| Organizations strive to employ leaders who possess the skills and competencies necessary to motivate employees to excel in work performance. Organizations look to leaders to create environments that positively affect employee job satisfaction, performance, and retention. Studies have focused on leadership styles and the search for the perfect combination of leader traits, competencies, and behaviors that lead to organizational success. While intelligence (IQ) and technical competencies are certainly key criteria in the leadership success equation, empirical and theoretical works have emerged on the relatively new construct of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and its potential as a critical leadership skill for building effective communication and relationships in organizational environments. The EI construct is intriguing; some scholars even point to EI as a possible missing link between good and great leadership. Emotional Intelligence is defined as perceiving, interpreting, and managing emotions. This study looks at leader EI ability in the United States Intelligence Community as a critical leadership skill, as well as its relationship to other leader variables to include: age, gender, work role, education level, performance, job satisfaction, rank, years in a leadership role, geographic location, and MBTI type. Propositions are created based on existing theory and the theory that leader EI ability is positively related to other leader variables. Results are documented and opportunities for future research will be identified. |
