Tips To Lead, Influence & Succeed

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Renowned psychologist and emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman shares his recipe for success at Sydney’s World Business Forum and reveals why he’s inspired by leaders including Salesforce’s (NYSE:CRM) CEO Marc Benioff and the Dalai Lama, speaking with The Capital Network’s Lelde Smits.

Lelde Smits: Hello I’m Lelde Smits for The Capital Network and joining me at The World Business Forum in Sydney is renowned psychologist and leading authority on emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman. Daniel, welcome to Sydney.

Daniel Goleman: Thank you, it is a pleasure to be with you.

Lelde Smits: You are well known for your work on leadership and also emotional intelligence. Can you tell us what makes a great leader and how do we become one?

Daniel Goleman: I think there are three marks of an outstanding leader. One is that they are able to focus on themselves and know what they are thinking and how it is affecting performance, they can manage themselves. It starts with leading yourself.

Then, they are empathic, they can focus on other people, they can read an organisation and have relationship skills. So, the second focus is on others.

And, the third is on the larger surrounds, the systems within which you operate. That allows you to articulate a vision or a strategy. But, once you have a strategy you need to manage your people well.

So, I think that is the mark of a great leader, is being able to put those three things together.

Lelde Smits: How do leaders influence and how can we become more influential in our own lives?

Daniel Goleman: I think that the ability to influence, which is by the way one of the competencies of emotional intelligence, the foundation of leadership, has to do with being able to tune in to the person you are with.

Understand how they think, understand how they feel, understand what they care about. And, then use that to put what it is you’re trying to persuade them or influence them on in terms that make sense to them, that work with them. And, so it is being empathic, essentially.

Lelde Smits: In the business world everyone wants of course be successful, leadership and influence are two of those methods. But, what are some tips and tricks that you have for the every day person who wants to be successful in their own lives?

Daniel Goleman: So what we find are the markets of success, in terms of the world of emotional intelligence, are first, looking inside, being aware of what is going with you. Tuning in to your own values, what you’re starting to feel, and managing that well.

So, you are able to know yourself well, manage yourself well, the third is knowing other people, empathising, tuning in, understanding, ‘What does he feel?’, ‘What does she feel?’ and using all of that to be skilful in your relationships.

Lelde Smits: Can you give us an example of a leader that you think is doing a particularly good job or one that you may have found inspiring in your own life?

Daniel Goleman: Well those are two different leaders.

I know the CEO of a company in America called Salesforce [salesforce.com, inc.(NYSE:CRM)], Marc Benioff. And, the company is growing by leaps and bounds. They do CRM with cloud computing. And, he also has a philosophy of one-one-one.

One percent of profit, people’s time and [sales force equity] to charity and that gives people in his company a sense of meaning and, ‘this is a great place to work’, so people feel all the better about working there.

And the second, who’s inspiring? I’d say the Dalai Lama, that’s who I want to be when I grow up.

Lelde Smits: Thank you for all the inspiration this morning and enjoy the rest of the World Business Forum here in Sydney.

Daniel Goleman: Thanks so much.