Daniel Goleman's Blog, page 12

Daniel Goleman: What Makes a Leader?

Recently I gave a seminar for the top 100 or so leaders of a global manufacturing company, at the invitation of the head of HR. It was their annual leadership development meeting, and HR wanted me to make both business and scientific cases for emotional intelligence as the active ingredient in strong leadership.

Most of the leaders in that firm have backgrounds in engineering, and were by nature skeptical about something so “soft” as emotional intelligence mattering much for their own performance. So I gathered the most convincing data.

Beforehand I asked the head of HR to send me the company’s competence model, their own analysis of what made a leader successful at their company. I’ve seen many such models, and noticed a strong pattern, which I first wrote about more than a decade ago: when it comes to the top echelon leaders, companies find that 80-90% of the competencies that distinguish star leaders are built on emotional intelligence (or EI).

For instance, confidence in one form or another often shows up in these models. And a sense of certainty in one’s own abilities, based on a realistic understanding of your own strengths and limitations, requires self-awareness – the first tenet of emotional intelligence.

Then there’s staying calm under pressure, another common ingredient of leadership success. That requires self-management, the second trait of emotional intelligence – and one that builds on self-awareness. Other commonly seen self-management competencies include adaptability, initiative, and the drive to achieve goals.

I’ve never seen a list of a great leader’s abilities that did not include impactful communication. And that requires empathy – the third domain of emotional intelligence. There are two specific kinds of empathy; one is cognitive empathy, understanding how others think about the world. Once you know their mental models you can put what you have to say in terms that will make most sense to them.

The second kind, emotional empathy, means you can sense immediately how another person feels. This means you can fine-tune what you say so it has a positive impact. These two kinds of empathy are essential for rapport and chemistry with another person. We use them in all our relationships.

And yet in our high-pressure world, with back-to-back meetings and a constant stream of incoming messages, too many leaders pay too little attention to the person in front of them. When leaders are assessed (by others who know them well) on the EI competencies needed for high-performance, poor listening very often shows up as a weakness. Luckily all these EI competencies can be improved with practice – that’s the point of assessing them: so a leader can track how he or she improves.

Then there are the relationship skills, the fourth domain of EI. Here common competencies for outstanding performance include teamwork and collaboration, influence, and helping others build their leadership abilities.

So when I looked at the competence model of that manufacturing company what did I find? About 80-90 percent of the abilities they had independently determined make leaders high-performing were based on EI. A handful were purely cognitive, like analytic abilities. But because the brain’s design makes our emotional state determine our cognitive efficiency, even those indirectly depend on emotional intelligence.

Learn more about the traits of an emotionally intelligent leader from my new compilation What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters. The book contains my collection of Harvard Business Review articles and other business journal writings in one volume.

Additional resources:

Leadership: A Master Class: The eight-part video collection includes more than eight hours of research findings, case studies and valuable industry expertise through in-depth interviews with respected leaders in executive management, organizational research, workplace psychology, negotiation and senior hiring. Corporate and educational licensing available.

The HR and EI Collection:The combination of books and audio tools offers actionable findings on how leaders can foster group flow to maximize innovation, drive, and motivation to deliver bottom-line results.

Resonant Leadership: Inspiring Others Through Emotional Intelligence: This master class by Richard Boyatzis (co-author of Primal Leadership and Chair of Organizational Development at the Weatherhead School of Management) offers you the tools to become the leader you want to be—including exercises to reassess valuable and effective techniques.

Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence: Focus uncovers the science of attention in all its varieties – presenting a groundbreaking look at this overlooked and underrated asset, and why it matters enormously for how we feel, and succeed, in life.

Supplemental reading:

Wise leaders focus on the greater good

Traits of a motivated leader

The active ingredients for innovation

Understanding the science of moods at work

Emotional intelligence and a loyal, motivated staff

Photo: Olivier Le Moal / shutterstock

Daniel Goleman: Pay Attention to Attention

These days, leaders are bombarded with numerous daily intrusions: urgent email, appointments every fifteen minutes, decisions ranging from hiring to overall vision. Most leaders now travel with technology that connects them to a running stream of messages and data, 24/7.

This stream of distraction draws attention away from what’s immediately at hand; those seemingly urgent rings and alerts may not be crucial. Working to maintain clear focus on a task – despite intrusions – consistently occupies the brain’s circuitry for attention.

