EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATOR FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

Abstract

The highlights about the significant contribution of emotional intelligence (EI) and how it has influenced the effectiveness of leadership in higher education have long been noted. Knowledge of how exactly (EI) relates to effective leadership (EL) could culminate and lead to substantial advancement in leadership training and development programmes as well as the capacity to handpick potentially, effective leaders. The review identified five domains of EI that comprise of 25 competencies. These competencies include self-awareness; self-regulation; motivation; empathy; and social skills which were later collapsed into 20 and the five domains into four: self-awareness; self-management; social-awareness and relationship management. The review illustrated that having high EI among staff can affect the work environment and improve service interaction. It revealed that EI has been recognized for the case of teaching staff and students than administrators who have higher EI and are more effective since they are aware of the fact that their actions and decisions influence learning and behaviour of students. However, limited number of studies have discussed the importance of EI on administrative staff. The study concludes that EI has a substantial effect on leadership effectiveness; therefore, higher levels of EI could help improve leadership performance and effectiveness. It recognizes that EI can be improved with training and development. Therefore, training programmes within an institution could have a positive effect on leadership and leadership performance, thereby driving the institution to success.