INTEGRITY AND INTELLIGENT LEADERSHIP – A TOOL FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

INTEGRITY AND INTELLIGENT LEADERSHIP

– A TOOL FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Richard Mayungbe

www.richardmayungbe.blogspot.com

E-mail: richardmayungbe@gmail.com

Tel: 08033467639, 08023019508

ABSTRACT

National Development can be broken down into 3 fundamental processes:

·        Planning

·        Acting

·        Controlling

These processes are found in Management, and National Development involves the management of the national economy, finance, security, education, health, foreign relation etc in such a way that the future of the nation is better than its present condition. These activities cannot be carried out without the involvement of human beings. Those charged with the responsibility of doing this should possess certain qualities far and above the ordinary folks on the street…

Leadership is not for everybody and what qualifies the leaders from the rest of us which we must understand, identify and demand for is “Integrity and Intelligence.”

This is what we shall briefly ex-ray in this paper. At the end of this conference, we should all be able to appreciate this leadership quality and demand for it at any time that the need arises to choose a leader, or subject ourselves to the demand of this quality in preparation for leadership positions.

INTRODUCTION

According to Dwight D. Eisenhower , “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”

Then, what is this supreme quality of leadership called “integrity.”

Integrity is defined as “The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness, Strict adherence to a moral code,  reflected in transparent honesty and complete harmony in what one thinks, says, and does.”  It is:

• strength of character
• steadfast and resolute,  
• walking the talk, doing what he promised
• authentic, straightforward, what's on the inside is displayed on the outside
• open, honest and direct in their dealings with others
• clear and uncompromised values, and clarity about what's right and wrong
• committed, with the courage of their convictions
• behaviours  matched values
• principled, honourable, fair, accountable and responsible
• self aware and self-reflective
• mature and wise

Therefore, the first requirement of leadership is integrity and the second consideration for leadership is ‘Intelligence’. This means that a leader must be intelligent.

So, let us examine the word “Intelligent” derived from intelligence

Being Intelligent refers to a person who is:

·         clever,

·        bright,

·        smart,

·        knowing,

·         quick,

·        sharp,

·        acute,

·        alert,

·        rational,

·        enlightened,

·         apt,

·        discerning,

·        knowledgeable,

·         astute,

·        well-informed,

·         brainy, 

·        quick-witted,

·         sagacious.

·        He is a person who has a good understanding or a high mental capacity; quick to comprehend.

·        displaying quickness of understanding, sound thought, or good judgment

·        endowed with the capacity to reason

·        showing mental alertness and calculation and resourcefulness

·        a sensible person

Ladies and gentlemen, the tragedy that we have found ourselves in this country now is that most of the people who parade themselves as our leaders today, if subjected to the test of Integrity and Intelligent Leadership as enumerated above would be unable to pass such test!

Coupled with all the above is the issue of Emotional Intelligence which is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions and those of the people around you.

As a leader, having emotional intelligence is essential for success. After all, who is more likely to succeed – a leader who shouts at his team when he's under stress, or a leader who stays in control, and calmly assesses the situation? (we shall talk about this later)

WHAT IS YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE?

From our own Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mahatma Gandhi of India, Winston Churchill of United Kingdom to Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs of the USA, there seem to be as many ways to lead people as there are leaders.

Fortunately, Management Experts have developed useful, simple ways to describe the main styles of leadership.

By understanding these styles and their impact, you can develop your own approach to leadership and become a more effective leader.

We'll look at some common, well-known leadership styles, and we'll explore situations where these styles may be effective with your people.

Adapting Your Approach to Leadership

In business, a leadership style called "transformational leadership" is often the most effective approach to use. Transformational leaders have integrity, they inspire people with a shared vision of the future, they set clear goals, they motivate people towards these goals, they manage delivery, and they communicate well with their teams.

·        People will always follow a person who inspires them.

·        A person with vision and passion can achieve great things.

·         The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy.

