This is a guest post by Jamey M. Long & Joseph A. Pisani, author of The Value of Voice in Shared Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Emotions impact stakeholders throughout an organization. How we can understand and manage emotions becomes an important skill for success in our current workplace landscape. There has been a greater focus on how individuals ‘feel’ at work versus their unrelenting drive for outcomes. The traditional ‘IBM’ model created a system where the stakeholders were lockstep in their experiences at work. They dressed the same, they adhered to the same behaviour codes, they focused on the same public interactions as part of being an employee of that organization. Fast forward 75 years, and there has been a quantum shift in the drivers for employees. No longer do they want to dress according to a code, no longer do they gravitate to a work culture dominated by process and outcomes. Now, they are fuelled by the premise that they can have a more supportive, individualized workplace that respects their individualism and their desire for a professional and personal balance.
To maximize the efforts of employees, leaders have been challenged to learn and apply emotional intelligence practices in the workplace. How do employee emotions influence and affect the work they perform and the decisions they make. Understanding that every person is impacted by emotions, all decisions leaders make are influenced by emotions, and if this is true, how can leaders account for this in their decision matrix? How can leaders support employees and validate their emotions to better allow them to be successful? Interestingly, the most successful leaders have a high degree of understanding of their own emotional intelligence as well as being ‘Intune’ to the emotional intelligence of others. When working with people, having technical or subject expertise is critical. Leaders who do not possess a high degree of expertise in their field struggle to create credibility among stakeholders. However, it has become increasingly more important for successful leaders to engage in furthering their understanding of emotional intelligence.
When making decisions about employees, it has become clear that an employee with a high emotional intelligence has a greater likelihood of being successful. Employees with high emotional intelligence tend to remain calm and focused during stressful interactions. They can problem solve better and recognize that there is, in many cases, more than one solution. Employees with high emotional intelligence also have a greater skill at recognizing how their peers are feeling and can demonstrate genuine empathy towards others. Employees, especially leaders, with high emotional intelligence are self-aware, can self-manage, have a greater sense of social awareness, and can develop and sustain relationships. These skills are, in many ways, more important than skill expertise.
Self-awareness is the emotional intelligence foundation. It is your ability to understand not only your strengths and weaknesses but also how these impact interactions and decision making. Leaders with high emotional intelligence can also recognize how their emotions affect their actions as well as their team’s performance. This is not as easy as it sounds. Most people believe they are self-aware; however, only about 15% of the population is truly self-aware and that number decreases to about 10% for leaders. Most effective leaders use feedback, especially reflective feedback. Most do not use reflective feedback from all stakeholders involved in a task or decision. Using feedback from bosses, peers and direct reports, leaders can create a global view of their actions, the impact of their actions and the decision matrix used to create these actions. This global perspective allows leaders to better assess their abilities, understanding and strategies used to make decisions.
Self-management is your ability to control your reactions and interactions. The more a leader remains calm and focused in stressful situations, thinks through the ‘noise’ and begins to simplify the complex, the better others would be willing to follow. Leaders who project an air of control and calm create a sense of comfort for those who are engaged in the same activities. Leaders who struggle with self-management tend to react on impulse rather than taking the time to think through the problem. There is always more than one solution to a problem, and the leader who has a strong sense of self-management allows themselves the time and opportunity to reason through different choices and eventually select the most appropriate course of action.
Being self-aware is also equally important to be socially aware. The ability of leaders to be able to read the emotional states of those around them, to read the climate of the team, is critical in making great decisions. Leaders who are socially aware consider the feelings of others, have empathy for the struggle’s others are going through and are supportive as their team works through the hurdles of creating a dynamic action plan that addresses their team goals. By better understanding the emotional drivers of others, leaders are able to better communicate the shared mission for the team and create value for each member and their role. This more enlightened version of communication and understanding allows for deeper and more meaningful collaboration, where team members are not afraid to risk and share.
How leaders use social awareness is through effective relationship management. Relationship management is the ability to mentor, coach and resolve issues with others through an effective and supportive process. Relationship management is not a system to avoid disagreement or conflict, it is doing the work prior to the conflict that allows team members to openly share their opinions and thoughts. Having a constructive disagreement eventually leads to the creation of a shared action plan, through trust and value. Relationship management is the most complex of emotional intelligence because it requires the leader to have flexibility in how relationships are developed and how those in the relationships are valued. Relationship management establishes the tone and tenor of the team dynamic and is a direct result of how loyalty and trust were developed between the leader and the team.
How leaders capitalize on emotional intelligence, their own and that of others, forms the structural foundation that supports the work of the team. If done well, the team functions with symmetry and efficiency. If done poorly, the team becomes dysfunctional, and their efforts are wasted on plans that are doomed to failure and create internal frustration among the team members. They feel that they are not valued, and their efforts are being wasted. The failure of the leader to engage in emotional intelligence and the use of these skills will be to the detriment of the organization and the team.