Emotional Intelligence Essentials: Transformational Leadership Qualities

EQ for Transformational Leadership Qualities

Essential Emotional Intelligence Resources

Transactional leadership is about getting tasks done. Transformational leadership is about building people and culture so they can do what needs to be done. What are the leadership qualities needed, and how does emotional intelligence help make that happen?

What is Transformational Leadership?

Transformational leadership means engaging people to build a context for ongoing growth and learning. It’s about building capacity for performance.

Is leadership about “getting things done” (tasks) or about engaging people to build a high performing culture (process)? In a task-focused world, it’s easy to think leadership is about DOING. But when it comes to transformational leadership, the impact comes more from BEING.

What Are the Essential Leadership Qualities?

Researching the emotional intelligence leadership qualities that make transformational leaders excel, a large scale study identified an essential ingredient is “focused empathy,” a combination of caring about people and performance.

A ten-year study on leadership qualities for high performance found five drivers are the key elements of transformational leadership. These are measured by the Leadership Vital Signs test, a 360 or multi-rater tool that maps to this model shown to the right with five top leadership qualities that, together, form a definition of transformational leadership.

  1. Trust: Transformational leaders set a context of safety, in which…
  2. Motivation: People are driven by long-term purpose,
  3. Change: They are adaptable,
  4. Teamwork: They collaborate to achieve more than they can individually, and
  5. Execution: They focus on what’s important and get it done.

 

Leadership is how to turn strategy into action. Get the latest Organizational Vitality research to see how

3 Top Transformational Leadership Qualities Using EQ

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