Emotional Intelligence: Getting Results!
Psychologist David McClelland found that leaders
with strengths in emotional intelligence (EI) competencies are more effective
than those who lack them. Unlikely cognitive intelligence, it can be learned at
any age, over time, with practice, and with a good dose of self-awareness and
reframed behaviors. Emotional intelligence covers four domains/dimensions
(Boyatzis & McKee, 2005; Big Think, 2017; Daniel Goleman, 2000). Below
follow how they apply to me as a human and social being, along with which ones
represent my strengths and the ones I need to develop, also including their impact
on my performance.
1.
Self-awareness
I started
practicing self-awareness in 2016 when I registered to major my master’s
degree. As I have weekly self-reflection activities as part of my studies, it
pushed me to internally analyze myself, reflect upon it, link with real
experiences I have had, therefore increasing my awareness about the source of
my behaviors. During regular performance reviews in my company, one of the
competencies discussed with my manager, based on work experiences, is
self-awareness, especially with accurate self-assessment and self-confidence.
It is also a competency analyzed for promotion in my current organization, as I
have been through in February. I have been taken self-awareness tests to
understand traits of my personality, and how I perceive myself, which have been
helping me and all my relationships immensely.
I believe
self-awareness to be a dimension I strongly need development. I am often
self-aware of my emotions, but I often fail at the speed of self-assessment. It
impacts me daily, as I supervise teams of up to eight employees, and I work in
the front line with customer service. Dealing, engaging, and interacting with
people along all my working days requires me to be aware of my motivations and
the resources of my attitudes, as it directly influences the effectiveness of
my decision-making process, especially in times of intense emotion.
By increasing
self-awareness, I can possibly neutralize my emotional state to make rational
and impartial decisions, in emergency onboard situations, for instance. When
serious safety, security, or medical situations arises, suppressing emotions
becomes crucial. This is not to say that suppressing emotions is something
positive, however, there are situations, usually professional ones (especially
in aviation), that subduing them is the key to the success of the outcome.
2.
Self-management
This is my
weakest EI dimension. As mentioned before, I lack speed on self-assessment, and
this leads me to fail when controlling my emotions before acting. In emergency
situations, when I am at the leading role (especially on incidents with little
time to think), for some reason I can shut my emotions, as it does not exist.
However, if I do not have control over the situation, then emotion kicks in. I
feel like it is a survival mode I am in because based on my background (both
regional and family) I am very affectionate, and I am usually driven by
emotion. It changed a lot after working for complex organizations and taking
leadership roles on all of them, but it is a journey I am in. My goal is to be
able to recognize emotions fast enough to control its influence on my reactions
in any type of situation.
Self-management
itself has a high impact on an adults’ life. I believe this dimension sharpness
is what mainly differentiates a person with emotional maturity or not. I recall
a time I have been operating a flight, at 37.000 ft altitude, and the
pressurization system failed, to eventually losing all artificial pressure from
the cabin. To avoid a catastrophe, the pilots needed to perform a rapid descent
to 8000 within what felt a minute. From the beginning of the incident to
touching down, it took 90 minutes. Throughout this time, several things
happened which turned into an emotional roller coaster for me. As initially, I
did not know what was happening, simply being asked to sit down immediately, I
felt uncertainty.
When I realized
the plane was diving like a bird, I was afraid, as I still did not know what
was happening, so I froze. After reaching 8000ft the pilots briefed the crew
members about the incident. Gaining knowledge and seeing my team breaking down
in fear, I ignored all my emotions. Instruction from the cockpit went on and
on, changing constantly until the decision was made to burn fuel and return to
origin. This was my highest point because I am good at shutting emotions in
stressful environments.
I delegated
tasks, coordinated with other leaders onboard, attended medical cases,
reassured panicking passengers, confirmed the cabin was secured, and after
landing, completed all tasks on the ground as per SOPs as more time was
available and I wanted to minimize the workload for the teams taking over that
plane. I dealt with more medical cases upon landing, wrote several reports,
stayed in the office assisting my online manager on general reports, all
without giving any attention to my “emotional roller coaster”.
Although it does
not look like to me after reading this post, my self-management is my weakest
point, as its strength is just present in very specific situations. Overall, I
try to suppress my emotions or to consider them maturely, but usually, I fail.
This is a good example of my inconsistency. During the rapid descent, when it
crossed my mind we could be crashing nose down in the ocean, my heart rate was
high and I was dizzy (to this day I am not sure if due to hypoxia or intense
fear), and after reaching home I could not see the company’s name, pick up the
phone to attend the office’s call, neither I could brush off the idea that I
could die in a blink of an eye.