However, leadership is not "one size fits all" thing; often, you must adapt your style to fit a situation or a specific group. This is why it's useful to gain a thorough understanding of other leadership styles; after all, the more approaches you're familiar with, the more you can shape your approach to the situation.
Let's take a look at some of the leadership styles that you can use.

1. Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of transactional leadership, where leaders have a lot of power over their people. Staff and team members have little opportunity to make suggestions, even if these would be in the team's or the organization's best interest.
The benefit of autocratic leadership is that it's incredibly efficient. Decisions are made quickly, and work gets done efficiently.
The downside is that most people resent being treated this way. Therefore, autocratic leadership can often lead to high levels of absenteeism and high staff turnover. However, the style can be effective for some routine and unskilled jobs: in these situations, the advantages of control may outweigh the disadvantages.
Autocratic leadership is often best used in crises, when decisions must be made quickly and without dissent. For instance, the military often uses an autocratic leadership style; top commanders are responsible for quickly making complex decisions, which allows troops to focus their attention and energy on performing their allotted tasks and missions.

2. Bureaucratic Leadership

Bureaucratic leaders work "by the book." They follow rules rigorously, and ensure that their people follow procedures precisely.
This is an appropriate leadership style for work involving serious safety risks (such as working with machinery, with toxic substances, or at dangerous heights) or where large sums of money are involved. Bureaucratic leadership is also useful in organizations where employees do routine tasks (as in manufacturing).
The downside of this leadership style is that it's ineffective in teams and organizations that rely on flexibility, creativity, or innovation.
Much of the time, bureaucratic leaders achieve their position because of their ability to conform to and uphold rules, not because of their qualifications or expertise. This can cause resentment when team members don't value their expertise or advice.

3. Charismatic Leadership

A charismatic leadership style can resemble transformational leadership because these leaders inspire enthusiasm in their teams and are energetic in motivating others to move forward. This ability to create excitement and commitment is an enormous benefit.
The difference between charismatic leaders and transformational leaders lies in their intention. Transformational leaders want to transform their teams and organizations. Charismatic leaders are often focused on themselves, and may not want to change anything.
The downside to charismatic leaders is that they can believe more in themselves than in their teams. This can create the risk that a project or even an entire organization might collapse if the leader leaves. A charismatic leader might believe that she can do no wrong, even when others are warning her about the path she's on; and this feeling of invincibility can ruin a team or an organization.
Also, in the followers' eyes, success is directly connected to the presence of the charismatic leader. As such, charismatic leadership carries great responsibility, and it needs a long-term commitment from the leader.

4. Democratic/Participative Leadership

Democratic leaders make the final decisions, but they include team members in the decision-making process. They encourage creativity, and team members are often highly engaged in projects and decisions.
There are many benefits of democratic leadership. Team members tend to have high job satisfaction and are productive because they're more involved in decisions. This style also helps develop people's skills. Team members feel in control of their destiny, so they're motivated to work hard by more than just a financial reward.
Because participation takes time, this approach can slow decision-making, but the result is often good. The approach can be most suitable when working as a team is essential, and when quality is more important than efficiency or productivity.
The downside of democratic leadership is that it can often hinder situations where speed or efficiency is essential. For instance, during a crisis, a team can waste valuable time gathering people's input. Another downside is that some team members might not have the knowledge or expertise to provide high quality input.

5. Laissez-Faire Leadership

This French phrase means "leave it be," and it describes leaders who allow their people to work on their own. This type of leadership can also occur naturally, when managers don't have sufficient control over their work and their people.
Laissez-faire leaders may give their team complete freedom to do their work and set their own deadlines. They provide team support with resources and advice, if needed, but otherwise don't get involved.
This leadership style can be effective if the leader monitors performance and gives feedback to team members regularly. It is most likely to be effective when individual team members are experienced, skilled, self-starters.
The main benefit of laissez-faire leadership is that giving team members so much autonomy can lead to high job satisfaction and increased productivity.
The downside is that it can be damaging if team members don't manage their time well or if they don't have the knowledge, skills, or motivation to do their work effectively.

