激励员工:领导者的主要任务
领导者的主要任务是激励员工,使他们保持积极乐观的态度,增加对工作的热情,同时培养一种合作与相互信任的氛围。[12]当然我们绝对不是第一个提出这种观点的人,但我们想进一步了解这一智慧,并且说明情商是如何帮助领导者完成这些基本任务的。情商有4个方面——自我意识、自我管理、社会意识和人际关系管理,每个方面都可以为共鸣型领导力增添一些重要的能力。
当然,这4个方面是紧密交织在一起的,它们之间存在一种动态的关系。例如,如果领导者自我意识不足或缺乏,他就无法管理自己的情感;如果他的情感失控,那么他处理关系的能力也会受到不良影响。我们的研究已经发现了这种动态关系之下潜藏的一个体系。[13]简而言之,自我意识可以促进同理心和自我管理的发展,而这两者的结合又会促进有效的人际关系管理。因此,情商领导力是建立在自我意识的基础上的。
在商业环境下,自我意识往往会被忽视,但它是其他几个方面的基础:
如果我们意识不到个人情感,就无法良好地进行管理,并且也无法更好地理解他人的情感。自我意识较强的领导者会调整适应自己内心的信号。比如,他们可以意识到情感是如何影响他们以及他们的工作表现的。他们不会让自己的愤怒演变成一次情感的大爆发,相反,他们会随着情感的逐渐增强而发现它,并且了解这种愤怒的起因,以及如何做出一些建设性的事情以改善这种情感。另一方面,缺乏自我意识的领导者可能会情绪失控,却不知道为什么情感会如此任意摆布自己。自我意识在同理心或感知他人对某种情况的观点上发挥着重要的作用:如果一个人总是意识不到自己的个人情感,那他也就无法了解他人的情感。
社会意识,尤其是同理心,可以支持领导者完成根本任务的下一步工作,即推动共鸣感的建立。通过协调和适应当下人们的情感,那么无论是在减少恐惧、平息愤怒还是吸引大家加入高昂的情感状态之中等方面,领导者的言行举止都会恰到好处。这种协调和适应可以让领导者意识到指导团队工作的共同价值和优先考虑。
同样的,缺乏同理心的领导者不知不觉地就会“跑调”,因此,他的言语行为会引发消极的反应。同理心包括倾听和采纳他人的观点,它可以使领导者融入人们的情感渠道,从而创建共鸣感。保持一致性可以使领导者恰当地调整个人信息,以确保与大家在情感上保持同步。
最终,一旦领导者了解了自己的个人理想和价值观,并且感知到团队的情感,他们的人际关系管理能力就可以促进产生共鸣感。然而,为了引导团队的情感基调,领导者首先必须意识到自己的方向和工作重点,而这就又将我们带回了自我意识重要性的探讨上。
情商的4个方面之间存在的动态关系,在理论和实践中都非常重要。它们是建立有效的原初领导力和共鸣感所需的基本要素。情商可以使领导者激发团队的共鸣感,下面我们将探索隐藏在这些情商背后的神经解剖学上的奥秘。
- We are by no means the first to argue that the key to group or organizational cohesion is sharedemotions. See, for example, B. E. Ashforth and R. H. Humphrey, “Emotion in the Workplace: AReappraisal,” Human Relations 48 (1995): 97–125; and Edward Lawler, “Affective Attachment toNested Groups: A Choice-Process Theory,” American Sociological Review 57 (1992): 327–339.
- We see resonance and dissonance as the two major poles of EI leadership. These dimensions can bethought of in terms of two dimensions: emotional tone and empathic synchrony. One dimension tracksthe emotional tone and impact of a leader’s actions, positive or negative. The other dimension reflectsempathy: whether or not people are in synchrony with the leader’s emotional tonality, and the leaderwith theirs.
- Yelling at work: Survey results reported in Vivian Marino, “It’s All the Rage at Work, Too,” TheNew York Times, 12 November 2000, Money & Business section, 3.
- The physiology of arguments: The research, by John Gottman of the University of Washington, wasdone with married couples, but the physiology of response should apply whenever the two peopleinvolved have close and emotionally important relationships with each other, such as a boss andemployee. For details, see John Gottman, What Predicts Divorce: The Relationship between MaritalProcesses and Marital Outcomes (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1993).
- Inept criticism: Robert Baron, “Countering the Effects of Destructive Criticism,” Journal of AppliedPsychology 75, no. 3 (1990): 235–246.
- Stress hormones circulate for hours: See, for example, Dolf Zillman, “Mental Control of AngryAggression,” in Handbook of Mental Control, eds. Daniel Wegner and James S. Pennebaker(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993).
- Dementors: J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan (London: Bloomsbury, 1999),187.
- The dark side of ambition: See, for example, Michael Maccoby, “Narcissistic Leaders: TheIncredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons,” Harvard Business Review, January-February 2000, 69–75.
- The specifics of the neurology described throughout this chapter are far more complex thanindicated here. In the interests of clarity, we have simplified the picture, focusing on key structureswithin the intricate web of circuitry always involved in any complex behavior.
- When we use the term amygdala, we refer to the structure itself along with the web of circuitrythat integrates the amygdala with other parts of brain. See Joseph LeDoux, The Emotional Brain (NewYork: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
- Cognitive abilities intact, but EI impaired in patients with prefrontalamygdala lesions:Neurological patients with damage to the bilateral areas of the amygdala, the ventral-medial area of theprefrontal lobe, and the right somatosensory and insular cortices show deficits on tests of emotionalintelligence, whereas patients with damage to other brain areas, such as those in other areas of theneocortex, do not. These areas appear critical for being aware of our own emotions, for regulating andexpressing them, and for being aware of the emotions of others. Antonio Damasio, University of IowaCollege of Medicine, personal communication; Reuven Bar-On, personal communication onpreliminary data collected with Antoine Bechara and Daniel Tranel, associates of Dr. Damasio.
- The main tasks of a leader: See, for example, Gary Yukl, Leadership in Organizations (UpperSaddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998).
- For details see Fabio Sala, ECI Technical Manual (Boston: Hay Group, 2001).
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