Identify the impact of own emotions on others in the workplace

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Topic 1 – Identify the impact of own emotions on others in the workplace

Welcome to: develop and use emotional intelligence 6

Topic 1 – identify the impact of own emotions on others in the workplace 6

Identify own emotional strengths and weaknesses 6

Identify personal stressors and own emotional states related to work 8

Develop awareness of own emotional triggers and use this awareness 10

Model workplace behaviours that demonstrate management of emotions 12

USE SELF-REFLECTION AND FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS TO IMPROVE DEVELOPMENT 15

Topic 2 – RECOGNISE AND APPRECIATE THE EMOTIONAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF OTHERS 17

RESPOND TO THE EMOTIONAL STATES OF CO-WORKERS AND ASSESS EMOTIONAL CUES 18

Identifying the varying cultural expressions of emotions 19

Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in dealing with others 21

Take into account the emotions of others when making decisions 23

Topic 3 – Promote the development of emotional intelligence in others 27

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR OTHERS TO EXPRESS THEIR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS 27

ASSIST OTHERS TO UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT OF THEIR BEHAVIOUR AND EMOTIONS 29

ENCOURAGE THE SELF-MANAGEMENT OF EMOTIONS IN OTHERS, building their EQ 31

Topic 4 – Utilise emotional intelligence to maximise team outcomes 35

Encourage a positive emotional climate in the workplace 35

     Use the strengths of workgroup members to achieve workplace outcomes 38

Welcome to: develop and use emotional intelligence

This unit covers the development and use of emotional intelligence to increase self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management in the context of the workplace.

It includes identifying the impact of own emotions on others in the workplace, recognising and appreciating the emotional strengths and weaknesses of others, promoting the development of emotional intelligence in others and utilising emotional intelligence to maximise team outcomes.

It applies to managers who identify, analyse, synthesise and act on information from a range of sources and who deal with unpredictable problems. These managers and team leaders use initiative and judgement to organise the work of self and others and plan, evaluate and co-ordinate the work of teams.

Topic 1 – identify the impact of own emotions on others in the workplace

Managers and team leaders need to have a high level of self awareness to operate effectively in the dynamic environment of modern organisations. Specifically, the manager and team leader needs to be able to:

• Identify own emotional strengths and weaknesses
• Identify personal stressors and own emotional states related to the workplace
• Develop awareness of own emotional triggers and use this awareness to enable control emotional responses
• Model workplace behaviours that demonstrate management of emotions
• Use self-reflection and feedback from others to improve development of own emotional intelligence

Identify own emotional strengths and weaknesses

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. Emotional intelligence impacts many different aspects of our daily life, such as the way we behave and the way we interact with others.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

Managers and team leaders that have a high level of emotional intelligence are able to recognise their own emotional state. In addition to their own emotional state, these managers also recognise the emotional state of others. Leaders with high EQ have the capacity to engage with others in a way that draws others to them. Managers can use this understanding of their emotional state to relate better to others, form healthier relationships and achieve greater outcomes in the workplace.

A building block for developing emotional intelligence is self-awareness. Self awareness is where we recognise our own emotions and how they affect our thoughts and behaviour. To support our self awareness, managers and team leaders need to know their own strengths and weaknesses. Building this type of self awareness is important for developing self confidence, particularly as the manager moves though job roles with greater levels of responsibility and organisational exposure.

So how do we develop our self awareness and become more aware of our own strengths and weaknesses? Daniel Goleman (American psychologist) developed a framework defining emotional intelligence. The first element of this framework was built on self awareness. Managers and team leaders with high EQ are generally self aware. Managers that understand their own emotions, don’t let their feelings rule them. These managers are confident, they trust their intuition and don’t let their emotions get out of control.

To develop self awareness, the manager needs to be willing to take an honest look at their own emotions. Taking an honest ‘inner’ look enables the manager to know their strengths and weaknesses. These managers use their honest self appraisal to identify the areas to perform better. Developing this level of self awareness is crucial for the manager to develop their EQ.

Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_59.htm

In addition to taking an honest look within, managers further develop awareness of their emotional strengths and weaknesses by being open to feedback. A few important points to note about the value of feedback:

• Feedback needs to come from those we respect. Feedback can be sought from peers, our Line Manager, our team and our customers (or clients). The value of this feedback though will be determined by the respect we hold for the ‘giver’ of this feedback.
• We need to be ready to receive feedback. Often, valuable feedback occurs where the manager is ready to receive another’s view about their emotional strengths and weaknesses.
• When effective feedback occurs, from those we respect, combined with our readiness, we are to raise our self awareness. Effective managers use this type of feedback to ‘test’ their own evaluations of their emotional strengths and weaknesses. Does the feedback validate their thoughts about their own strengths and weaknesses? Alternately, the manager tests if their self perceptions are different to others.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 1.1 – Identify four (4) emotional strengths and four (4) emotional weaknesses. How quickly were you able to identify these emotional strengths and weaknesses?

Identify personal stressors and own emotional states related to work

The effective manager and leader is able to identify personal stressors. What are our personal stressors?  Personal stressors are events or conditions that occur in a person’s life that may adversely impact on the individual’s or their family’s health or wellbeing.

Source: www.abs.gov.au

We are more likely to feel stressed by personal situations that are (or that we perceive to be):

• Unexpected
• Unpredictable
• Out of our control

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

With the pace and demand of life, managers can tend to experience the same types of stressors in their organisation on an ongoing basis. At times, though we may forget this. It can be helpful to anticipate the types of situations that create stress for us, to understand what it is that feels most stressful for us, and to think about times we have dealt effectively with those (or similar) stressors in the past. This can help to keep our stress levels manageable.

It is important to remember that although personal stressors may arise separately from work or the workplace, their effects can have serious implications for your job effectiveness. Let’s take a look at the more common personal stressors experienced by many of us:

• Conflict with loved ones
• Childcare / eldercare responsibilities
• Social support network
• Physical health conditions
• Psychological health conditions
• Financial concerns
• Uncertainty/disappointment
• Conflicting demands
• Lack of appreciation or recognition

Source: https://workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com/mmhm//exercises/4_IdentifyingCommonPersonalStressorsJun152011JFMAB.pdf

!ACTIVITY 1.2:  Identify four (4) of your most common personal stressors? You can refer to the above list or you may have different personal stressors in your life.

Develop awareness of own emotional triggers and use this awareness

Performance in any situation, whether at work, in relationships, or in sporting endeavours, is driven by our behavior. To be able to improve our performance we need to be able to understand what is driving our behavior. In an organizational setting, often management discussions start and end with the individual’s behavior. We can share insights during the performance management interview or discussion to encourage employees to continue with a certain behavior that is working effectively. Alternately, we can share insights encouraging the employee to show less of a behaviour that is impeding their effectiveness. Without understanding what is driving that behavior, it is extremely difficult to achieve lasting change and to sustain improved work performance over a period of time.

Key drivers to our behaviour are the way we think. You may think that a particular meeting is boring and a waste of time. Even if you control how you think, this may still not change your behaviour during the meeting. To be able to make the meeting purposeful, you will need to change your behaviour to enable your participation and contribution. This change in behaviour needs a change to your thinking about the meeting. The trick here is our thinking is determined by what we are feeling. Driving our thinking and feeling is our raw emotion. We have to be able to change our emotion, to change our feeling, to change our thinking to ultimately change our behaviour.

Source: http://fullychargedliving.com/whats-under-your-crazy-busy-life/

Beyond our emotions, we need to understand our physiology. Our emotions are a composite of all our physiological “energy in motion”. Our emotions occur every second of every day. We are in constant movement, we are continually digesting, we are breathing and our heart is continuously beating. Our feelings are our awareness of our continuous energy. We may not be feeling those emotions, but they are there nonetheless. Effective managers and leaders are aware of these emotions and take control of them.

Taking control of our emotional state can begin with becoming aware of just one physiological system, our heart. This ability to take control is possible through the feedback system we all have within us. Conscious control of our heart can begin with our breathing. This conscious control is about breathing rhythmically and evenly through the centre of our chest.

