Self-reported leadership experiences in relation to inventoried social andemotional intelligence

Leadership has both social and emotional components. Social intelligence ap pears to tap the social component found in leadership. Recently, emotional intelligence has surfaced as a stable individual difference variable and ap pears to tap the emotional component of leadership. Mayer and Salovey (1993 ) suggested that the emotional intelligence and social intelligence constru cts overlap. This study examined the power of both emotional and social int elligence to account for variance in self-reported leadership experiences. One hundred ninety-two university students completed measures of social and emotional intelligence and a measure of leadership experiences. Regression analyses showed that both social intelligence and emotional intelligence a ccounted for variance in leadership experiences. Although emotional intelli gence was found to account for variance in leadership, it did not add uniqu e variance beyond social intelligence. Social intelligence appears to play a principal role in leadership.