Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: A Guide for College Students (review)

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: A Guide for College Students by Marcy Levy Shankman and Scott J. Allen is just that, a straightforward guide for Emotionally Intelligent Leadership (EIL). It is obvious that Shankman and Levy had a student audience in mind; it is short, direct, and a quick read. It could easily be taken apart and used with students in stand-alone sections or as a whole.

The book begins with a good introduction to the concept of EIL—not exhaustive by any means, but thorough enough to give a student the background needed to understand Shankman and Allen's take on EIL. The book is then split into three parts, one for each of the EIL consciousnesses: consciousness of context, consciousness of self, and consciousness of others.

Part 1, "Consciousness of Context," covers environmental awareness and group savvy. Shankman and Allen explain this consciousness as "the environment in which the leader and followers work … a combination of setting and situation" (p. 12). Within this consciousness students are asked to step out of their traditional role in a group to focus on the environmental dynamics of the organization by asking: Who are the leaders in the meeting? Who are the followers? What does the organization value? Is there pride in the organization? etc. Group savvy emphasizes being able to pick up on the culture of an organization and adjust to meet the needs of that culture.

Part 2, "Consciousness of Self," focuses on being aware of oneself in terms of abilities and emotions. The capacities covered in this section are emotional self-perception, honest self-understanding, healthy self-esteem, emotional self-control, authenticity, flexibility, achievement, optimism, and initiative. While this section covered a great deal, there are a few tools and explanations that are extremely practical for students.

First, the chapter on honest self-understanding provides students the tools with which to ask for feedback. Not only are sample questions given as a jumping-off point for students, but Shankman and Allen also touch on the concept that who is asked to give feedback and when are just as important as the questions a students asks them to respond to.

Second, Shankman and Allen explain achievement not as winning awards, padding a resumé, or getting good grades, but as the result of working hard on something that a person is passionate about. Third, the authors cover optimism as a realistic approach to tackling challenges.

Part 3, "Consciousness of Others," centers on being aware of relationships with others and how they affect leadership. Capacities covered are empathy, citizenship, inspiration, influence, coaching, change agent, conflict management, developing relationships, teamwork, and capitalizing on difference. This section brings the book together, as there are many chapters that focus on how leadership cannot be a stand-alone process, multiple people need to be involved, and everyone needs to buy into what the organization is trying to do.

Students are again provided with tools to help achieve these capacities, specifically in chapters on inspiration, conflict management, and developing relationships.

The authors conclude with suggestions for putting the concepts covered in the book into practice. They admit that becoming an emotionally intelligent leader is a never-ending process and that each time a leader thinks he or she has perfected the process, the context can change and people must adapt and continue learning.

One of the strengths of this work is the simple, everyday examples the authors use to explain concepts. Any student will be able to see himself or herself in the situations and see the benefit of working on EIL. A second strength is the "Student Voice" sections. Each chapter has direct quotes from students around the country commenting on each of the capacities.

Finally, the authors end each chapter with reflection questions. These questions help lend the book to group discussion or one-on-one conversations between students and their peers or university professionals.

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