A leader’s ability to use the power of emotions is key to his/her success. Research on leadership shows that highly successful leaders have greater emotional competence than their less outstanding peers. Empathy – the ability to know and feel what others experience – is the foundation of emotional intelligence. Companies ranging from health care to high tech are realizing benefits to their bottom line by creating cultures that promote emotional intelligence in interactions with customers and employees.

Empowerment is a way to involve teams and team members as business partners in determining the degree of success that the company achieves. It makes more resources available to the company because it taps the knowledge, skills, experience, motivation and commitment of each person and of the team as a whole. Empowerment takes place in a context, most of which is set by the company’s senior leaders.

Leaders are challenged to guide their organizations towards what seems an unpredictable future in a rapidly changing global environment. The forces and patterns that create that future, however are emerging now and can be discerned. Leaders can avoid being victims of what is to come and instead exert more influence over it if when they use a systematic approach to strategic planning.