As soon as we talk about leadership, we have either a role model in mind or set certain qualities to it. Working for an MNE, I have learned that, there are for sure qualities you see in true leaders and top-management. Especially the values charisma, empowerment and emotions are on the rise of true leadership. This was also valid many years ago and will remain this way towards our future.

However, to share some interesting insights with high potentials and next-gen leaders, further referred as emotional leaders, after having some great conversations here is the knowledge acquired.

Almost all of them have a certain characteristic edge that is unique and stands out. It‘s core is based on their emotion-awareness to sense and influence other peoples emotions. Mostly these people have a fast emotional bonding with their environment and push their thoughts towards good practices. 

This reminds me of Granovetter’s interpersonal ties. The theory described your interpersonal connectedness towards people in your surroundings and environment. Granovetter distinguishes between strong ties, who are your close working colleagues, friends and family, and weak ties, who are probably strong ties of your strong tie or even strangers you bond with. The key of these emotional leaders is to transform weak ties within a short period, or even one conversation, into strong ties. 

The impact emotional leaders have is outstanding as they foster their relationship in a natural and authentic way compared to the general. 

In the upcoming years emotional leaders will have, in my opinion, a significant impact on current management structures and styles in which individualism in management is upcoming. Mostly driven by individual values and the team dynamic, in which departments and organisational structure will simply act as a corporate body. The values and output will be uniquely developed by the individuals in an intrapreneurial way and the team will follow the leader even towards boundaries and difficulties. 

Having said that, emotional leadership has it’s limitations compared to other leadership principles, as it is subjective in working style and is in a longer period intense, as the cognitive impact is higher due to its complexity and emotions compared to corporate styles. 

Still, humour and fun with reach out to a certain type of people in which empowerment, loyalty and transparency will remain as core driver for successful team dynamic and family feeling.