“Cognitive effort” is the technical expression for the mental attention demanded to process our information load. Just like the muscles in our bodies, attention can become fatigued. Common symptoms of attention fatigue are lowered effectiveness, increased distractedness, and irritability. These symptoms also indicate depletion in the energy required to sustain neural functioning.

Concentration, on the other hand, requires selecting a single point of focus and resisting the pull of all else. To concentrate, we must sift through an onslaught of irrelevancies to determine what’s important. Leaders who do this well are able to stave off attention fatigue; they are energized rather than flagging and distracted.

Unfortunately, a sharp focus on goals is not the only kind of attention leaders need. Creativity and innovation, for instance, demand a more open and relaxed attention. This is where self-awareness is crucial: monitoring attention lets us check whether our mode of attention suits the needs of a given situation.

In “top-down” attention we actively decide what receives our attention. “Bottom-up” attention means we function mechanically, letting our focus be dictated by whatever grabs it. This bottom-up attention causes us to be ignorant of the preferences and blind spots in our unconscious minds. There is a place for this in life, of course – just not at work.

“Cognitive control” is the technical expression for employing our capacity for top-down attention – an essential aspect of self-awareness. In leaders, cognitive control is paramount to leadership competencies like self-management – the ability to focus on a goal and the discipline to pursue it despite distractions and setbacks. Interestingly, the same neural framework that allows for intense pursuit of goals also manages unruly emotions. Strong cognitive control is therefore present in leaders who remain calm in emergencies, subdue their agitation, and can recover quickly from defeat.

To illustrate the power of good cognitive control, let’s consider the implications of a 15-year longitudinal study done in Dunedin, New Zealand. The study rigorously tested more than one thousand children on their cognitive control, and then tracked them down again when they had reached their 30s. Astonishingly, their childhood ability to focus in the face of distraction was a stronger predictor of their adult financial success than both their IQ and the financial status of the families.

Self-management can be seen, too, in those executives who are honest about both their assets and their limits. While this means they can be assured in their performance when they are functioning within these limitations, it also indicates they know when it’s time to rely on colleagues for the best results.

Additional resources:

What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

Cultivating Focus: Techniques for Excellence

Create to Innovate with Teresa Amabile

Relax: 6 Techniques to Lower Your Stress

Working with Mindfulness: Research and Practice of Mindful Techniques in Organizations

Photo: Silberkorn / shutterstock

Daniel Goleman: Wise Leaders Focus on the Greater Good

Our times require leaders who are not only intelligent, but wise. Wise leaders develop strategies that target the greater good, not just an organization or individual. The more that companies, communities and the world-at-large appoint such leaders, the better off we will be. And the more skilled we become at spotting the potential for such influence in younger generations – and helping them cultivate these qualities – the better our future looks.

I’m inspired by the words of Larry Brilliant, President of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, a group working to prevent worldwide crises like pandemics and global warming. He says: “Civilizations should be judged not by how they treat people closest to power, but rather how they treat those furthest from power – whether in race, religion, gender, wealth, or class – as well as in time.”

It’s evident to me that the best leaders act from aspirations beyond the goals or boundaries of one organization or group, but rather seek to heal humanity as a whole. I think of Paul Polman, Bill Gates in the philanthropic phase of his career, or Muhammad Yunus founding the Grameen Bank as exemplars.

These leaders are attuned to the suffering of the powerless, and seek to repair that damage by treating or attempting to cure diseases that plague the poor, enhancing the viability of local communities, or fighting poverty. And the impacts of their work will matter far into the future.

Wise leaders implicitly follow a dictum that I heard articulated by the Dalai Lama at an MIT conference on global systems. He suggested that when we are making decisions or considering courses of action, we should ask ourselves: Who benefits? Is it just ourselves, or a group? Just one group, or everyone? And just for the present, or also for the future?

By recognizing the far-reaching repercussions of their actions, these leaders engage people’s passion and foster organizations where work has deeper meaning.

Jobs then become ‘good work,’ an exhilarating situation where people’s best skills are engaged fully, their focus heightened, and their labor aligned with their values. Such workplaces are potent magnets for the next generation of remarkable leaders.

Learn more about effective leadership traits in my latest book What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters.

