If a permanent or interim executive wants to succeed as a leader, they must keep their emotions balanced, it has been claimed.

Deakin University, Melbourne students Athena Vongalis-Macrow and Andrea Gallant wrote on Harvard Business Review that having "emotional intelligence" can be important for gaining support among colleagues.

They explained that being overly emotional can result in too much personal judgement, while the reverse can lead team members to feel too detached from their boss's thoughts, which is why a balanced approach is the objective.

Ms Vongalis-Macrow and Ms Gallant conducted a study to see what women look for in a leader, coming up with a series of recommendations from the results. These included focusing on leading and aiming to inspire with a big-picture vision.

"Overall, mid-career women did not show any preference for female leaders. In some instances, they identified leadership practices of women they believed were not helpful, and others that were useful but commonly identified with male leaders. Gender plays no role," they added.

Women generally - rightly or wrongly - have a reputation for being more emotional in the work place, but there are also certain topics that can cause either gender to lose their cool. Forbes contributor Lisa Quast this week spoke about the potential for fireworks when politics are discussed.

She urged people to leave political arguments for outside work, saying they can lead to misunderstandings and cause people to waste time that they should be spending on the job they are paid to do.

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