Respond to two (2) colleagues

Prior to preparing your response to two (2) of colleagues, pay particular attention to the following Resources:

How Emotionally Intelligent Are You? (verywellmind.com)

Emotional Intelligence Quiz | Greater Good (berkeley.edu)

The ability model of emotional intelligence – “See attachment”

Respond to at least two (2) of your colleagues' in one or more of the following ways:

· Share an insight about what you learned about emotional intelligence from having read your colleagues’ postings and discuss how and why your colleague’s posting resonated with you professionally and personally.

· Seek additional clarity or ask your colleague a question, with accompanying context that will help your colleague to think more critically or broadly about the importance of emotional intelligence.

· Offer an example, from your experience or observation, which validates or differs from what your colleague discussed related to emotional intelligence.

· Offer specific suggestions that will help your colleague build upon his or her emotional intelligence to further his or her leadership skills within an organization or improve the organization’s culture.

· Offer further assessment of how emotional intelligence could impact a leader’s effectiveness within an organizational culture.

· Share how something your colleague discussed changed the way you consider your own emotional intelligence and/or its impact on your leadership abilities.

· 3 – 4 paragraph response per each colleagues

· No plagiarism

· APA citing

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1st Colleague – Natasha

Discussion 1 - Week 5

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Natsha

Emotional Intelligence

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Emotional intelligence refers to the self-perceived ability, capacity, or skill to identify, manage, and assess one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others or groups (Serrat, 2017). Another definition of emotional intelligence is the individual differences in processing, regulation, utilization, and perception of emotional information (Nelis et al., 2009). The need for efficient emotional intelligence has grown tremendously over the years, particularly in work-related settings. This is widely associated with organizations’ realization that conventional intelligence alone is not enough in ensuring the productivity and success of people within organizations.

Since scholars have determined that conventional intelligence alone cannot take one very far, people are constantly on the drive to build or improve their emotional intelligence. One of the proven credible methods to achieve this improvement is training. Contemporary organizations are known to offer emotional competence or emotional intelligence training programs to improve the emotional intelligence skills and abilities of employees (Serrat, 2017).

The greatest advantage of the training approach to building emotional intelligence is that it offers those who were born without the skills the opportunity to expand their abilities and become equally as good as those who are born with high EQ. As a result, even those born without the skills become more productive and successful within organizations. On the other hand, the training method requires one to be self-motivated, as well as willing to put the learned skills into practice for better outcomes. In simple terms, the method can only be implemented when an individual takes the initiative and makes a commitment to learning EQ skills and putting the new skills into practice.

The second method one can use to improve his/her emotional intelligence is constant practice. Continued incorporation of one’s EQ skills is necessary because it helps in outlining areas of strength and weaknesses, thereby providing room for the integration of improvement strategies. Further, practice helps one become better at controlling his/her emotions, which is critical in preventing neural hijacks (Christensen, 2014). The inability to control one’s emotions tends to reveal the worst and hinders productivity and success in the workplace (Serrat, 2017).

The advantage of continuous practice method of building EQ is that it improves one’s EQ while also improving their problem-solving abilities. Emotional intelligence is directly tied to problem-solving, which means that an improvement in one lead to a subsequent improvement of the other (Mayer et al., 2016). Another advantage that stems from improved EQ as a result of practice is increased productivity and performance in the work place. The only disadvantage of this method of building EQ is that it requires a platform for the implementation of the skills. Therefore, without such a space, it is almost impossible to implement one’s EQ abilities.

Emotional intelligence does not come naturally to me as it does to others. However, I have been able to learn and sharpen my EQ skills over the years, making me emotionally competent today. Before becoming emotionally competent, there is a time I was faced with a situation where I was tasked with resolving a conflict between two parties. Since I still had poor EQ skills, I ended up making a decision that turned out to be unfair to one party, which further complicated the issue. I always believe that I would have addressed the situation differently had I learned the EQ skills that I now possess much earlier. In other words, employing the training method of building EQ sooner would have led to better outcomes of the situation I was addressing at the time.