6. People-Oriented/Relations-Oriented Leadership

With people-oriented leadership, leaders are totally focused on organizing, supporting, and developing the people on their teams. This is a participatory style and tends to encourage good teamwork and creative collaboration. This is the opposite of task-oriented leadership.
People-oriented leaders treat everyone on the team equally. They're friendly and approachable, they pay attention to the welfare of everyone in the group, and they make themselves available whenever team members need help or advice.
The benefit of this leadership style is that people-oriented leaders create teams that everyone wants to be part of. Team members are often more productive and willing to take risks, because they know that the leader will provide support if they need it.
The downside is that some leaders can take this approach too far; they may put the development of their team above tasks or project directives.

7. Servant Leadership

This term, created by Robert Greenleaf in the 1970s, describes a leader often not formally recognized as such. When someone at any level within an organization leads simply by meeting the needs of the team, he or she can be described as a "servant leader."
Servant leaders often lead by example. They have high integrity and lead with generosity.
In many ways, servant leadership is a form of democratic leadership because the whole team tends to be involved in decision making. However, servant leaders often "lead from behind," preferring to stay out of the limelight and letting their team accept recognition for their hard work.
Supporters of the servant leadership model suggest that it's a good way to move ahead in a world where values are increasingly important, and where servant leaders can achieve power because of their values, ideals, and ethics. This is an approach that can help to create a positive corporate culture and can lead to high morale among team members.
However, other people believe that in competitive leadership situations, people who practice servant leadership can find themselves left behind by leaders using other leadership styles. This leadership style also takes time to apply correctly: it's ill-suited in situations where you have to make quick decisions or meet tight deadlines.
Although you can use servant leadership in many situations, it's often most practical in politics, or in positions where leaders are elected to serve a team, committee, organization, or community.

8. Task-Oriented Leadership

Task-oriented leaders focus only on getting the job done and can be autocratic. They actively define the work and the roles required, put structures in place, and plan, organize, and monitor work. These leaders also perform other key tasks, such as creating and maintaining standards for performance.
The benefit of task-oriented leadership is that it ensures that deadlines are met, and it's especially useful for team members who don't manage their time well.
However, because task-oriented leaders don't tend to think much about their team's well-being, this approach can suffer many of the flaws of autocratic leadership, including causing motivation and retention problems.

9. Transactional Leadership

This leadership style starts with the idea that team members agree to obey their leader when they accept a job. The "transaction" usually involves the organization paying team members in return for their effort and compliance. The leader has a right to "punish" team members if their work doesn't meet an appropriate standard.
Although this might sound controlling and paternalistic, transactional leadership offers some benefits. For one, this leadership style clarifies everyone's roles and responsibilities. Another benefit is that, because transactional leadership judges team members on performance, people who are ambitious or who are motivated by external rewards – including compensation – often thrive.
The downside of this leadership style is that team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction. It can feel stifling, and it can lead to high staff turnover.
Transactional leadership is really a type of management, not a true leadership style, because the focus is on short-term tasks. It has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work. However, it can be effective in other situations.

10. Transformational Leadership

As discussed earlier, transformation leadership is often the best leadership style to use in business situations.
Transformational leaders are inspiring because they expect the best from everyone on their team as well as themselves. This leads to high productivity and engagement from everyone in their team.
The downside of transformational leadership is that while the leader's enthusiasm is passed onto the team, he or she can need to be supported by "detail people."
That's why, in many organizations, both transactional and transformational leadership styles are useful. Transactional leaders (or managers) ensure that routine work is done reliably, while transformational leaders look after initiatives that add new value.
It's also important to use other leadership styles when necessary – this will depend on the people you're leading and the situation that you're in.

WHEN LEADERSHIP LACKS INTEGRITY:

Leadership is needed in the corporate world, politics, government, sports, education, religions and in almost everything we do in life.

