The EQ Leader

16Entrepreneurial Leadership and EQ

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

—JACK WELCH

The EQ Leader: Entrepreneurial CEOs

What do we know about entrepreneurial leaders and their emotional intelligence? There have been relatively few studies that have looked at this aspect of leadership, especially in relation to performance. How do we gauge performance of entrepreneurs? Well in this case, one of the measures that matters is profitability. After all, if a company isn't profitable it's not likely to exist for long.

In a study we published in The Leadership and Organization Development Journal, we assessed the emotional intelligence of entrepreneurial CEOs. We were interested in a number of questions that related to leadership, emotional intelligence, and business success.

We recruited a sample of 186 executives (159 males and 27 females) belonging to one of two executive mentoring associations, the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and the Innovators' Alliance (IA), who voluntarily participated in our study. Participants ranged in age from 27 to 59 years, with an average age of 41.37. To gain membership into these associations (at the time of the study), an individual must hold the title of CEO, Owner, President, or Managing Director of his or her company, and that organization must generate a minimum of $2 million annually. The minimum number of full-time employees in these organizations ...