In 2002, Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee conducted research for 3 years for the Harvard Business Review, with over 3,000 middle-level managers. Their goal was to uncover specific leadership behaviors and determine their effect on the corporate climate and each leadership style's effect on bottom-line profitability. Goleman found that leaders used six styles of leadership interchangeably:

• Commanding style
• Visionary style
• Affiliative style
• Democratic style
• Pace setting style
• Coaching style

Each of the styles comes from the use of emotional intelligence: being acutely aware of the environment, emotional needs, and feelings and adjusting the style to suit the most appropriate setting. These models summarize the techniques, scenarios of when they work best, and the impact on the organization and its goals.

However, critiques of some of these leadership styles need to be addressed. For instance, the commanding and pace setting styles, despite their use, can damage the organization's working environment in the long term. Consequentially, they will affect employee satisfaction and retention and lower profitability. These two types of leadership, though, are useful only in very specific situations and in a very small frame of time. We will learn more about them in case you want to use them when required.

The other four styles of leadership have a proven positive impact on the working environment and also performance, though they also need to be used carefully as they miss the more important traits of an emotional intelligence leadership of the future. Yet, the most effective leader is one who can master at least four of the styles, and who can use the style to suit the situation. Remember, even the commanding and pace setting roles have their uses you just have to use them only when the situation dictates.

Let's learn more about each of the six emotional intelligent leadership styles.