critical incident

Section 2 - Critical Incidents

Q2. Template One: Incident from Residential weekend

My chosen toolkit is: Emotional Intelligence and Cultural Intelligence

My results for this toolkit are: Monitor Evaluator and Completer Finisher ; low in mindfulness,

knowledge and behaviour

Summary of critical incident

I participated for a residential weekend as a part of my masters’ programme and during this weekend I

engaged for a team activity named “pipeline”. At the very beginning I was reluctant to talk with others since

team members were new to me and they were from different countries. Although I did not communicate

much I observed the task logically. I needed the task to be done perfectly thus, I ordered everyone what to

do. I observed everyone’s actions carefully and co-ordinated them to finish the task accurately. Finally, my

team member X mentioned that I observe everything carefully and drive everyone to complete the task

perfectly, yet he highlighted that I am lacking in communicating with others and sometimes other team

members were frustrated because I was too much pushy towards the perfection and some team members

from different countries are not willing to get orders to finish tasks.

How does your thinking and behaviour in this critical incident reflect the findings of your chosen self-

analysis toolkit?

In the initial stage, I did not communicate with team members since they were new to me and they were

from different countries, thus I felt uncomfortable and unconfident. The results of my cultural intelligence

questionnaire reflects this behaviour since I have a low cultural intelligence hence I was suggested to

communicate well with team members. Individuals who have low cultural intelligence are not competent

enough to face complex situations and make decisions according to different cultures (Earley & Ang, 2003;

Ang & Van Dyne, 2008; Jyoti & Kour, 2015). Due to my low cultural intelligence I did not know that some

team members did not like orders and according to the feedback from team member X, some team

members has been frustrated because I ordered them to complete tasks perfectly. Meanwhile, my

characteristic of guiding others to complete tasks perfectly is reflected through my Belbin profile as being a

completer/finisher since completer/finisher is a perfectionist who strives to complete the task perfectly, yet

team member might be frustrated because of his/her this nature since the perfectionist finds minor

mistakes and drives others excessively (Belbin, 1993, 2010). However, I guided my team to success by

observing everything logically as a monitor evaluator (Batenburg, Walbeek & Maur, 2013) and endeavouring

to complete the task perfectly as a completer/finisher (Belbin, 1993, 2010) and the results of Belbin

questionnaire and cultural intelligence questionnaire were verified by the feedback from my team member

X. However, it is argued that results of these toolkits might be differ according to the mental state of the

individual and the situation he/she faces (Partington & Harris, 1999; Van Dyne et al., 2012) and I also agree

to that. Conversely, I should acknowledge that these toolkits were more accurate and effective upon

evaluating myself.

Identify how you will use this learning in the future.

My understanding about myself was poor before I involved with cultural intelligence questionnaire and

Belbin questionnaire. Meanwhile, team member X gave me a valuable feedback which was useful to

understand about myself. Accordingly, with the use of results of the questionnaires and the feedback I had a

proper awareness about my strengths and limitations. According to Honey and Mumford learning styles

questionnaire, I am a reflector and a reflector observes everything and analyse carefully before coming to

conclusions (Honey & Mumford, 1982). Being a monitor evaluator according Belbin profile I prove that I am

a reflector. Moreover, being a reflector, I learn from the past experiences and use that knowledge in future

(Honey & Mumford, 1982), therefore, in order to enhance my cultural intelligence, in the future I will

carefully observe and analyse different cultural backgrounds before meeting people from different cultures.

Furthermore, as a completer/finisher I need to have a high cultural intelligence in order to complete my

tasks perfectly. However, in the future I have to assure that my team members are not frustrated because

of my characteristics as a completer/finisher. Since I am a reflector, I will use this critical incident as a past

experience to enhance myself in the future yet, it is claimed that effective learning cannot be assured only

by experiences alone, experiences should be evaluated, conclusions should be drawn based on evaluations

and finally the actions should be implemented based on conclusions (Honey & Mumford, 1982; Caple &

Martin, 1994). Therefore, I will evaluate this critical incident broadly and carefully and draw conclusions,

finally I will adjust my behaviours based on drawn conclusions.