As already mentioned, conventional intelligence alone is too narrow to cause one’s long-term productivity and success in the workplace (Serrat, 2017). Emotional intelligence is also crucial to one’s effectiveness, especially if the individual is in a leadership position, which comes with a lot of situations that require problem-solving. Leaders need three types of focus to improve their effectiveness. These include the focus on self-awareness, focus on awareness of other people, and an outer focus (Christensen, 2014). All of these areas of focus are related to emotional intelligence, leading to the conclusion that emotional intelligence immensely improves the effectiveness of a leader. 

Christensen, K. (2014, Winter). Thought leader interview: Daniel Goleman. Rotman Management

Magazine.

Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., & Salovey, P. (2016). The ability model of emotional intelligence:

Principles and updates. Emotion review, 8(4), 290-300.

Nelis, D., Quoidbach, J., Mikolajczak, M., & Hansenne, M. (2009). Increasing emotional

intelligence:(How) is it possible?. Personality and individual differences, 47(1), 36-41.

Serrat, O. (2017). Understanding and developing emotional intelligence. In Knowledge

solutions (pp. 329-339). Springer, Singapore.

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2nd Colleague – Ryan

Discussion 1 - Week 5Top of Form

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Ryan

Emotional Intelligence

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Building one’s emotional intelligence takes commitment, patience, and most of all the willingness to change. Emotional Intelligence (EI) can be described as the control of emotional response or reaction or can be the higher understanding of a global perspective. This is one of my key attributes that I identify as a strength. I often use the analogy of the airport to describe EI. i.e., a flight cancels and you approach the front counter. You an either get mad at the person who had no control over that flight canceling, or you can look at the larger picture and understand that the person is now just as stressed as you which should cause a peaceful and respectful exchange. That response will often measure someone’s emotional intelligence. Mayer (2016) illustrates intelligence as the capacity to carry out abstract reasoning: to understand meanings, to grasp similarities and differences between two concepts (Mayer et al, 2016 p. 290). In my example of the canceled flight, one concept is the impact to the traveler and the other concept is the impact to the front counter worker.

When building your emotional intelligence many methods can be used, however the individual must want to change. Read hundreds of books, see thousands of videos and receive one-on-one support will not mean anything if the desire to make a better version of yourself is not the forefront of your intent.

One method of enhancing emotional intelligence is conducting an individual SWOT analysis. Typically used in business; Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats is a look at internal and external strengths and weaknesses (Quast, 2013). Although SWOT may be a valuable tool to look at internal and external factors for  Operation Develop Me , its draw backs are typically an individual bias commissioned by self-reflection and the self-evaluation being conducted based upon how you feel for that day.

An additional method to build emotional intelligence can come by way of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) which evaluates Action, Outcome, Review, Prepare for action in a continuous evolution (GovLeaders.org., 2014). This method may be a good tool for continual improvement; however, it utilizes the premise that an objective is never complete. Although there can be a better version of you, there are some things that you can maximize your effectiveness to where learning or changing becomes less fun.

In my opinion, every manager or leaders can assess hundreds of instances where better emotional intelligence can be exercised. In my own instances, I use emotional intelligence but successfully and unsuccessfully every day with my business and my family. My emotions typically govern my actions when it comes to protecting my family and my I will do it myself default attitude when things go wrong at work sets my emotional intelligence back light years at every instance of doing it myself.

I believe that a true leader can transition between employing emotional intelligence and global perspective and the micro-nutrients that make a business tick—per architectural design. It is up to the individual to want the change, adapt the change and maintain the change—which is often difficult in certain times.

 

References:

Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., & Salovey, P. (2016). The Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence: Principles and Updates. Emotion Review, 8(4), 290–300. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1754073916639667

Personal Leadership Plan for Governmental Leadership: GovLeaders.org. (2014). Leadership development action plan template. Retrieved from  https://govleaders.org/leadership-development-action-plan.htm

Quast, L. (2013, April 15). How to conduct a personal SWOT analysis. Forbes. Retrieved from  https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2013/04/15/how-to-conduct-a-personal-s-w-o-t-analysis/?sh=412b9d3328d8

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