The Commercial Training Manager at Etihad Airways, Sunil Joshua supervises a team of 30 trainers and
4 line managers countrywide. A conspicuous observation is simplicity of his relations with his followers
and the level of team work observed within his team. He can be considered an authentic leader because
he has played the role of empowering his trainers to a level where they do not depend on him to run their
daily routines and where they can effectively make relevant decisions to promote the objectives of the
company. In addition, he fosters an open relationship with his followers where their personal lives are
considered an important aspect of success; and thus encourages them to effectively balance their
careers and personal lives.
Sunil demonstrated authentic leadership when one of his trainer�s wife fell seriously ill and he had to
take care of her for several days. Unfortunately, this was the same time that the unit had organized a
major training and personnel from different regions had assembled for the event, which is done yearly.
Being the facilitator of the training, the team member was at a loss on what to do because both the
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training and his wife were important aspects of his life. Sunil stepped in and had to travel from another
town to facilitate the training. This was a noble act on Sunil�s part and a demonstration of his authentic
leadership. Comparing this to the findings by Mital and Dorfman (2012) Sunil as an authentic leader
demonstrated that he cares for the welfare of his followers as he did not let the trainer go ahead with the
training while leaving his sick wife behind. He also fulfilled the moral obligation of empathy that authentic
leaders should possess by understanding that the trainer may not have performed optimally if he went
ahead with the training because he would be worried about his wife at the hospital (Pescosolido, 2002).
Pettigrew, Thomas and Whittington (2006) note that authentic leaders go out of their way to meet
collective objectives and this is effectively demonstrated when Sunil decides to lead the training himself in
order to ensure that the meeting is not jeopardized. It is therefore justified to state that Sunil is an
authentic leader.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence has been depicted in this context as the ability to use, identify and
understand emotions likely to be in a positive way to manage stress hence it released the stress
when one of the trainers had to step down and look after his wife who was sick (Daniel, 2015).
This kind of leadership exists through empathy and it shows concerns on self being to others.
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Since emotional understanding has been considered as one of the paradigms in offering
situational judgement, the results in explaining the leadership skills are revealed as skills
(Libbrecht and Lievens, 2012). As the research concluded, undergraduate students in Belgium
Emotional Intelligence (EI) have a little relation with personality but more with the performance
outcomes. They are more focussed on what is likely to happen in the future or the main prospects
they are to achieve in the long run. Therefore their emotions are mostly geared by the events they
will achieve as compared to the attached feelings and personality characteristics (Libbrecht and
Lievens, 2012). If the same trial that has been conducted in Belgium has to be conducted in
Middle East there will be completely different results. Middle East citizens Emotional
Intelligence will be obtained through the difference in the performance (Joshua, 2010). Not all
citizens’ emotional capabilities come from the performance but rather more on the personality
state. They are more concerned in feelings hence in the situation of a trainers wife being sick
none would have come forward and feel the vacuum; they would have cancelled the training
activities (Joshua, 2010). The research would have concluded that they are not authentic leaders
as their Emotional Intelligence has more relation with personality rather than an attribute in
performance.
References
Daniel, Goleman. (2015). Emotional Intelligence,
