Streamline Training & Documentation: Measuring a Leader's Social Intelligence

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Measuring a Leader's Social Intelligence

I prefer getting my updates on cognitive science from Scientific American, so when I came upon "Social Intelligence and the Biology Of Leadership" in the September issue of the Harvard Business Review, it was one of the exhibits, rather than the text of the article itself, that was of most interest to me.

The exhibit in question lists the seven qualities that authors Daniel Goleman (Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations) and Richard Boyatzis (Case Western Reserve University) use in their 360-degree instrument, the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory, to assess an executive's social intelligence.

In a brief article (pdf) published by the Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley, Goleman explains:

The ingredients of social intelligence as I see it can be organized into two broad categories: social awareness, what we sense about others — and social facility, what we then do with that awareness.

Social awareness refers to a spectrum that runs from primal empathy (instantaneously sensing another’s inner state) to empathic accuracy (understanding her feelings and thoughts) to social cognition (“getting” complicated social situations).

... Social facility builds on social awareness to allow smooth, effective interactions. The spectrum of social facility includes self-presentation, influence, concern, and synchrony (interacting smoothly at the nonverbal level).

The seven social intelligence qualities that Goleman and Boyatzis put forward are:

Empathy — Sensing others' feelings and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns.

Attunement — Listening attentively to others and thinking about how they feel.

Organizational awareness — Reading a group's emotional currents and power relationships.

Influence — Wielding effective tactics for persuasion.

Developing others — Sensing others' development needs and bolstering their abilities.

Inspiration — Inspiring and guiding individuals and groups.

Teamwork — Working with others toward shared goals. Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals.

(Definitions, except for that of "attunement," come from the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations.)

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Labels: Competencies, Employee development, Leadership

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