| Whether intentional or unintentional, for the past few decades Fortune 500 companies have staffed their leadership positions predominantly with white males. Much of the research conducted on leadership, leadership effectiveness and leadership characteristics has also used white men as the leadership model and tried to generalize findings onto all other demographic groups, such as women and minorities. In the review of the literature on leadership and leadership theories, there appeared to be little research about how the intersection of race and gender influence one's translation of leadership theories and what it takes to be a successful leader. Using the data from the Emotional Intelligence Competency North American Database (EICNAD) and data from the Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI) assessments completed by participants in a Fortune 500 Company, this quantitative exploratory study assessed the Emotional Intelligence of 17 African American women. In this study, leadership strengths of the participants were identified as those competencies that had the highest mean and were based on ratings from self-reported ratings and total others ratings (which included managers, peers, direct reports, customers, and others). For the DUC Company, the competencies with the highest means were Self Confidence, Adaptability, Empathy, and Conflict Management . There was no difference between the Self reported ratings and total Others ratings for African American women in the DUC Company. |
