Quality leadership key in banking progress - Olowu

The outgoing President/Chairman of Council of The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr Uche Olowu has called on stakeholders in the Banking Industry to leverage on Emotional Intelligence to build quality leadership in the Industry.

Olowu made the call while delivering his Presidential Valedictory Address via a webinar as the 20th outgoing President/Chairman of Council of the Institute on the theme ‘Ethical Leadership in Banks and Emotional Intelligence’.

In his address, the outgoing President/Chairman of Council maintained that l.eadership will succeed if people are emotionally engaged by entrenching good feelings in those they lead, Nelson Olagundoye, Head, Corporate Communication & External Relations of CIBN stated

Dr Olowu who spoke to over one thousand participants connected to the programme through Zoom and YouTube said that ‘Ethical leadership influences people to exhibit the right behaviour that could maximize values such as integrity, honesty, consistency and so on, adding that ‘Emotional intelligence aligns with ethics to achieve organizational success’.

Speaking further, he said that ‘Emotions in interpersonal relationships, service delivery and intrapersonal relationship influence the major parameters in service-oriented firms like banking profession, which are amplified by the digital landscape in which banks operate as pressure is exerted on these parameters.

According to him, because little attention has been paid to emotional intelligence in the banking industry as cognitive processes are adopted for performance assessment, recruitments, and selections, this has encouraged wrong performance, wrong interpretations of human actions and erroneous reflection of organizations’ values in the characteristics of top management as stated in underlying theories of emotional intelligence’.

Dr. Olowu held that ‘it is generally perceived that numerous scandals in the banking industry create the impression that corporate culture in banks tolerates unethical behaviour, apart from the fact that banking is a business premised on the capitalist ideal of profit at all cost. This, he said has damaged customers trust.

He explained that ‘the four domains of emotional intelligence that predicts success are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. These domains are strengthened by emotional competencies which comprised individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and it is divided into personal and social competencies’.

Olowu recommends that ethical leadership behaviour should be encouraged in banks to facilitate success through leadership commitment to ethical values, prudence, and exercise of fair judgement.

According to him, “The Banking industry should shun the pressure of the moment which leads to unethical behaviour, as training for emotional intelligence across the broad spectrum should be executed to arrest discomfort and provide reassurances in time of turbulence and threatening change.”