Further reading:

Traits of a Motivated Leader

How Leaders Overcome Obstacles for Change

The Active Ingredients for Innovation

Understanding the Science of Moods at Work

Additional Resources:

Today's Leadership Imperative with Howard Gardner

Talent Strategy with Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

High Performance Leadership with George Kohlrieser

Resonant Leadership: Inspiring Others Through Emotional Intelligence

Leading the Necessary Revolution: Building Alignment in Your Business for Sustainability

Photo: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images

Daniel Goleman: Traits of a Motivated Leader

If there is one trait that virtually all effective leaders have, it is motivation – a variety of self-management whereby we mobilize our positive emotions to drive us toward our goals. Motivated leaders are driven to achieve beyond expectations – their own and everyone else’s. The key word here is achieve.

Plenty of people are motivated by external factors, such as a big salary or the status that comes from having an impressive title or being part of a prestigious company. By contrast, those with leadership potential are motivated by a deeply embedded desire to achieve for the sake of achievement.

If you are looking for leaders, how can you identify people who are motivated by the drive to achieve rather than by external rewards?

The first sign is a passion for the work itself. Such people seek out creative challenges, love to learn, and take great pride in a job well done. They also display an unflagging energy to do things better. People with such energy often seem restless with the status quo.

They are also eager to explore new approaches to their work. A cosmetics company manager, for example, was frustrated that he had to wait two weeks to get sales results from people in the field. He finally tracked down an automated phone system that would remind each of his salespeople at 5 pm every day to punch in their number to show how many calls and sales they had made. The system shortened the feedback time on sales results from weeks to hours.

That story illustrates two other common traits of people who are driven to achieve: they are forever raising the performance bar, and they like to keep score.

Take the performance bar first. During performance reviews, people with high levels of motivation might ask to be “stretched” or challenged by their superiors. Of course, an employee who combines self-awareness with internal motivation will recognize her limits, but she won’t settle for objectives that seem too easy to fulfill. And it follows naturally that people who are driven to do better also want a way of tracking progress – their own, their team’s, and their company’s.

Whereas people with low achievement motivation are often fuzzy about results, those with high achievement motivation often keep score by tracking such hard measures as profitability or market share. Interestingly, people with high motivation remain optimistic even when the score is against them. In such cases, self-regulation combines with achievement motivation to overcome the frustration and depression that come after a setback or failure.

What are some other traits of motivated leaders? Please share your insights in the comment field, or tweet them to @DanielGolemanEI.

Learn more about effective leadership traits in my new compilation What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters, and my video series Leadership: A Master Class.

Further reading:

Positive leaders manage their mind's "flashlight"

How leaders can overcome obstacles for change

Can we identify emotionally intelligent job candidates?

A self-aware leader is not a self-obsessed leader

Use the pacesetting leadership style sparingly

Additional resources:

Leading with Emotional Intelligence - American Management Association

What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

High Performance Leadership with George Kohlrieser

Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence

Photo: Sergey Nivens / shutterstock

Daniel Goleman: Cultivate Focus to Avoid Social Gaffes

There are situations where most anyone will be “off,” at least at first. For instance, we are prone to inadvertent gaffes when we travel to a new culture, where we arrive blind to the fresh set of ground rules.

Those who do business with diverse sets of people in a global economy require particular sensitivities to such unspoken norms. In Japan, I learned the hard way that the moment of exchanging business cards signals an important ritual. We Americans are prone to casually pocketing the card without looking, which there indicates disrespect. I was told you should take the card carefully, hold it in both hands, and study it for a while before putting it away in a special case.

A talent for cross-cultural social sensitivity appears related to cognitive empathy. Executives with sharp perception, for example, do better at overseas assignments, presumably because they can pick up implicit norms quickly, as well as learn the unique mental models of a given culture.

Ground rules for what’s appropriate can create invisible barriers when people from different cultures work together. An engineer from Austria who works for a Dutch company lamented, “Debate is highly valued in Dutch culture; you grow up with it from the time you’re in primary school. They see it as necessary. But I don’t like that kind of debate; I find it upsetting—it’s too confrontational. For me the inner challenge is not to take it personally, and to stay connected and feel respect during the confrontation.”