Most often we read from newspapers about stories of people who demonstrate little or no integrity in their dealings with others, and how they ruin or damage the hope and expectations of others'. There are stories about, Enron, WorldCom etc. The board members who benefited from the fraudulent conducts in those companies, must have subscribed to the principle of 'greed is good' without subjecting their action to the 4 way tests of what we think, say, or do. (Courtesy of Rotary Club’s):

·        Is it the TRUTH?

·        Is it FAIR to all concerned?

·        Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

·        Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

The greatest fallout from a lack of integrity is the loss of trust in governments, institutions, industries, management and individuals.
In the vacuum created when trust is lost, suspicion and paranoia thrive. Is it a surprise any longer that most Nigerians have lost faith in our governments, institutions, management, the business world and those who lead us, and have become distrusting and cynical about the ability of those in authority to give priority to our welfare and wellbeing?
Do we still need to mention those actions and inactions of our leaders in the areas of water, electricity, education, road, security and generally the way our economy is managed? Where is the pension thief?
It is important that we call our leaders at the centre to render regular account of their stewardship to us as is done in Lagos State so we can have an up to date knowledge of what is happening in our country. We detest a system where someone will write an exam, mark his own scripts, grade himself and announce that he had done creditably well. This method is unknown in management!
In the corporate world today, integrity is an old-fashioned virtue that has become a low priority consideration in the quest for increasing profit, market share, votes and tenure.
Apart from individuals, there are also institutions and industries that are perceived to lack integrity.  Let me mention that as a Financial Expert and a Forensic Accountant, banking is just one of the industries that people felt could not be trusted. Their perceptions were based on times when they felt they had been ripped off, or their interests as customers had been given low priority compared to the high priority of making a profit. However, there are people who work in these banks who do have integrity, who are honest, put customer needs high on their lists and walk their talk.  A critical look at banking business as it is practiced today reveals that integrity and profit are several kilometers away from each other and cannot be mutually exclusive.
The Police, FRSC, LASTMA forms another group that suffers from a public perception of lack of integrity---often with good reason. Recently, we saw the filming of a Policeman at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport using all sorts of unethical methods to extort money from a motorist. Although he was eventually fished out and dismissed. Clearly it takes a great deal of hard work to maintain integrity.

HOW TO LEAD WITH INTEGRITY

Integrity is a quality that encompasses truthfulness, credibility and sincerity. In a leadership position, integrity manifests itself in the way a leader speaks to, guides and reacts to group members. Learning to lead with integrity requires developing self-awareness, adhering to a strict moral code and communicating truthfully with group members, regardless of the complexity of the situation or the possibility of negative consequences. Here are some strategies for leading with integrity.

1.     Examine your moral principles. People are raised with or exposed to specific principles regarding right and wrong. These influences may stem from a specific religious upbringing, philosophical beliefs or general observations about the types of behaviors that accelerate progress and development in society

                                                                             

2.     Assess the degree to which you adhere to your own moral code. For example, a person might value truthfulness, but withhold important information when truth telling may interfere with being hired or promoted. To manifest integrity, behaviors must be aligned with moral beliefs.

3.     Establish a code of values and behaviors for your group members. Whether you are leading a sports team, managing a group of engineers or parenting children, leading with integrity requires outlining a standard of behavior by which others can abide.

4.     Lead by example. Adhere at all times to the behavioral standard you have established for the group.

5.     Create an atmosphere of open communication.

• Communicate authentically. Be open with group members regarding issues and policies that affect them. Keeping secrets or hiding important information can lead to an environment of mistrust.
• Listen attentively to others. Open communication involves the exchange of information. Leading with integrity requires hearing what others have to say and creating an environment that fosters open sharing.
• Practice tolerance for divergent views. Group members will inevitably have different opinions and thoughts, and may not always agree with you or your decisions. Allow them to hold their opinions without fearing ridicule or rejection.

6.     Praise group members for high quality performances. Gain the trust of group members by acknowledging their contributions.

                              

7.     Choose leadership positions that allow you to lead with integrity. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to practice integrity in a position in which you are pressured by upper management to conceal important facts or engage in immoral or illegal activities.

