By Michael J. Provitera and Mostafa Sayyadi
The complexities of today’s leadership icons world more than ever prevent organizations from focusing solely on business goals and forgetting the vital role of employees, as the main piece of the puzzle of business success. Employees seek leaders who are authentic and focus on emotional intelligence. Nelson Mandela, in South Africa, provided the emotional intelligence they needed This form of leadership can also develop a work environment where employees can best discharge their innovative energies and provide more creative ideas for their organizations.
A higher degree of emotional intelligence initiated at the top echelon of organizations can manifest an award-winning culture. Culture needs to be flexible, and it should provide a continuous learning environment through training and development. There are also two more factors that help organizations survive today: an effective knowledge-powered strategy, and a risk-taking tolerance for mistakes.
Emotional intelligence – Nelson Mandela’s approach
Organizations that provide a higher degree of emotional intelligence, a flexible work environment, continuous learning, an effective knowledge-powered strategy, and a risk-taking tolerance for mistakes are more in line with the Nelson Mandela leadership style.
Employees who receive emotional intelligence training coupled with leadership intervention from their managers are more interested in presenting innovative ideas to solve complex organizational problems than other employees. Also, these employees are more interested than other employees in participating in those activities in organizations that are not in the scope of their duties, but their participation can help them to do better. In fact, there is a greater sense of belonging that these employees feel than others. Abraham Maslow coined belonging as a mid-level motivational category in which many people feel as if they are treated as owners of the organization.
Leaders that focus obsessively on achieving business goals and ignore the vital role of employees, sometimes consciously or unconsciously, fail to achieve a cohesive business culture. Profit maximization and treating people as expendable assets offer negative signals transmitted to employees which can lead to the oppression of innovative energies.
Nelson Mandela offered a vast degree of emotional intelligence to prisoners during the equality and freedom movement. This effort led to freedom from apartheid and provided an impetus to use emotional intelligence to manage and lead others. Through compassion, kindness, and emotional support, Mandela created equality and brotherhood from racial discrimination. He is the Father of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion today. He realized that the human feelings and emotions of the average citizen in a country are a great source of energy for achieving higher goals and accomplishing great things. Mandela developed a form of leadership that is a successful example of emotional intelligence, late picked up by the Dan Goleman movement in the States.
Diane Belcher in a Harvard Business Review article, on March 31, 2023, titled Leading the Way, found that “Today’s frontline leaders are highly motivated to grow and learn—about topics that reach far beyond what’s been traditionally served up to them. Companies that don’t respond to the interests of this vital segment of their workforce face an uphill battle in retention, employee engagement, and more.”
Business leaders can learn from Nelson Mandela’s emotional intelligence leadership style provides an impetus for how leaders can become icons in a world that has many facets and challenges. Mandela desired to personally develop all people by building trust and engaging them more in actual dialogue. People engaged in dialogue in which managers, avoiding dramatic activities, actively seek employees’ participation in discussions and choose the employee’s best innovative ideas.
While working as an executive at Morgan Stanley in the financial district of Manhattan, the CEO had breakfast with employees to gain insight into innovations and projects that became fruitful and expansive. Twenty-six Breakfast and Conversation With James Gorman Chairman CEO of Morgan Stanley led to innovation and customer awareness. This endeavor was much needed in 2012 when the competitive edge was sharp and complicated.
Many CEOs, one being Louis V. Gerstner, argue that sharing in not only the success but also the mistakes of people. At IBM, the Chairman and CEO told an employee that just lost ten million dollars on an innovative project and that he just invested ten million dollars in the employee, and letting the person go was out of the question. Gerstner also at IBM, established Reinventing Education, which is a $35 million grant program that enables IBM researchers and classroom teachers to address curriculum concerns that would lead to better careers for youngsters later on in life. His aim was to develop trust among not only employees but potential future employees.
Emotional intelligence leads to greater intellectual safety for employees with the aim of encouraging them to put their ideas into practice. Thus, be an emotionally intelligent leader. Leaders who bravely seek emotional support from their employees, as noted above, consciously use the innovative energies of their employees to achieve organizational goals and find the best ideas to solve their complex organizational problems.