Attention to context lets us pick up subtle social cues that can guide how we behave. Those who are tuned in this way act with skill, regardless of the situation. They know not only what to say and do, but also, just as vital, what not to say or do. They also instinctively follow the universal algorithm for etiquette, to behave in ways that put others at ease. Sensitivity to how people feel in reaction to what we do or say lets us navigate hidden social minefields.

While we may have some conscious ideas of such norms (how to dress for casual Friday at work; eat only with your right hand in India), attention to implicit norms is largely intuitive, a bottom-up capacity. Our felt sense of what’s socially appropriate comes to us as a feeling in our body — when we’re “off” it’s the physical manifestation of this doesn’t feel right. We may be picking up subtle signals of embarrassment or distress from the people around us.

If we’re oblivious to these sensations of being socially off-key (or never have them in the first place) we just keep going, clueless as to how far off course we are. One brain test for context focus assesses the function of the hippocampus, which is a nexus for circuits that gauge social circumstances. The anterior zone of the hippocampus backs up against the amygdala and plays a key role in keeping what we do appropriate to the context. The anterior hippocampus, in conversation with the prefrontal area, squelches that impulse to do something inappropriate.

Those most alert to social situations, Richard Davidson hypothesizes, have stronger activity and connectivity in these brain circuits than do those who just can’t seem to get it right. The hippocampus is at work, he says, to make you act differently when with your family and when at work, and differently again in the office versus with your workmates in a bar.

Context awareness also helps at another level: mapping the social networks in a group or at a new school or on the job—a skill that lets us navigate those relationships well. People who excel at organizational influence, it turns out, not only sense the flow of personal connections but can also name the people whose opinions hold most sway — and so, when they need to, will focus on convincing those who can in turn persuade others.

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Think back to a social faux pas you committed (or witnessed) at work. How might attention-training been useful in preventing the slip up? Leave your example in the comment field, or tweet to @DanielGolemanEI.

Further reading:

A self-aware leader is not a self-obsessed leader
The brain science behind gut decisions
Overcoming obstacles to diversity
Focus on how you connect
Does intuition affect decisions?

Additional resources:

Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters
Leadership: A Master Class
Talent Strategy
Cultivating Focus: Techniques for Excellence

Photo: Comstock / Getty Images

Daniel Goleman: How Leaders Can Overcome Obstacles for Change

We’ve all heard the saying (or myth): people resist change. Of course, the main task of many leaders is to bring about change – sometimes unpopular yet necessary adjustments. How can leaders push past a team’s cynicism – and their own self-doubt to bring about change?

I spoke with IMD (Institute for Management Development) professor George Kohlrieser about high performance leadership for my video series Leadership: A Master Class. He notes that the failure of many leaders is creating negative states in other people because of their own negative mindsets.

“This is a very destructive myth. People do not naturally resist change. They resist the pain of change. They resist the fear of the unknown. The brain is naturally going to seek, be curious, explore, and do new things. It’s how the brain thrives. But to do that, you have to feel safe. When you feel safe enough, then you go out and explore. You can't change when you’re defensive. A leader has to be able to give that trust and sense of security. That’s when explosions of creativity can occur.

The failure for many leaders is that they are creating negative states in other people because of their own negative mindset. They can’t hold on to positive energy or positive focus. You have to look beyond the pain and frustration to find the opportunities. There are great stories of people who experienced personal and professional catastrophes but were able to overcome it by seeing or creating an opportunity from the setback.

If a leader is held hostage by their emotions, it really limits their potential. You can tell when you’re playing life defensively as opposed to playing offensively. Playing to win is a special attitude. This does not mean competition. It means that you take the right risks at the right time. You focus the mind’s eye on possibilities and opportunities, not regrets or fears.

A high-performing leader is always thinking about talent development. How can I learn something new? How can I expand what I already know? To be able to do that you can’t be held hostage by frustration or failure. You need to be able to practice correctly, and do that over and over without complaining.

I think when people haven’t gotten over something or feel like a victim, there’s something wrong with their view on life. The most powerful thing that we have is our mindset. The ideal mindset is clear and focused, while being flexible and willing to learn.”

Learn more about high performance leadership from my conversation with George Kohlrieser in my video series Leadership: A Master Class.

How do you overcome obstacles for change in your organization or life? Share your insights in the comments, or tweet them to @DanielGolemanEI.

