Presentation

Professional Development Program Proposal Tiasia Davis

Strayer University

BUS 520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Dr. Tonja Gardner

08/06/2019

Professional Development Program Proposal

Emotional intelligence (EI) entails the ability of an individual to regulate personal emotions and those of people within their vicinity. Persons who manifest a high level of emotional intelligence comprehend how they feel, the connotation of their feelings, and how they may affect those around them. Effective and successful leaders can regulate their temper despite the prevailing adversities, have confidence in the employees, interacts freely with the staff, and listen to their opinions and make well-informed choices on behalf of the organization. EI comprises of five elements that work in unison to ensure a leader is active. Self-Awareness entails being conscious of one’s strengths and weaknesses and handling the situation and the employees with humility. Self-Regulation involves controlling one’s feelings and being flexible and fully devoted to personal accountability. For motivation, leaders align their activities towards achieving the set organizational objectives via the performance of high-quality work. Empathy ensures that leaders run successful and operational teams by enhancing the members to increase their productivity, offer reliable feedback, pay attention to others, and confront those who act unjustly. Also, social skills are vital in boosting the communication skills of leaders and increasing their ability to resolve conflicts when they happen among the team members. Thus, elements of EI are critical in promoting the leader's professionalism and ensuring the effectiveness of their teams and projects.

EI and Motivation

Motivation is the building block of emotional intelligence that has the capability of enhancing employee performance and job satisfaction. Job performance of workforce comprises of the extent to which the person undertakes the responsibilities assigned to them to aid the organization meet its set organizational strategic objectives. However, the job performance of employees is greatly influenced by factors such as interactions and interpersonal relations, absenteeism from work, drug abuse, and conducts that have the potential of creating harm at the workplace. 

Emotional intelligence and motivation towards the job have a direct connection. People who have high EI can manage their emotions, which is critical in enabling them to maintain a great interpersonal relationship which ensures a healthy working environment and coexistence of the team members. Thus, they cooperate and work harmoniously to achieve the set organizational mission, vision, and goals. Also, leaders with high EI have to know how to regulate the team and lower any tension as well as resolve any conflicts that could derail the fulfillment of the set objectives. Also, leaders with high EI listen to the team members and give them a chance to give their opinions about specific issues of the company (Mathew & Gupta, 2015). Also, EI increases the confidence and control of the employees, which enhance their ability to get involved in proactive actions that increase their productivity. Besides, providing workers with flexible working schedules is crucial in boosting their motivation.

From Maslow's Hierarchy of needs motivational perspective, an employer needs to evaluate and comprehend the existing requirements of each worker to know what will motivate them. As Maslow postulates, human beings always seek to fulfill the needs at the next phase once they satisfy specific requirements. Application of this principle at work implies that employees will put effort into achieving the next task assigned to them once they are done with another. However, these tasks should be in line with the personal and organizational needs of an individual (Preston et al., 2015). For instance, an employee who intends to advance their career should be given high-level duties to push them to work towards self-actualization.

 

EI And Social Skills and Decision Making

Social skills are vital in facilitating communication of the leaders to the team members. Leadership actively involves the conveyance of message and feedback. Managers have to let the employees know the tasks assigned to them and outline the procedural mechanisms they should use to achieve the set goals. Also, the leader will communicate the vision and mission of the project to the team members, which gives them a framework on which their activities have a basis. More so, managers with high emotional intelligence possess well developed social techniques that boost their capability to implement changes within the organization. Also, social skills enable them to manage conflicts that would arise within an organization to enhance its effectiveness (Hopkins & Yonker, 2015). Besides, learning how to praise the employees by appreciating their efforts is vital in increasing loyalty of the employees and lowering the rate of turnover as their job satisfaction increases.

Moreover, emotional intelligence would ensure that the management team makes quality decisions as it incorporates the views of many individuals. Every affiliate of the team has an opportunity of presenting their viewpoints on a particular issue which are discussed democratically to arrive at a final solution. Thus, emotional intelligence has a positive correlation to decision making and role efficacy of managers.

Effective Teams

Teams are vital in executing projects in an organization as they enhance performance and make sure that the organization has records high performance and increased profitability. According to Rao (2016), the effectiveness of a team depends on the nature of the leadership style adopted. Besides, a competent team should have specific core characteristics that promote the execution of the tasks assigned to each of the team members. A capable team ensures that the members focus on the set organizational goals and outcomes, which is essential in giving them direction. Thus, the duties assigned to the entire group or at an individual capacity aim at meeting these objectives. These goals are set based on the results as well as the quantity of work to be done.