8.     Speak to your superiors about integrity issues. Some environments lack integrity due to inattention to the company's moral code or values. Suggest to upper management to increase attention to integrity issues by offering mandatory classes or holding relevant discussions in company meetings.

9.     Surround yourself with morally upright people. This may mean that you change jobs, limit time spent with certain colleagues or make a special effort to hire honest and trustworthy employees.

10.                         Study the lives of leaders known for their integrity. Gain inspiration by learning about leaders who delivered difficult news, chose honesty over financial gain or refused to take credit for other people's work.

11.                        Examine the mistakes of fallen leaders. Study the various examples of business and political leaders who sacrificed their integrity and succumbed to desires for wealth, power or fame.

Consider the same scenarios for yourself. Decide how you would have behaved or reacted in each case.
BEOMING A LEADER WITH INTEGRITY

• Understand that your integrity in dealings with others (and yourself) is an essential component of the glue in your relationships. It delivers respect, loyalty, commitment and trust. It's a virtue worthy of your interest.
• Find role models who are known for their integrity and watch their values playing out. Watch their behaviour. Learn from their example how they 'do' honesty and openness, how they walk their talk.
• Watch someone who is a spectacular failure at integrity and don't follow in his or her footsteps.
• Find someone known for his or her integrity to coach and mentor you. Listen to their views and values. Ask them about what integrity means to them. Talk to their staff (with permission) about the quality of their relationships with their staff. Learn from them how to do it. Find out how they go about deciding what to say and do when the pressure is on. How do they wrestle with their sense of right and wrong?
• Seriously examine these questions. What do you believe in? What are your values about right and wrong? How did you learn them? What has influenced how you deal with people?
• Engage your staff in dialogue about how they feel about the issues that affect them. Talk about integrity generally. Find out how important it is to them. Ask them how they feel when they are let down.
• Seek feedback about your staff's perceptions of your integrity---whether or not they trust you to walk your talk. Do they know (and understand) your talk?
• Have courage. Integrity is hard work. Be prepared to be disadvantaged sometimes when you make a stand over an issue, or to be inconvenienced when you made a promise.
• Be prepared to take the risk of changing the way you deal with others, and yourself.
• Do what you say you will do. Don't let people down.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.
For leaders, having emotional intelligence is essential for success. After all, who is more likely to succeed – a leader who shouts at his team when he's under stress, or a leader who stay in control, and calmly assesses the situation?
According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who helped to popularize EI, there are five main elements of emotional intelligence:

1.     Self-awareness.

2.     Self-regulation.

3.     Motivation.

4.     Empathy.

5.     Social skills.

The more that you, as a leader, manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence. So, let's look at each element in more detail and examine how you can grow as a leader.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

1. Self-awareness

If you're self-aware, you always know how you feel, and you know how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you. Being self-aware when you're in a leadership position also means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and it means behaving with humility.
So, what can you do to improve your self-awareness?

• Keep a journal – Journals help you improve your self-awareness. If you spend just a few minutes each day writing down your thoughts, this can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness.
• Slow down – When you experience anger or other strong emotions, slow down to examine why. Remember, no matter what the situation, you can always choose how you react to it.

2. Self-regulation

Leaders who regulate themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people, or compromise their values. Self-regulation is all about staying in control.
This element of emotional intelligence, according to Goleman, also covers a leader's flexibility and commitment to personal accountability.
So, how can you improve your ability to self-regulate?

• Know your values – Do you have a clear idea of where you absolutely will not compromise? Do you know what values are most important to you? Spend some time examining your "code of ethics." If you know what's most important to you, then you probably won't have to think twice when you face a moral or ethical decision – you'll make the right choice.
• Hold yourself accountable – If you tend to blame others when something goes wrong, stop. Make a commitment to admit to your mistakes and to face the consequences, whatever they are. You'll probably sleep better at night, and you'll quickly earn the respect of those around you.
• Practice being calm – The next time you're in a challenging situation, be very aware of how you act. Do you relieve your stress by shouting at someone else? Practice deep-breathing exercises to calm yourself. Also, try to write down all of the negative things you want to say, and then rip it up and throw it away. Expressing these emotions on paper (and not showing them to anyone!) is better than speaking them aloud to your team. What's more, this helps you challenge your reactions to ensure that they're fair!