Further reading:

A self-aware leader is not a self-obsessed leader
How to work with untrustworthy peers
The brain science behind gut decisions
Understanding the science of moods at work
Cultivating a focused workplace

Additional resources:

High Performance Leadership with George Kohlrieser
What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters
Cultivating Focus: Techniques for Excellence
Resonant Leadership: Inspiring Others Through Emotional Intelligence

Photo: Vince Clements / shutterstock

Daniel Goleman: Can We Identify Emotionally Intelligent Job Candidates?

Some claim the new phone app MEIT (mobile emotional intelligence test), which shows photos of people’s faces and asks you to identify a person’s emotions, can tell how emotionally intelligent you are. Maybe, but I’m dubious.

For one, identifying a person’s feelings from their facial expression taps only one of three kinds of empathy, as I explain in Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence. That taps cognitive empathy, thinking about how the other person thinks and feels. Machiavellians and sociopaths can be excellent at this kind of empathy, but I don’t see them as models of emotional intelligence.

Nor does the phone app assess emotional empathy, the ability to resonate in the moment with another person’s feelings. And it doesn’t come anywhere near measuring empathic concern – actually caring about the other person and wanting to help them if you can. The best organizational citizens and most effective leaders, I’ve argued, have such concern, and so create the sense of a secure base in their direct reports. This helps a leader’s direct reports operate at their best rather than being on the defensive.

Another consideration: there are other parts to emotional intelligence beyond emapthy, like self-awareness, self-management, and relationship management – the best measure would assess all of these.

Coincidentally, I read the article about MEIT just after getting off the phone with an editor at the ASTD magazine, T + D. We had talked about how employers and their HR team could spot emotional intelligence in job applicants. I told her that in interviews people put their best face forward, and even skillful questioning may not get at how a person will actually get along with their co-workers once on the job.

I suggested following the advice of Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, the hiring guru, and try to interview people in confidence who have worked with that person in the past, and who will be honest with you. Even better, hire folks on a provisional basis, and observe how they actually harmonize or not with others in your organization.

That last strategy – actual on-the-job performance – gives you the best answer. After all, any test of EI in the workplace finds validation to the extent it predicts such performance. Why not simply judge it for yourself?

Further reading:

An antidote to the dark side of emotional intelligence

Systems blindness: the illusion of understanding

Cultivating a focused workplace

Emotional intelligence and a loyal, motivated staff

Additional resources:

The HR and EI Collection

Talent Strategy with Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

Resonant Leadership: Inspiring Others Through Emotional Intelligence

Photo: ckorange / Flickr

Daniel Goleman: A Self-Aware Leader is Not a Self-Obsessed Leader

I have become very interested in self-awareness as a leader’s capacity to take stock, to reflect, to look at things defining a bigger perspective. I spoke with Multiple Intelligences author, Howard Gardner, for my Leadership: A Master Class series about understanding what self-awareness is – and isn’t – for effective leadership.

“Understanding and knowing yourself is a significant aspect of leadership. But I would argue that you’re not able to know yourself with any totality. I also don’t think it’s a valuable feature of a good leader to be obsessive about self, about motivation, and so on.

Self-knowledge needs to be with reference to your role as a leader in the company, which can be pretty expansive. If you have a temper, if you make people feel bad, those are things you need to know.

In other words, some self-reflection or self-knowledge matters, but it should be the right kind. You should have the right focus, which has to do with ‘how am I doing in this role?’ Or ‘What do I need for this role?’

One of the paradoxes is that the higher a leader rises in the ranks, the less performance feedback she receives. People are afraid to tell her, particularly when she’s making mistakes. A leader can think they’re doing fine, not realizing that actually they’re not.

Of course, the wise leader goes out of his or her way to consult with people who will offer honest feedback. That proves they have the right kind of self-knowledge.”

How do you foster "the right type" of self-awareness at work? Share your thought in the comments field.

Learn more about Today's Leadership Imperative with Howard Gardner in my Leadership: A Master Class video series.

Further reading:

Understanding the science of moods at work

Systems blindness: the illusion of understanding

A leader's primary task: guide attention

Connect with those you lead

Other resources:

Today's Leadership Imperative

The HR and EI Collection

What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

Follow @DanielGolemanEI on Twitter for helpful articles, podcasts and videos.

Join the conversation about effective leadership traits on LinkedIn.