Let’s look at some of the common emotional responses to events or situations. When our brain perceives that something important has been taken away from us or there is a plan to take something important away from you, then our emotions are triggered. We may react with anger or fear, then we attempt to rationalise our behaviour, to make sense of our behaviour. The key is to catch our reaction when our emotions are triggered. We need to become aware of our emotions and process our response, to discover if the threat is real or not.

The following list includes some of the most common emotional triggers:

acceptance                   respect                   be liked

be understood             be needed             be valued

be in control                 be right                   be treated fairly

attention                        comfort                   freedom

peacefulness               balance                 consistency

Source: http://outsmartyourbrain.com/find-your-emotional-triggers-on-this-list/

We all have emotional triggers. We know the feeling when someone makes a joke or a flippant comment that might not mean much to others. This joke or flippant comment, though may completely hijack our emotions for the rest of the day. It may play on our mind, occupy our thoughts and destabilise us to distraction.

It can be challenging to identify what exactly our triggers are, but this process of getting to know and understand them can help us. Through developing an awareness of our triggers, we are able to learn how to cope better in response. But why do we all have triggers? We have triggers because we were all children once. And not to play psychologist but for the purpose of our learning, we need to understand our triggers come from our history of experiences. When we were growing up, we inevitably experienced pain or suffering. As children, we were not able to acknowledge and/or deal with our response sufficiently at the time. As adults, we typically become triggered by these historical experiences. As adults, we generally rely on our habits, the way we have dealt with these events in the past. As adults, sadly, these habits may even involve addictive ways of trying to manage our painful feelings.

Let’s take some time and explore our triggers.  We can start to think about the triggers we are aware of, the events and or experiences we are aware of that trigger a particular emotional response. We can also start to think about perhaps situations or events that we need to respond to more effectively. Perhaps there are triggers occurring in these situations or events that we need to start to manage more effectively.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 1.3:  Identify your personal triggers? What are examples of triggers that you are in control of? What are examples of triggers that currently control you?

Model workplace behaviours that demonstrate management of emotions

Events and situations occur and we react. Our brain instantly processes reasons for our reactions that seem to justify our behaviours. This can even include reasons that make no sense. For example, we may become very angry because we are unable to find a document that we need for a particular meeting or briefing session. We can blame our organisation for giving us insufficient space, we can blame the cleaners for moving things around in our workspace, or even our Line Manager for giving us the required task or deadline. We may ignore the reasons about being tired and impatient due to our own fatigue.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

The effective manager and leader resist the temptation to rationalise their reaction, resisting the temptation to justify their response. The effective manager and leader is capable of recognising this temptation, recognising their own response and understanding the emotions that drive their reactions. There are a series of steps that support the manager in demonstrating management of their emotions:

1. Accept responsibility for our reactions. Accept ourselves as powerful instead of being a victim. When we seek to identify what is triggering how we feel in the moment, we give ourselves the opportunity to change our reaction. This can be empowering.

2. Recognise that we are having an emotional reaction as soon as it begins to appear in our body.  According to neuroscientist and author Antonio Damasio, our rate of breathing, blood flow, tension in our muscles and constriction in our gut represents a pattern we can identify as a feeling. Once we are able to our pace of breathing, the tightness of certain muscles in our body, or the pressure we feel in our gut or heart, we are able start considering ‘why’?

3. Determine what triggers the emotion. Stop and consider the question internally:What do you think you lost or what did you not get that you expected or desired to have? Often the strengths that have helped in our life are also our greatest emotional triggers. The quicker we are able to identify our triggers, the more effective we are in managing our emotions.

4. Choose what we want to feel and what we want to do. Our reactions to our emotional triggers may not disappear, though the reactions can subside, with practice, of course.

5. Actively shift our emotional state. We can practice this step at any time, even when we first notice a reaction to help think through our triggers and responses. When we determine what we want to do next, we can shift into the emotion that will help to get the best results.

