EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP

The occurrence of the construct of emotional intelligence in the late twentieth century provoked controversies among scientists, due to connecting two, seemingly exclusive psychological notions – intelligence and emotions, with emotions being considered as an obstacle to rational thinking and quality performance. However, numerous studies have proven that, provided they are appropriately managed, emotions may even facilitate rational thinking, influence the appropriate decision-making and personal behaviour. In no other area has such cognition created that amount of interests as it did in management, where in the last couple of decades, due to intensifying changes in the business environment, the need for leaders with vision emerged – leaders capable of building the emotional connection with their followers, and leaders capable of motivating the followers to constantly move above the set limits, which are all the features built upon the emotional intelligence. In this paper, the synthesis of the existing theoretical cognitions on the importance of the emotional intelligence in business has been made, as well as on its role in application of specific leadership style. Emotional competences are usually related to transformational leadership, thus, this paper analyzes the components of transformational leadership. The analysis shows that the connection between the two exists even on the conceptual level. However, the empirical relation still needs to be confirmed.