Leaders better able to identify and manage emotions are also better able to motivate others, and most of the variability in transformational leadership arises from levels of EQ.

Fundamentally, coaching is not pure science. It is partly an art, which explains the huge variability in effectiveness between different coaches. The success of coaching will largely depend on the talent and skill of the coach, and individual coaches’ characteristics and behaviors have been found to matter more than does the coaching method.

Self-awareness, the cornerstone of leadership development, has been valued for thousands of years. The entrance to the temple of Apollo in Delphi was inscribed know thyself. Socrates argued that the essence of his wisdom was to accept his ignorance. Given that people are generally unaware of their limitations, which are exacerbated when they become leaders, leadership development interventions should focus on boosting leaders’ self-awareness. Research suggests that greater self-awareness is a defining feature of high-performing leaders.Accordingly, because good coaching enhances the person’s self-awareness, coaching is often described as systematic feedback.

A controlled experimental study of 1,361 global corporation managers showed that feedback-based coaching increased the managers’ propensity to seek advice and improved their subsequent performance one year later.

As this book has tried to show, organizations can take concrete steps both to improve the performance of their leaders and to increase the representation of women in leadership. They can stop interpreting displays of overconfidence, narcissism, psychopathy, and charisma as signs of leadership potential. They can also acknowledge the importance of EQ, which should be a core competency in any data-driven model of leadership potential. Paying more attention to EQ would augment both the quality of leaders and the number of female leaders, increasing the overall levels of personal effectiveness, self-awareness, and transformational leadership in organizations.