As Magnano et al., (2015) argues, cooperation is another significant attribute of teams which ensures that each person has an identified duty. Therefore, they should understand what is expected of them and commit to fulfilling their responsibilities for the success of the organization. Also, the team should portray the smooth and proactive type of communication with their colleagues as well as with the team leaders. an excellent leadership ensures that team members regard the leader highly and accord him with trust and confidence. Also, the leader should have the ability to inspire and motivate the team members to perform better. The team should also be well organized to ensure that all the organizational operations take place as scheduled. Some of the strategies used to promote effective teamwork are promoting collaboration by shifting the individual goals to those of the organization, interactive and practical communication that encourages interpersonal relations and ensuring that members are committed to the course.

Reward Systems

Employee motivation through competitive remuneration is crucial in increasing their motivation and influencing their conduct towards the fulfillment of the set organizational targets. Performance in an organization falls under any of the three categories that are underperformers, average performers, and those whose performance exceeds the requirement (Lin & Lo, 2015). Thus, all three groups of workers should be granted their remuneration and relevant rewards that would motivate them to perform better or maintain their excellent performance. Employees who record high and competent performance should receive their competitive salaries and wages. To increase their motivation, the manager could provide them with salary increments or even bonuses that increase their morale for the job. The top-performing employees could also get job promotions, which are vital for their career advancement and growth. Besides, some companies sponsor such employees for further studies in an effort of growing their talents and increasing their competence.

According to Lin & Lo (2015), underperforming and average performing employees may undergo intensive training and knowledge development that would ensure that they have the right skills for their jobs. Knowledge development is critical in making sure that workers understand the tasks assigned to them and comprehend why they have to undertake their responsibilities. Training and knowledge development takes place through coaching the personnel and guiding them through the relevant skills acquisition techniques. Also, the team leader must assess the root cause of their low performance by engaging them in reasonable conversations. Managers could put in place communication channels that promote confidentiality to allow such employees to open up on the factors that impede their performance. Listening to them and offering the right response would aid in increasing their sense of belonging and changing their attitudes towards jobs, which is crucial in boosting their motivation at work. 

 

 

 

 

 

Executive Summary

Emotional intelligence is crucial in enhancing the effectiveness of a leader. It is essential in regulating the feelings and perceptions of a person as they understand how they feel about a given situation or individual and how their emotions could affect those around them. Emotional intelligence comprises of five elements that must work together to enhance effectiveness. There exists a direct connection between EI and motivation of personnel in performing their tasks. Leaders with high levels of EI have the potential of the increasing motivation of workers and raising productivity through increased job performance. The motivational perspective of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs could be used to emphasize this connection. Also, the approach implies that workers will always perform a task assigned to them to go to the next one as they seek actualization. Social skills with high levels of EI facilitate communication in a team and result in making quality decisions. Communication is crucial in a firm as it allows conveyance of information regarding the vision, mission, and objectives of the company to give the employees a direction.

Effective teams are vital in ensuring the fruitfulness of an organization as they promote performance and increase profitability. Successful teams have attributes such as cooperation, specific goals, smooth communication, organization, and an effective leader. The reward systems adopted by an organization should have the capability of boosting the working morale of workers. Companies must reward their workers competitively and on a timely basis, promote the best performing, offer bonuses, and further professional training to the talented. Also, taking the low and average performers via training and development program is crucial in empowering the personnel to raise their productivity.  

 

References

Hopkins, M. M., & Yonker, R. D. (2015). Managing conflict with emotional intelligence: Abilities that make a difference. Journal of Management Development, 34(2), 226-244.

Lin, S. W., & Lo, L. Y. S. (2015). Mechanisms to motivate knowledge sharing: integrating the reward systems and social network perspectives. Journal of Knowledge Management, 19(2), 212-235.

Magnano, P., Craparo, G., & Paolillo, A. (2016). Resilience and Emotional Intelligence: which role in achievement motivation. International Journal of Psychological Research, 9(1), 9-20.

Mathew, M., & Gupta, K. S. (2015). Transformational leadership: Emotional intelligence. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 12(2), 75.

Preston, G., Moon, J., Simon, R., Allen, S., & Kossi, E. (2015). The relevance of emotional intelligence in project leadership. Journal of Information Technology and Economic Development, 6(1), 16.

Rao, M. S. (2016). Collaborate to build effective teams to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness. Industrial and Commercial Training, 48(1), 24-28.