3. Motivation

Self-motivated leaders work consistently toward their goals, and they have extremely high standards for the quality of their work.
How can you improve your motivation?

• Re-examine why you're doing your job – It's easy to forget what you really love about your career. So, take some time to remember why you wanted this job. If you're unhappy in your role and you're struggling to remember why you wanted it, try the Five Whys technique to find the root of the problem. Starting at the root often helps you look at your situation in a new way.
• Know where you stand – Determine how motivated you are to lead.
• Be hopeful and find something good – Motivated leaders are usually optimistic, no matter what problems they face. Adopting this mindset might take practice, but it's well worth the effort.
• Every time you face a challenge, or even a failure, try to find at least one good thing about the situation. It might be something small, like a new contact, or something with long-term effects, like an important lesson learned. But there's almost always something positive, if you look for it.

4. Empathy

For leaders, having empathy is critical to managing a successful team or organization. Leaders with empathy have the ability to put themselves in someone else's situation. They help develop the people on their team, challenge others who are acting unfairly, give constructive feedback, and listen to those who need it.
If you want to earn the respect and loyalty of your team, then show them you care by being empathic.
How can you improve your empathy?

• Put yourself in someone else's position – It's easy to support your own point of view. After all, it's yours! But take the time to look at situations from other people's perspectives.
• Pay attention to body language – Perhaps when you listen to someone, you cross your arms, move your feet back and forth, or bite your lip. This body language tells others how you really feel about a situation, and the message you're giving isn't positive! Learning to read body language can be a real asset in a leadership role, because you'll be better able to determine how someone truly feels. This gives you the opportunity to respond appropriately.
• Respond to feelings – You ask your assistant to work late – again. And although he agrees, you can hear the disappointment in his voice. So, respond by addressing his feelings. Tell him you appreciate how willing he is to work extra hours, and that you're just as frustrated about working late. If possible, figure out a way for future late nights to be less of an issue (for example, give him Monday mornings off).

5. Social skills

Leaders who do well in the social skills element of emotional intelligence are great communicators. They're just as open to hearing bad news as good news, and they're expert at getting their team to support them and be excited about a new mission or project.
Leaders who have good social skills are also good at managing change and resolving conflicts diplomatically. They're rarely satisfied with leaving things as they are, but they don't sit back and make everyone else do the work: They set an example with their own behavior.
So, how can you build social skills?

• Learn conflict resolution – Leaders must know how to resolve conflicts between their team members, customers, or vendors. Learning conflict resolution skills is vital if you want to succeed.
• Improve your communication skills – How well do you communicate?

Learn how to praise others – As a leader, you can inspire the loyalty of your team simply by giving praise when it's earned. Learning how to praise others is a fine art, but well worth the effort

DEVELOP EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Research has shown us that more than 90 percent of top leadership performers have a high amount of emotional intelligence.
The higher up the ladder that leaders are, the more people they impact and their EI becomes increasingly important. The person at the top sets the atmosphere that permeates the organization, including the emotional temperature.
Not only does a leader with low emotional intelligence have a negative impact on employee morale, it directly impacts staff retention. We know that the biggest reason that people give for leaving an organization is the relationship with those above them.
Here are five ways to spot an emotionally intelligent leader:

1. Non defensive and open

Insecure leaders that demonstrate low EI become defensive and take it personally whenever they encounter anything that appears to them as criticism and a challenge to their authority.
A secure leader with a healthy dose of emotional intelligence strives to listen, understand and find out what is behind behaviors and actions of those they are responsible for managing. They listen before they respond and if they don’t understand something ask open ended questions that are meant to gather more information.
As opposed to leaders with low emotional intelligence, they don’t make it about them, but look for ways to make the situation better for everyone involved.

