The Effects of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Leadership Style on Sales Performance

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of emotional intelligence (EI) and leadership styles on sales performance. The study involves a descriptive analysis of literature regarding emotional intelligence, transformational/transactional leadership styles and sales performance. A conceptualised model of leadership style, emotional intelligence and sales performance was created from literature reviewed. The findings suggest that both transactional/transformational leadership styles act as strong predictors of leadership effectiveness and their ability to influence the sales person’s performance. In addition, transactional and transformational leadership styles appear to have a symbiotic relationship with emotional intelligence within leadership styles domain. The literature provides support for a model, which suggests that emotional intelligence components such as personal/social competencies, motivation and empathy are positively linked to transformational leadership style, which empowers the sales person to perform beyond their normal expectations. Leaders who exhibit transactional leadership characteristics are viewed negatively as they often lack motivation and charisma. They are individuals who operate within the confines of rules, policies and procedures. Despite the negative perception, transactional leaders have components such as contingent-reward that positively correlative of productive sales performance. The findings suggest that there is a correlation between EI, Transactional/Transformational leadership styles and sales performance.