3.
Social awareness (involving empathy)
Upon reading the
capabilities that social awareness covers, I believed it to be my second
strongest dimension in EI, although I do not master it (Boyatzis & McKee,
2005). Regarding organizational and service awareness, I mainly on top of my
game. I read the current decisions, try to understand, or consider the politics
at the organizational level, and I often juggle well with organizational,
followers, and clients' needs.
When it comes to empathy I can sense (feel) when someone is
disinterested, aloof, and unsympathetic, but I often fail on breaking the
emotional barrier and get to know more, as if I am invading their emotional
privacy. With this freezing reaction, I fail to understand perspectives and
unfortunately, I show a lack of active interest, although I feel exactly the
opposite. The times I decide to break this barrier I am genuinely interested in
people’s concern and to understand where their behaviors come from.
At work, because of my “problem-solving” mind, sometimes I
interrelate empathy with sympathy, which is another point I fall short. I
remember a specific time when I had a four sectors journey, and my team was
excellent, apart from one new employee which was completely lost and slow, to a
level I have never witnessed before in new staff. I have noticed the team
mocking her on her back, and some of the members annoyed with the impact in the
workload to those more experienced. I needed to gather my team, when the new
staff was not present, and guide them on empathy, asking them to think in all
possible reasons that could explain why she was behaving that way. I also
committed my self to have a thorough conversation with her, and work by her
side, along with the team, so the workload would be shared more evenly and I
could guide her in more details and hold her accountable. Having empathy for
both sides of the “game” was a challenge for me, but it is a great example that
reflects my strength when I decide to truly embrace it and show it.
4.
Relationship management (involving social skills)
This is, in my
perspective, my strongest dimension in EI. In my daily meetings with my team, I
link the plans for the day with the organization values, trying to inspire my
team in personal customer service, by placing their names on their seat as I
change teams every working day. I leave a sweet treat for them to remind how
small touches make impacts on customers' emotions, therefore their long-term
memory about their experience. Every briefing I start by talking about
leadership, and how, in the deep sense of the word, is a choice my team members
can make in every situation, and not simply a hierarchical rank in the company.
I also develop new team members, by walking with them around the plane, showing
details is not seen in training and common shortfalls in the crew community.
Relationship
management is something that impacts me every single and determines the success
of my work. For the past six years as a leader in this company, I have never
been called in the office to explain something happened in my flight which I
was not aware of. Apart from documenting everything happening onboard, through
words and actions, I communicate to my followers they have a safe platform to
share with me issues and any ad hoc situation. With a communication flow not
being interrupted, it is just a matter of consistency, transparency, and team
building.
My organization
is constantly changing service and safety procedures. Every time a major change
is implemented I carry a folder with me with printed and laminated copies for
quick access for the team, and when I need to implement a change, I gather all
members together, ask for opinions a suggestion (if possible), define and
present the change and support my team as much as possible on its
implementation. I foster collaboration by putting people with more experience
close by new joiners in the company, I take over my team member if necessary,
and I constantly switch role with my employees so they experience my tasks,
while I remind myself how it is being in their position.
Conflict
management is my weakest capability, not on the management itself, but in the
initiative. As I am a conflict avoider, I let it go so many conflicts to allow
the emotions to cool down. This applies to the conflict of my followers towards
me and among themselves. Although it is working positively on results so far, I
do not believe the meaning to end have been always being fair. I can recall a
few situations I let it go too long, then team spirit was broken, or one of the
members finished the duty drained by the emotional toll it took.
An important
trait in EI is compassion. Although it logically applies to the social domains,
compassion, when present in every dimension, enhances its results. While being
critical but compassionate with oneself, his or her awareness, and management
strengths. Compassion used to understand the people around and to relate to
them is key to boost relationships (Goleman, 2007; Halifax, 2010).
References
Boyatzis, R.,
& McKee, A. (2005). Resonant
leadership. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press
Big
Think. (2017). Daniel Goleman introduces emotional intelligence. Retrieved from Daniel Goleman
Introduces Emotional Intelligence | Big Think
Goleman,
D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, 78-90.
Goleman, D.
(2007). Why aren’t we more
compassionate? Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goleman_why_aren_t_we_more_compassionate
Halifax, J.
(2010). Compassion and the
true meaning of empathy. Retrieved
from https://www.ted.com/talks/joan_halifax_compassion_and_the_true_meaning_of_empathy
No comments:
Post a Comment