Emotional Intelligence in workplace

Discuss about the Develop and Use Emotional Intelligence Assignment.

Workplace stresses have become a serious problem since the globalization and competition have increased. It is not easy to be in good terms with each member within the organization. The scenario is even more difficult when someone holds the authoritative position. He is bound to understand the needs of his employees, to develop a cordial relation with them and yet exercise his authoritarian control for the unhindered workflow. In case of cultural diversity of the employees within the organization the chances of disturbance is a more critical problem. The practice of emotional intelligence helps them get out of the situation. Through this report, an analysis based on the CA City Department Store of Australia will be discussed. Hanz Konig, who is the Head of Operations in the store have faced certain problems in his workplace. This report will deal with the issues that Hanz has faced and try to incorporate the practice of emotional intelligence as a useful practice to solve the problems.

Principles of emotional intelligence:

Emotional Intelligence is an individual’s ability to understand his own emotions along with the emotions of other people. It is also known as Emotional Quotient. Daniel Goleman introduced the term and outlined the principles of Emotional Intelligence. These are as following:

• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation
• Motivation
• Empathy
• Social skills

Some of them cannot be included within the business structure. However, Goleman has linked the impact of emotional intelligence for a better business result. Emotional strength helps to overcome the pressures in today’s workplace. A professional may react differently in his personal life than in his professional life. Through practicing emotional intelligence, the leaders can remove stress and hope a better result.

Hanz Konig found that not every employee is co-operating each other because of the cultural diversity present in them. As a leader, Hanz moved some of them to other sections. This is not the solution. Hanz needs to identify his own emotional strengths, weaknesses, emotional states, and stressor to find out the solutions. This is how he can use his emotional intelligence.

Most people fail to recognize their emotional strengths and weaknesses. There are four components that are categorized both as personal and social competence. These are- self-awareness, social-awareness, self-management, and Relationship management. If I can understand accurately about my strengths and weaknesses, he is self-aware. Self-awareness, thus, falls into the category of Personal Competence. However, I lack social awareness because I have failed to understand the other people’s emotions. I have also failed in Relationship Management, as I could not manage the internal relationships among the stakeholders.

Hanz’s reactions to similar situations

Leaders need to handle more workplace stressors than any other employees do. As Hanz, I have dealt with lack of support from the team members belonging to diverse cultural background. This has triggered such a situation that even if I allocate them in different sections they are not happy. I have tried communicating with them but failed. Now, I should remove my emotional weaknesses. I should try to be more subjective to find out the solutions. I should communicate with them individually through practicing my positive strength, i.e. open-mindedness.

We all have emotional triggers. We need to find out them by exercising self-awareness and then turn them into positive results. It is a mechanism to control our responses before reacting in a negative way. At first, I will stop before reacting badly or saying anyone anything that demeans his position as an employee. My strength is that I am open-minded, so I will deal with their problems liberally. It will help them to accept me and send a message that I understand their situation.

A leader is bound to project himself as the role model to his employees. However, the emotional states of leaders can be of frustration or anxiety, nervousness, anger or aggression, dislike or dissatisfaction, and disappointment. In my case, I will find the positive opportunity after the evaluation of the situation is done. I will try not to worry and look nervous. I will also not discuss the workplace issues with other people who are worried about the similar situation. I will communicate with whom I am having the issues, know and understand the situations from them, make a list of probable solutions for the improvement and even if I am angry at some point of time, I will stop before reacting. One of the most important aspects is that I should always be civil and assertive. I will respect every individual’s emotions and treat him or her favorably. Another point is that I will never look dissatisfied or disappointed although I may face that often.

Self-reflection and feedback is a useful technique to assess oneself. I will communicate with them about my reactions to them. I will ask them some questions:

• Do I look angry, frustrated or worried?
• What are the reasons behind my anger or depression or worry?
• Howe I respond to them emotionally?
• How my emotional responses affect the situation?
• How do I look while responding?
• How did others get affected?
• How differently could I have responded?
• How I feel now?
• Why do I feel in such a way?
• What should I do for making a right response?
• How others could help me to make a right response?

I will ask similar questions to the receptionist and to my colleagues for different opinions.

In the workplace, I should try to handle various emotional responses of the workers. I know that the workers are dissatisfied with the ongoing situation. They feel alienation with each other, have lost their patience, feel frustrated due to any lack of proper solution, and sometimes they hate each other and even hate me. At first, I will assess all these through analyzing the emotional cues. This includes facial expressions, body movement and tone of voice. However, the emotional cues sharing common attributes can be confusing. Wrong assessment of emotional cues can lead to a more troubled situation. Therefore, I will assess the generic emotional cues to find out the emotional states of my workers.

