684 Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Behaviour of Indian Executives – An Exploratory Study B.K. Punia Guru Jambheshwar University, India. Abstract The world today is under going a change more profound and far reaching than any experienced since the dawn of the modern age. Rapid environmental changes are causing fundamental transformations that have a dramatic impact on organizations and present new challenges for human resources management in general and leadership in particular. The transformations do represent a shift from traditional intelligence to new paradigm of emotional intelligence. It has been human nature to desire stability even in the ever-changing professional lives. The system of life - and organizations – is fluid, dynamic, and potentially self-renewing wherein today’s best leaders are learning to “go with the flow” to accept the inevitability of constant change and recognize change itself as a potential source of energy. Research studies have shown that the leaders with higher emotional intelligence see changes as opportunities for something better, and they cherish not stability but ongoing development of individual workers and of the organization itself. This entire phenomenon paradigm shift led the author to conduct a research on the above-mentioned title. This paper delves into the concept of emotional intelligence and leadership behaviour. The basic contention of this research is to develop a generalist view about the impact of emotional intelligence on leadership behaviour of Indian corporate executives. The paper unfolds the existing leadership frame vis-à-vis emotional intelligence level of Indian executives, drawn with help of standard scales on the subjects. The paper concludes with certain important guidelines for enhancing leadership effectiveness through emotional intelligence specifically tailored to Indian industrial environment. Introduction The world today is under going a change more profound and far reaching than any experienced since the dawn of the modern age. Rapid environmental changes are causing fundamental transformations that have a dramatic impact on organizations and present new challenges for human resources management in general and leadership in particular. The transformations do represent a shift from traditional intelligence to new paradigm of emotional intelligence. It has been human nature to desire stability even in the ever-changing professional lives. The system of life - and organizations – is fluid, dynamic, and potentially self-renewing wherein today’s best leaders are learning to “go with the flow” to accept the inevitability of constant change and recognize change itself as a potential source of energy. These profound changes cannot be cuddled and integrated without addressing the deepest thoughts and feelings of Indian managers. This requires the manager to open up the heart and deal with the emotions, welcoming them into the workplace to ensure success in this ever-changing industrial environment. Various research studies have unraveled that the leaders with higher emotional intelligence see changes as opportunities for something better, and they do not cherish stability but ongoing development of individual workers and of the organization itself become their prime agenda. This phenomenon of paradigm shift has led many researches in the area and the present one is also an attempt in the line. That powerful pair set of chain reaction i.e. the leader’s mood and behavior drive the moods and behavior of everyone else in the chain is showing its strong presence in the organizational setting. An irritable and callous boss creates a deleterious organization filled with under achievers who ignore opportunities; on the contrary an inspirational and inclusive leader spawns acolytes for whom every challenge is an opportunity and that way surmountable. The observation about the overwhelming impact of leader's emotional style, as we call it, is not a wholesale departure from any research into emotional intelligence. It does however; represent a deeper analysis of our assertion that a leader's emotional intelligence creates a certain environment or work culture. Since it is felt by thinkers of different era that ‘human resource is the most important asset of any organization, hence due care should