Emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership

The May, 2010 of the "IE Update" Newsletter provides the following abstract of a research study on Emotional Intelligence. The study refers to the "MSCEIT" one of the instruments that Keogh & Associates Consulting, LLC uses in our approach to team and leadership development.


Clarke, N. (2010). Emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership and key project manager competences. Project Management Journal, 41(2), 5-20.

This study examined the effect of Emotional Intelligence, as assessed using MSCEIT, on several competences (i.e., communication, teamwork, attentiveness, and managing conflict) and transformational leadership after controlling for personality and cognitive ability. Results based on a sample of 67 UK project managers revealed a number of significant correlations between the MSCEIT and the dependent measures. Branch 2 of the MSCEIT (using emotions to facilitate thinking), Branch 3 (understanding emotions), and the overall EI score were all found to positively correlate with the project manager competence of managing conflict. Both the abilities of using emotions and of understanding emotions positively correlated with the project manager competence of teamwork. Using emotions to facilitate thinking was the only EI ability found to have any significant correlations with transformational leadership. Both total EI and branch scores showed minor correlations with personality measures, offering further support for the predominantly independent nature of these two aspects of individual difference.

Beyond teambuilding: whole person leadership

For several years now, we have been delivering team-building seminars, highly rated by our clients based on the measurable results we have achieved. It has just dawned on me that I do these programs a great disservice by calling them “team building.”

Sure, we use elements of traditional team development activities. But, I’ve belatedly realized what we do is way more than “team building.” Let me explain why I think team-building does not do justice to what we have been doing and why I think it’s necessary to go “beyond teambuilding” to achieve sustainable change.

One of the great lessons that the current recession is driving home is that success as a leader involves far more than excelling at “business.” We have to succeed in all areas of our lives to be truly successful at work. Genuine work-life balance means we also have to develop our “our own private selves.” Leadership based on this principle is referred to as “whole person leadership.” It’s about finding mutual balance among
family, community, work and our private selves. It means developing individual’s personal, holistic abilities so that they can truly function as valued contributors on a team.

This has resulted in us developing a perspective that connects management and employees conceptually, focusing on vision, purpose, and meaning. The result is stronger teams that resemble “communities,” which encourage development of the whole person. The added bonus is that this personalized development influences not only the work environment but also family and community life. Implementing this new approach to whole person leadership is transformational and empowering for the company, the team and the individual’s personal life. The term “team building” simply does not do it justice.