Photo Credit: Niels Hariot / shutterstock

Daniel Goleman: The Active Ingredients for Innovation

This is obvious: organizations must innovate if they want to survive. Most businesses now have far more competitors than they did 10 or 20 years ago. What’s less obvious: How do we find those active ingredients necessary for sustaining continuous innovation?

Teresa Amabile, director of research in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, spoke with me for my Leadership: A Master Class about the key components for a creative competitive edge.

“In order for any person to be creative, they must first have expertise in their domain - whether it’s art, mathematics, marketing, and so on. And that expertise depends on talent, which is something that is partly innate, but it also depends on education, work experience and professional development/on-the-job training. It also depends on mastering technical skills, and the ability to learn new things in an area.

There’s another kind of skill that’s very important: creative thinking. That includes the ability to take new perspectives on problems, the ability to look at things in a way that other people aren’t looking at them, to go out on a limb, and to take risks in some way.

This is actually related to both cognitive style and personality. Some people are naturally better able to do this, but it’s also something that you can learn. Creative thinking is a skill that you can build. You can enhance your ability to become more flexible, fluent and original in your thinking.

Also, you have to be skilled at working hard. I know it sounds mundane, but it’s a really important ingredient of creativity. You have to be able to persevere, sometimes under extreme difficulty. That’s a skill set that you need in order to be creative in any area.

You also need a certain set of psychological states. My original work looked at the connection between intrinsic motivation and creativity. That research discovered that people are most creative when they’re motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction and challenge of the work itself, and not motivated primarily by external goals, external motivators or external pressures.”

What would you add to the list? Leave your suggestions in the comment field.

Watch my conversation with Teresa about harnessing creative energy at work in my video series Leadership: A Master Class.

Further reading:

Apply emotional intelligence to the stages of innovation

People aren’t creative for money

Maximize your “Aha!” moment

Three must-haves for team creativity

Other resources:

Create to Innovate

The HR and EI Collection

What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

Follow @DanielGolemanEI on Twitter for helpful articles, podcasts and videos.

Join the conversation about effective leadership traits on LinkedIn.

Photo: Brian A Jackson / shutterstock

Daniel Goleman: Does Intuition Affect Decisions?

As a follow-up to my earlier post about the brain and gut decisions, I want to share my conversation with Erica Ariel Fox for my Leadership: A Master Class about how intuition can factor into good decision-making. Erica Ariel Fox is a lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, and part of the internationally acclaimed Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

“Let’s look at Malcolm Gladwell’s concept of thin-slicing. My interpretation: you are in fact cognitively perceiving data, it’s just that you’re doing it so quickly. With pattern recognition from past experience, what you experience as intuitive is actually just unbelievably quick cognitive processing.

There are also arguments that when the emotional part of the brain is damaged, people can’t make decisions: you need the right and left hand side of the brain, the cognitive and the emotional. I think that is right for certain kinds of decisions, such as when you’re gathering information and trying to make meaning or make sense out of information.

But these approaches to decision-making don’t address what might be called direct knowing: I know this, but I don’t know how I know it. I didn’t read it in a book. Nobody told it to me. I didn’t have an Excel spreadsheet that laid it out for me. Nonetheless, I know it.

I think we have a set of skills that coaches and leaders who work with teams might call “reading the room.” Others call it attunement or discernment. It’s not data processing and thin-slicing, and it’s also not having an emotional evaluation of decisions. It’s a sensing. When I work with a team in crisis, tuning in to the group’s feelings and emotions really helps me ask the right questions about what’s happening.

People will be shocked when they think back over the course of their lives, ‘when I made that decision, I actually knew it was wrong, but I didn’t trust the part of me that was telling me not to do it.’ Or they say, ‘It was the craziest thing. I made this decision. Everyone in my life thought I was insane, but I just knew it was right, and it turned out it was the best decision I ever made.’”

How does this concept resonate with you? How would you explain intuition in relation to decision-making?

Learn more about negotiation with Erica Ariel Fox in my video series Leadership: A Master Class.

Other resources:

High Performance Leadership with George Kohlrieser

The Leader’s Mind with Dr. Dan Siegel

What Makes a Leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

Follow @DanielGolemanEI on Twitter for helpful articles, podcasts and videos.

Join the conversation about effective leadership traits on LinkedIn.

Image Credit: ra2studio / shutterstock