2. Aware of their own emotions

Leaders who are oblivious to their own emotions and how they are impacted by them have no awareness of how their words and actions affect others. This can have a very devastating effect on staff morale and lower productivity.
Highly emotionally intelligent leaders are aware of strong emotions and avoid speaking out of anger and frustration. If they feel the urge to give in to strong emotions in their interactions with others, they give themselves a time out, waiting until their emotions have leveled off and they have had a chance to think about the situation.

3. Adept at picking up on the emotional state of others

A skilled and empathetic leader that is aware of other’s emotions is able to use that awareness to develop stronger relationships with those they manage. Even if delivering bad news, they are able to cushion the impact by simply letting the receiver know that they are aware of how they might be feeling.
Leaders with high EI are able to put themselves in place of the person receiving criticism or negative feedback, allowing them to give it in a way that might be more beneficial and less destructive.

4. Available for those reporting to them

Good leaders make themselves available to those reporting to them both physically and emotionally. They are responsive to the fact that there will be times that those reporting to them will be having difficulties outside of work that will impact them.
Death of family members, friends, relationship breakdowns and all sorts of life crisis will affect virtually everyone at work at times. Emotionally open and secure leaders understand are there for support during these times.

5. Able to check their ego and allow others to shine

While possessing self-confidence, high EI leaders do not have a need to demonstrate their own importance or value.
They chose their words carefully and speak and act out of concern for their staff, and the health of the organization. They do not have the need to have their ego massaged and are not looking for ways to take credit for the work of others.
Understanding that people work better when they feel appreciated, they are always looking for ways to show give positive feedback and rewards for a job well done. Secure in their own abilities, they are not threatened by those under them and actively seek to help them work to the best of their capabilities and rise up the organization

COMMUNICATION IN LEADERSHIP

A leader who cannot communicate is a total failure!

Think of how often you communicate with people during your day. You write emails, hold meetings, participate in conference calls, create reports, devise presentations, debate with your colleagues… the list goes on.
We can spend almost our entire day communicating, even the way we carry out the communication requires skills. We can make sure that we communicate in the clearest, most effective way possible.
The 7 Cs of Communication provides a checklist for making sure that your meetings, emails, conference calls, reports, and presentations are well constructed and clear – so your audience gets your message.
The 7 Cs, of communication teaches that communication must be:

• Clear.
• Concise.
• Concrete.
• Correct.
• Coherent.
• Complete.
• Courteous.

We look at each of the 7 Cs of Communication, and we'll illustrate each element with both good and bad examples.

1. Clear

When writing or speaking to someone, be clear about your goal or message. What is your purpose in communicating with this person? If you're not sure, then your audience won't be sure either.
To be clear, try to minimize the number of ideas in each sentence. Make sure that it's easy for your reader to understand your meaning. People shouldn't have to "read between the lines" and make assumptions on their own to understand what you're trying to say.

2. Concise

When you're concise in your communication, you stick to the point and keep it brief. Your audience doesn't want to read six sentences when you could communicate your message in three.                                

3. Concrete

When your message is concrete, then your audience has a clear picture of what you're telling them. There are details (but not too many!) and vivid facts, and there's laser-like focus. Your message is solid.

4. Correct

When your communication is correct, it fits your audience. And correct communication is also error-free communication.

5. Coherent

When your communication is coherent, it's logical. All points are connected and relevant to the main topic, and the tone and flow of the text is consistent.

6. Complete

In a complete message, the audience has everything they need to be informed and, if applicable, take action.

7. Courteous

Courteous communication is friendly, open, and honest. There are no hidden insults or passive-aggressive tones. You keep your reader's viewpoint in mind, and you're empathetic to their needs.

CONCLUSION

There is an urgent need for us to develop and adopt an “Integrity and Intelligence Matrix” to assess all political aspirants, traditional office seekers, intending religious leaders. The aim is to forestall a situation where morally bankrupt and genetically corrupt individuals would become leaders in Nigeria.

How to go about it shall be the subject of another discussion in the nearest future.

Thank you.