Summary: Welcome to the More Than Sound podcast. In this episode, Daniel Goleman discusses the role and the importance of an emotional leader, with Anthony Gell of Leaders In. Anthony Gell- You’ve got a whole section in your new book on primal leadership, and the importance of emotion and sort of tapping into people’s emotions. So could you just tell me a little bit about what you mean when you say emotional leadership? Daniel Goleman- It’s leading at the level of emotions, through emotions, and the best leaders do this naturally. So when you speak heart to heart you’re moving people but they’re sensing that you’re moving yourself. It’s genuine. And the medium through which leadership is relational, it is emotional. And now we know the brain centers that are involved. There is a new discovery in neuroscience called the social brain, its circuitry. We didn’t even know it existed ten years ago, but it turns out that when we’re face to face, when we’re on the phone even your brain and my brain are locked together and there is an invisible channel that’s passing emotions back and forth. And the best leaders help other people get and stay in the best emotional state to work at their best. AG- So I assume then that they themselves, if the brain’s locked to some extent and this contagion occurs, then they themselves have got to be in relatively good moods most of the time. DG- Well you’ve got to start by managing yourself, you’ve got to lead yourself first. AG- So lets talk about that, because you’ve got a great chapter in there talking about the correlation between good moods and bottom line and there’s a direct correlation, so if a leader comes to work and they read your books and they understand the contagion principle, then how do they get in a good mood, if they are in a fundamentally bad mood? DG- Let’s start with the data first. I think you’re referring to a number of studies that show if the leader on a team or in a group is in an upbeat mood people in that group catch that mood, and performance goes up. Decision making gets better, creativity improves. If the leader is in a downbeat mood, critical, angry, frustrated, people pick that up and performance goes down. So there’s a direct relationship between leader’s mood, group team’s mood, and performance. Once you understand that you see that a leader must start by leading by managing himself or herself first, because it’s going to affect everybody else. AG- Exactly. And you mention there about authentic leadership, people will be able to tell the difference if you’re trying to get to peoples’ emotions but you’re just faking it. DG- Well, you know, we have radar for that, and it’s built into the brain. If it doesn’t ring true it’s just not gonna work. AG- Is there such a thing as a personality type that’s just a grouch? And if that is the case have they got any chance at leadership? DG- Well there are types of grouches, and some grouches are lovable grouches. You know? I mean they seem tough on the outside but they’re soft on the inside, and people pick that up. There are some grouches who are actually hostile people who criticize, who express contempt and disgust, which is very damaging in any relationship. But in a leader to follower it’s terrible because it alienates people, you’re going to lose people. AG- So can you tap into self mastery for a little bit and tell us how you actually can manage yourself if you come into work and you’re in a horrible mood, and you know that it’s very important that you’re in that leadership role? DG- Well, first of all, notice that you’re in a horrible mood. It takes what we call mindfulness, which is a variety of self-awareness. You have to tune in to yourself. You can easily go through the day in a horrible mood, alienating everybody else and upsetting them, and not even know. So step number one: notice. Step number two: pause. Reflect on this, “Is this useful? Is it not useful?” Step number three: “Is there something I can do to change my[...]