Hanz’s strengths, weaknesses, stressors and Emotional states

Cultural diversity in CA City Department store have created multiple and diverse emotional cues. As an operation head, I should understand that cultural diversity differentiates various emotional responses. The workers from Far East will react intensely on issues related to shame and honor than those from the United States. I should try to familiarize myself with this variety of emotional cues. Again, emotions uttered through languages have different connotations to different people. Therefore, I will not acknowledge what they talk and focus more on how they behave with their gestures.

As a manager, I will acknowledge the human aspects in my workers. In my workplace, there exists dissatisfaction among the employees. They complain about one another, complain about organizational politics. They are unhappy because of lower rate of promotions and they are unhappy because the authority does not share the positive customer’s feedback to them. Therefore, I should try to solve these problems by making them aware of their good work. I will treat them as individual entity and talk to them in their favorable language empathetically. This will send a message to them I understand their problems and they will open up their mind comfortably to me. I will give solutions individually keeping their needs in mind. If necessary, I will take help from my higher authorities too.

While taking a decision, I must consider the different emotional states of my workforce. It will help me to guess the probable effects of that decision. Therefore, I will consider the emotional, financial, social, and personal aspects of them individually. Again, how my decisions would affect my relations with them, the short-term and the long-term effects will be considered. My decision can affect their productivity and their mood in the workplace; therefore, I will try to answer these queries before taking any decision.

It is important to create opportunity for others so that they can share their thoughts and feelings with me. It is process to develop emotional intelligence in them. Therefore, I will try to train them so that they can become self-aware and exercise their emotional strengths. I will hold group-training sessions for the worker and if necessary, I will hold a paid training session too, so that they become interested in the program. Development in emotional intelligence will make them to control their rage. They will start evaluating the situation and respecting the co-worker’s emotions. I will focus on conducting one-to-one meeting for removal of the conflicts and influence them to set their individual development goals. Moreover, through this process I will try to make them optimistic about the present and the future.

Honest and transparent understanding of emotional intelligence

It is my responsibility to make all workers empathetic about the others’ situation. They should realize that any negative behavior from their part could ruin the workplace environment. Once they become aware of their own behavior, I will tell them to ask questions such as- I know your situation, this is tough to continue your work happily. It will tell them to use this defense mechanism whenever somebody shows anger or worry to them. I will also tell them to not get influenced by any negative emotional cues because it increases the negativity. My advice would be to smile and handle situation with care.

Being a leader, I will not force them to react in a particular way but let them find the answers of the questions regarding their own problems. My focus would be on the following criteria:

• Goal- where you want to go
• Current reality-where are you now
• Options (or obstacles) – money or time
• Will (or way forward)- commitment towards the journey

I will communicate with them and try to find out what they desire. I will listen to their answers carefully.

I should encourage the workers in such a way so that they develop the ability to control their emotional intelligence. I will take the take the position of a mentor now. Not only I should look confident but also I should make my workers confident. If they are confident about handling any adverse situation, there will remain no internal conflict. I should be encouraging, supportive, and be able to relate to the mentee. Instead of talking about punishments, I would try to recover the damage. Apart from asking questions about their problems, it is my responsibility to listen to them carefully.

For a Positive Emotional climate, I will encourage teamwork among the culturally diverse employees. I will encourage them to take responsibilities and ensure clarity in their performances. The employees need to remove their conflicts and for that, they should respect each other. I will tell them to respect and appreciate other’s good work. However, improvement is very important. To achieve high standards, I will advice them to maintain high standards of performance. I will tell them to build networks within the workers and develop a positive environment.

Use of worker’s strengths for an improved workplace environment:    

At last, my responsible for implementing the strategy I have discussed so far. I will use the strength of my workgroup for a better result. If the workers are motivated and encouraged to exercise their emotional intelligence within the workplace, they will chalk out the time and effort they need to become successful. They will set up the time schedules according to their priorities. Development of measurement method is important part of evaluating their performance.

Conclusion

Throughout the report, I have discussed the importance of emotional intelligence in a workplace. As a leader, it is his responsibility to solve any problems. However, before giving any solution, he should understand the situation first and before make the workers exercising their emotional intelligence; the leaders should practice it themselves. This mechanism allows to them to control their emotions rationally. They should become the role model for his workers and mentor them to develop emotional intelligence skills. This report has outlined the process.