The role of emotions in leadership

Abstract

Emotions play an important role in the field of leadership. The intelligent use of emotions may be beneficial for leaders in achieving success. In fact, good use of emotions has been seen as a prerequisite for effective leadership. Leaders with high emotional competencies are perceived as more efficient by their followers. Besides, the use of emotional intelligence (EI) was found to be linked with transformational leadership. Furthermore, leaders' EI was found to be affecting followers' and organizational outcomes. Thus, we provide a selective review on the relationship between emotions and leadership. Our findings showed that EI is essential for successful leadership as it provides many benefits to leaders. With the use of EI, leaders could manage the team intelligently, handle difficult situations properly and reduce their stress effectively. Hence, we identified that it is necessary for researchers to further study the links between EI and leadership to gain the most benefits from it. We conclude with a discussion on the theoretical and practical implication, as well as some recommendation for future research with the promising use of EI in leadership development.