Relax  Breathe and release the tension in your body

Detach Clear your mind of all thoughts

Centre Drop your awareness to the centre of your body

Focus Choose one keyword that represents how you want to feel in this moment, breathe in the word and allow yourself to feel the shift

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wander-woman/201507/5-steps-managing-your-emotional-triggers

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 1.4:  Rate your current effectiveness in each of the five steps outlined previously.

uSE SELF-REFLECTION AND FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS TO IMPROVE DEVELOPMENT

Self-reflection, as a learning tool, is used by many different individuals, from a range of life experiences, to support them in getting better at what they do. Think about it: sports teams debrief after big games; astronauts debrief after important space journeys; and military units debrief after dangerous missions. Even teachers often keep a teaching journal in which they reflect on the day’s lessons, how they were successful, and how they could be improved. Self-reflection is practiced by the best of us.

If you’re interested in trying to use self-reflection to improve your professional development, then you could create a new file on your computer or get a fresh notebook and call it your Learning Journal.

Make sure you have space for each project or the key tasks/activities you are currently working on or the different teams or key individuals you engage with on a regular basis in your work. Taking some time to set up the layout of your Learning Journal will avoid cross entries, or having journal entries duplicated. You should open your Learning Journal following each day or meeting or key milestone in a project. Then give yourself five minutes of free-writing time. During this free-writing time, don’t stop writing at all. Force yourself to write whatever comes into your head, but make sure it in some way answers one of the following questions:

What did I learn today?

What was confusing about today and why?

How did today’s experiences connect to my development?

How could today’s experiences apply to my development?

These types of entries work in two ways. Firstly, they force you to think critically about the day’s events and experiences, whilst these memories are still fresh in your mind. These questions also require you to try to form a bigger picture understanding of your development. Through self-reflection, you can improve the management of your emotions and support your professional development further.

Source: http://studysuccessful.com/selfreflection-learning-tool/

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 1.5: Develop five (5) questions for self-reflection that you could include in a Learning Journal. Ideally, develop questions you would be likely to respond to frequently to improve your development?

On completion of Topic 1, you can now commence the assessment task for Topic 1, as outlined in the Assessment Guide.

Topic 2 – Recognise and appreciate the emotional strengths and weaknesses of others

This is not the natural starting point in the workplace. Consider the following:

• When was the last time you walked into a team meeting with the deliberate intention of spotting others’ strengths?
• When was the last time you started a performance review discussion with the deliberate intention of emphasising the employee’s strengths?
• When was the last time you initiated a project with the deliberate intention of spotting project team members’ strengths?

If you did not respond ‘yes’ to all of the above questions, you’re not alone. Generally, we find it relatively easy to identify the worst in others. Recognising and appreciating others’ strengths may not be a natural management response. Particularly finding ways to bring more of others’ strengths in their work may take some management focus.

Scientists have long understood we all share a deep psychological need to be respected, valued and appreciated. Whilst this is part of all of us, the negativity bias hardwired into our brain makes us more effective at identifying what we don’t like about people, rather than their strengths.

There is growing evidence that when leaders and managers focus on recognising and appreciating other’s strengths– rather than the weaknesses – of their employees, people perform better.

Firstly, before you head into your next meeting or discussion with others at work remind yourself to look for the best in the people you will be interacting with. Following these interactions, follow up with a call, email note of thanks for their time and include a little appreciation for the strengths you saw them demonstrate.

As you experiment with this in your own relationships at work, you will discover another important aspect to recognising and appreciating other’s strengths. You may not identify their strengths accurately every time, though the fact you are demonstrating a willingness to look and offer appreciative feedback, will provide positive outcomes.  Often, this approach takes only a moment of my time and can be instrumental in improving even the most difficult relationships.

Source: http://www.michellemcquaid.com/spot-others-strengths/

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

RESPOND TO THE EMOTIONAL STATES OF CO-WORKERS AND ASSESS EMOTIONAL CUES

Responding to the emotional states of others requires the leader and manager to understand affective motivation. Affective motivation deals with the way in which individuals experience, process, and behave based on emotions.

A foundation of affective motivation theories is that individuals experience emotional reactions to certain situations.  Emotional reactions are, in reality, physiological states (e.g., changes in blood pressure, heart rate) that we feel as a reaction to certain situations.  Over time, we develop labels for these “feelings” which are based on the context in which we experience them.

