World At Large -
The Secret Skill of Leaders from U.S.News (usnews.com)
In politics, "it is much safer to be feared" than to be loved, wrote Machiavelli. And for the better part of eight years, Rudy Giuliani seemed to agree. He ruled New York with an iron fist. He talked tough, picked fights, and demanded results. The result was a city that was cleaner, safer, and better governed-but also more polarized. Critics called Giuliani a tin-eared tyrant. In the eyes of many, something important was missing from his leadership. That something, his critics acknowledged, emerged as the World Trade Center collapsed. It was a newfound compassion to complement his command: a mix of resolve, empathy, and inspiration that brought comfort to millions.

What is this trait Giuliani acquired that so many great leaders possess? Some have called it "temperament." German sociologist Max Weber called it "the firm taming of the soul." Today, psychologists call it "emotional intelligence"-the capacity to handle your own emotions and your relationships with others. Sounds simple enough, but since the mid-1990s, emotional intelligence has been a hot topic among students of psychology and leadership. In the wake of September 11, the discussion has only grown as Americans wonder what makes a great leader. Is it "brains"-knowledge, logic, and rational thought? Or is it this alternative kind of intelligence based on feelings? Or is it a combination of the two that counts most?

At least one psychologist, Daniel Goleman, says that emotional intelligence is the overlooked yet essential ingredient of leadership. He told U.S. News he thought Giuliani had likely strengthened his own emotional capacities and compassion for others by enduring a series of recent hardships, including prostate cancer and a messy marriage breakup.

Alpha emotion. Goleman has studied leaders from hundreds of companies and found that the higher up the ladder they climbed, the more important their emotional intelligence was to their performance. In Primal Leadership, his book due out this spring, Goleman argues that emotional intelligence is the primary factor that distinguishes great leaders from average ones. Presidential scholars like Fred Greenstein cite Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan as shining examples of emotional intelligence. (Oliver Wendell Holmes said that FDR had a "second-class intellect, but a first-class temperament.") Legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant knew the importance of understanding his players' emotions. "I know my players better than they know themselves," Bryant said. "How else could I get the best out of them?"

But not everyone is on board with Goleman's thesis. Despite the appeal of emotional intelligence, America continues to base its educational system on the teaching of traditional cognitive skills-the stuff that IQ is made of. Very little time is spent in areas of self-awareness or social skills. And some academics still believe that IQ is the best indicator of how far someone will go in life. After all, university admissions still place great emphasis on College Board scores.

In general, the IQ versus EQ question can be overstated-any good leader has a healthy dose of both. Aren't there many occasions when leadership demands pure reason ahead of emotional intelligence? There's little doubt that President John Kennedy would have scored off the charts on any EQ test. But his longtime aide Ted Sorensen recalls that when the Cuban missile crisis brought the nation to the brink of nuclear war, it was not emotional skills but his analytical abilities that averted catastrophe. Kennedy sorted through vast amounts of often-conflicting information objectively and dispassionately, and he relied on a deep understanding of history.

Though the debate seems abstract, Americans think about it more than we might realize. Just consider the last presidential election. George Bush's critics said he lacked knowledge; Al Gore's critics said he lacked emotion. Pundits caricatured the contest as the scarecrow versus the tin man-EQ versus IQ. People had to choose, and of course, the race was a near tie.

Now, with leadership on the minds of so many, we invite you to join the discussion. Has your experience led you to think emotional intelligence is more important than IQ? When does leadership demand more of one quality than the other? Is EQ something we should begin teaching and testing? We welcome your thoughts as part of our ongoing World at Large series. We can be found at letters@usnews.com. -The Editors

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