Chapter 6. How to Be an Emotionally Intelligent IT Leader

In this chapter, we will cover the leadership of the future in the IT domain, and the proper mindset that a leader of the future in IT needs to have so he/she can successfully lead their people through a vulnerable, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. We will also cover the six emotionally intelligent leadership styles, looking at their pros and cons. Finally, we will cover the three dimensions of the 3D model of emotional intelligent leadership of the future.

• What is the leadership of the future?
• The mindset of the emotional intelligent leader of the future
• The six emotional intelligent leadership styles
• The 3D leadership of the future

What is the leadership of the future?

Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. As Managers manage things, and leaders lead people.

When talking about leadership in the IT domain, we need to bear in mind that we are talking about the leadership of the future, which does not necessarily have anything to do with the concepts and practices of the leaderships of the past. Leadership of the future is not a position, a title, or seniority in the organization. Leadership of the future might even be outside of the organization.

Tech leaders of the future need to think globally. Leaders of the past tended to be domestic, managing people in their own country, in their own region. The local leader didn't have to think about people around the globe. Today, with globalization and the new technologies, where leadership has become global, this is an obsolete vision. Moreover, in the IT area, even if your organization is local, you will have global customers and global suppliers and even global employees...

The six emotional intelligent leadership styles

In 2002, Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee conducted research for 3 years for the Harvard Business Review, with over 3,000 middle-level managers. Their goal was to uncover specific leadership behaviors and determine their effect on the corporate climate and each leadership style's effect on bottom-line profitability. Goleman found that leaders used six styles of leadership interchangeably:

• Commanding style
• Visionary style
• Affiliative style
• Democratic style
• Pace setting style
• Coaching style

Each of the styles comes from the use of emotional intelligence: being acutely aware of the environment, emotional needs, and feelings and adjusting the style to suit the most appropriate setting. These models summarize the techniques, scenarios of when they work best, and the impact on the organization and its goals.

However, critiques of some of these leadership styles need to be addressed. For instance, the commanding and pace setting styles, despite their use, can...

Do you know your type of leadership?

Everyone has their own built-in approach to leading others. Do you know what yours is? Answer the following questions to get to know your leadership style:

Your leadership style scheme

Your leadership style is a part of who you are. The most effective leaders, however, know how to use all these leadership styles and adapt them to the situation. Not every leadership style is effective in every situation, or with every employee. Just as you lead differently, each of your followers responds in their own way. Also, every situation requires its own approach.

Now that you have become familiar with the six styles of emotional intelligence leadership, you can identify your own style and even adapt to the situation at hand. Leadership can and should be situational, depending on the needs of the team. Sometimes a teammate needs a warm hug. Sometimes the team needs a visionary, a new style of coaching. For that reason, great leaders choose their leadership style like...

The 3D leadership of the future

When I mention that the leader of the future needs to be a 3D leader, it is because you need to develop three areas of yourself and, therefore, of your leadership style. You need to start to develop a resilient and balanced SELF (self-awareness and self-management), you need to develop your understanding of others and build relationships and partnerships with others, thus you need to develop your social awareness, and finally, you need to develop your social skills as a great successful leader is the one that is always in the service of his organization and the world at large. We will learn about each of these parts and how to enhance each of them and make this triad of development work as a propeller.

Each part is connected to the other and working on the right balance between these three parts of this propeller will propel you higher and higher, creating a rippling effect that makes people follow you and role model you as a leader and human being.

Model of...

Summary

In this chapter, you have learned that: the leadership of the future in the IT domain needs to have a global mindset of the business, needs to be technologically savvy, know how to build alliances and partnerships, and that a successful and powerful leadership of the future is a shared leadership.

You have learned the right mindset to lead and thrive in a VUCA world--the vulnerable, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world of technology of information.

You have learned that the VUCA mindset of the leader of the future is constructed with a developed and adaptive mindset, in a human ecosystem that taps into intrinsic motivation of people, and develops others and influences them into following him, by designing the future, anticipating and creating change, and building the collaborative network to construct the vision of the future.

You have learned about the six emotional intelligent leadership styles: commanding, visionary, affiliative, democratic, pace setting, and coaching along with...