Emotion and Leadership

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Emotion and Leadership

• Professor Russ Vince

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The Function of Leaders

• Leaders help determine the meaning of events
• Leaders build agreement around objectives and
  strategies
• Leaders build task commitment and optimism
• Leaders develop mutual trust and co-operation
• Leaders strengthen collective identity
• Leaders organize and co-ordinate activities
• Leaders encourage and facilitate collective
  learning (i.e. shared experiences, the pooling of
  knowledge and skills)
• Leaders obtain the necessary resources and
  support
• Leaders develop and empower people
• Leaders promote social justice and ethical
  behaviour (rather than abusing the authority of
  their role).

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The Function of Leaders
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Anxiety and individual learning
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Anxiety and Organizational Learning
(Individuals are anxious about getting things
wrong, which promotes caution and self-protection)
(Lack of collective reflection undermines
communication between hierarchical layers and
between sub-systems)
(Blame undermines the ability of managers to
reflect. The individual is too anxious and
therefore too busy. The collective is not to be
trusted)
(Caution manifests itself as blame of the
other/ the external)
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Some Examples

• The Director of Any Other Business
• Murderer! Murderer!
• I Feel Junior Here

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Some concluding thoughts

• We desire to have leadership explained to us (its
  complexity is emotionally demanding)
• All such explanations are likely to be
  provisional (it is a process linked to
  reflection/ action)
• Leadership provokes and stimulates fantasies,
  feelings and emotions (it has both internal and
  external impact)
• We cant control the emotions generated through
  leadership (but this wont stop us from trying
  e.g. emotional intelligence)

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Emotion and Leadership

• Professor Russ Vince