teachers to change practice?” it is not surprising that
teachers take offence and can become emotional (angry, offended, etc). Motivation cannot be done
to someone easily—it cannot be controlled or commanded into being; it is a complex human
dynamic that, at best, we can aim to understand and work to inspire. Influencing behaviour is about
creating the conditions under which teachers may be most motivated to accept change, and this is
NOT a cold, emotionless process, but one that requires more often than not a mediation of emotions.
Tom Peters, a management guru, aligns change management with the grieving process that follows
death. He suggests that the emotions are the same, that the loss of an important part of yourself
(your work or professional practice) due to change, can be devastating unless the emotions are well
handled.

Emotional Climate

In a climate of uncertainty emotional leadership becomes more important than ever because people
need a leader who lends an air of certainty, or at least conviction, a sense of “this is where we’re
heading these days,” at a time when fears and anxieties can overtake them. All of this is particularly
important because of the relationship—which is neurologically based—between emotions and
attention and cognition. That is, the ability to get work done depends on our emotions not being out
of control. A leader has to speak to those often‐ instated fears along the way in order to help people
keep them under control.
The climate—what it’s like to work here, whether I’m proud to be here or don’t really care—depends
to a large extent on how the leader makes me feel (emotions), and the tone of the workplace, the
emotional tone. This in turn has a huge impact on learning and student outcomes.
When leaders drive emotions in a positive way, they bring out the best in their followers and this is
called resonance (Goleman, McKee and Boyatzis, 2002). When emotions are driven in a negative
way, the effect is called dissonance. Whether an organization withers or flourishes depends to a
remarkable extent on the leaders' effectiveness in influencing emotions.

12