2 ASSIGNMENTS FOR BUSINESS

Respond to at least two of your colleagues in one of more of the following ways:

· Offer an alternative example that will further inform your colleague’s perspective about emotional intelligence

· Offer additional approaches you would suggest to improve emotional intelligence

· Offer an example of when a manager did a good or poor job in demonstrating emotional intelligence

· Offer other lessons you learned from reading through the posts your colleague made.

Note what you have learned and/or any insights that you have gained as a result of the comments your colleagues made.

1st Colleague to respond to:

In the GlobaLeadership Foundation EI self-assessment, I scored 9 on self-management and social awareness, 8 in relationship management, and 5 is self-awareness. When I answered the questions for the Global EI self-assessment, I found it difficult to choose between the two options that I “always” do. I noticed that upon reflection, my “always” can change based on the context. I was surprised by my low self-awareness score. Based on the Mindtools self-assessment, I could increase my self-awareness by asking “people for feedback on what I do well, and how I can improve” (MindTools, n.d.). For example, I can ask my manager at work for feedback during our one-on-one meetings. I can also look for mentors in my community and field of creative interests (Sabatier, 2015).

During college, I worked at a summer camp in upstate New York. The camp director led a 20-minute gathering at the flagpole each evening before dinner. In that short time, she would give announcements and award fuzzies (little puffballs with googly eyes and sticker feet with a ribbon that said, “I’m a part of the dream at Morry’s Camp) to staff and campers. Anyone could write a note and put it in the fuzzy bag, describing what a person or group did to deserve a fuzzy. The director would read the notes at the flagpole, and the recipients would come forward to receive their award. This was a deeply encouraging way to establish and reiterate the vision for how we were helping each other grow. At the same time, giving fuzzies to one another invited the whole group to engage in almost all of the 12 competencies of emotional intelligence (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2017). The stories of what happened during the day usually demonstrated new success in self-awareness and self-management. Sharing those stories increased empathy and organizational awareness while providing space for the director (and others) to influence, coach, and mentor, while providing inspirational leadership.

The outcome of awarding fuzzies was that campers and staff looked for opportunities to support one another and looked for the best in each other. Most people felt very happy in such a community. Another outcome was that we could observe interpersonal dynamics among groups and the mindset and emotional state of campers and staff (Sabatier, 2015). Then, it was possible for the leadership team to proactively address any issues that emerged (Sabatier, 2015). I think that the daily ritual of awarding fuzzies had a strong beneficial effect on all camp community members. However, it was not a place to bring up a conflict that was still in process, only conflicts resolved. The positivity could be a little over the top. It was important to make sure that people’s notes were authentic and not attention-seeking, so it was better when the director read the notes before reading them out loud to everyone. I think that emotional intelligence is the most important contributing factor to good management. The emotional intelligence of managers sets the tone for the working environment and invites staff to continually bring their best, emotionally intelligent selves to work.

References

Global Leadership Foundation, (n.d.) Emotional intelligence test. Globalleadershipfoundation.com. Retrieved July 11, 2017, from https://globalleadershipfoundation.com/geit/eitest.html

Goleman, D., & Boyatzis, R. E. (2017). Emotional intelligence has 12 elements. Which do you need to work on? Harvard Business Review.

MindTools. (n.d.). How emotionally intelligent are you? Boosting your people skills. Mindtools.com. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/ei-quiz.htm

Sabatier, M. (2015, August 20). Emotional intelligence: Why managers should show a softer side The Guardian. Retrieved from  https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2015/aug/20/emotional-intelligence-why-managers-should-show-a-softer-side

2nd Colleague to respond to:

For this week’s discussion I took The Global El Test. From highest score to lowest, I scored social-awareness, self-awareness and tied in self-management and relationship-management. These results were not surprising to me at all. Social awareness is something that I know I excel in. I’m really good at reading the room and the emotions of others. I’m observant. “Social Awareness is comprised of three competencies; empathy, which is understanding others and taking an active interest in their concerns; organizational awareness, which is the ability to read the currents of organizational life, build decision networks and navigate politics; and service orientation, which is recognizing and meeting customer’s needs.” (globalleadershipfoundation.com, n.d). I tend to be very adaptable to whatever environment I am placed in. This kind of goes hand and hand with self-awareness so I am not surprised that this was my second highest el quadrant.

 “Self-awareness is comprised of three competencies; emotional self-awareness, where you are able to read and understand your emotions as well as recognize their impact on work performance and relationships” (globalleadershipfoundation.com, n.d). Lastly, self-management and relationship management are both el quadrants that I can agree that I need to improve on. I could improve on my self-awareness by controlling my emotions better and not wearing my emotions on my face. “Self-awareness is comprised of three competencies; emotional self-awareness, where you are able to read and understand your emotions as well as recognize their impact on work performance and relationships”  (globalleadershipfoundation.com, n.d). Relationship management is not necessarily a weakness of mine, but it is definitely something I could continue working towards improving. “The Social cluster of Relationship Management is comprised of seven competencies; visionary leadership, which is inspiring and guiding groups and individuals” (globalleadershipfoundation.com, n.d).

Taking the self-assessment has helped me to gain more awareness and a better understanding of areas I could improve more in. For example, when it comes to self-management in certain situations it’s hard for me to keep my emotions under control if I feel like someone is doubting me at work or making me feel as if I don’t know what I’m talking about. There have been times where I show my emotions of being frustrated without even realizing it or doing it on purpose. This is something that I have improved on in my professional career, but I need to continue to work on.

Emotional intelligence in the practice of management is very essential to professional growth. I’ve always said that no matter how educated you are or how much you may be good at your job, without emotional intelligence people will not want to work with you or for you. I’ve had a supervisor who was very knowledgeable regarding her job because she had been doing it for so long. People would ask her questions as a last resort however simply because she lacked social awareness. One time a newer employee asked her a question and was really struggling with learning our computer system. Instead of showing some empathy and taking time to answer her question she was rude and wasn’t much of a big help. The new employee complained to our manager about her lack of support she was receiving, and the supervisor was then apologetic. It shouldn’t have taken for the situation to be escalated for her to show some sort of social awareness.

References

The Global EI Test Results. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://globalleadershipfoundation.com/cgi-bin/eiscore.pl