There are a number of ways in which emotions, or our affective states, are involved in our motivation of behaviour. Remember that motivation is the force that energises, directs, and sustains behavior.  How are emotions involved in these three forces? Individuals exist in, and move among, one of three Affective States:

• Positive Affective State.The individual is experiencing positive feelings, such as relaxation, excitement, pleasure, or joy.

• Neutral Affective State.The individual is experiencing little or no noticeable feelings at the present time.

• Negative Affective State.The individual is experiencing negative feelings and emotions such as emotional pain, anxiety, guilt, frustration, boredom, or anger.
  Individuals develop emotional memories, associated with people, organisations, events, and objects which are part of their experiences.

Source: http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/scholl/webnotes/Motivation_Affective.htm

We have a rich vocabulary of emotional cues showing how we feel about ourselves and others. In the realm of emotion, words are often less trustworthy than nonverbal signs. This is because the latter cues are usually unintentional, involuntary, and unconscious. Examples of common emotional cues include: pouting, smiling, adam’s apple jump, tense mouth, laughing, frowning, facial flushing, throat-clearing, eye-brow raising, eye blinking.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 2.1:  Identify examples of more commonly demonstrated emotional cues of your team members and/or work colleagues? What are some of the ways you respond or could respond to these emotional cues?

Identifying the varying cultural expressions of emotions

There are cultural similarities across varying cultures. Research identifies that there are six basic emotions across different cultures, as follows:

• Happiness
• Sadness
• Anger
• Fear
• Surprise
• Disgust

The physiological indicators of emotion are similar in people from different cultures. Facial expressions are innate. Research has discovered that people who can see and people who have been blind since birth have similar facial expressions of emotions. This observation suggests that facial expressions are innate, since blind people could not have learned these expressions by observing others.

Whislt there are similar emotional responses across cultures, there are also variations. Although many emotions and expressions of emotions are universal, some differences exist among cultures. The following are a few examples of these differences:

• Categories of emotions: People in different cultures categorise emotions differently. Some languages have labels for emotions that are not labeled in other languages. For example: Tahitians do not have a word for sadness. Germans have a word, schadenfreude, indicating joy at someone else’s misfortune. There is no equivalent in English.
• Prioritization of emotions: Different cultures consider different emotions to be primary. For example: Shame is considered a key emotion in some non-Western cultures, but it is less likely to be considered a primary emotion in many Western cultures.
• Differences in nonverbal expressions: Nonverbal expressions of emotion differ across cultures, due partly to the fact that different cultures have different display rules. Display rules are norms that tell people whether, which, how, and when emotions should be displayed. For example: In the United States, male friends usually do not embrace and kiss each other as a form of greeting. Such behaviour would make most American men uncomfortable or even angry. In many European countries, however, acquaintances normally embrace and kiss each other on both cheeks, and avoiding this greeting would seem unfriendly.
• Power of cultural norms: Cultural norms determine how and when to show emotions that may not be actually felt. For example: In some cultures, it is appropriate for people who attend a funeral to show extreme grief. In others, it is appropriate to appear stoic.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/emotion/section4.rhtml

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 2.2:  What are some of the varying cultural expressions of emotions demonstrated in your workplace, with your team and/or work colleagues? How do you or could you respond to these varying cultural expressions of emotions effectively?

Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in dealing with others

Flexibility and adaptability are critical behaviours needed for effective managers and leaders to interact with others. Adaptability means being flexible when things change. An adaptable individual is open to new ideas and concepts, to working independently or as part of a team, and to carrying out multiple tasks or projects. An individual is adaptable if they are able to manage multiple assignments and tasks, set priorities, and adapt to changing conditions and/or work assignments.

Flexibility means having an agile mindset. An agile mindset allows us to evaluate and then adjust to the different roles, responsibilities and jobs that we have each day. Adopting a flexible approach to work, learning and life is more likely to enable us to achieve success than maintaining a rigid outlook or set of beliefs.  People who are flexible are open to change and are able to adapt and adjust continuously to changing circumstances. Mental agility of this kind enables us to be more effective as problem solvers and problem finders – flexibility and creativity often go hand in hand.
Flexibility is extremely important for negotiating and communicating. The ability to acknowledge another’s point of view, and perhaps modify one’s own accordingly, is essential for effective teamwork. As the term suggests, the ability to adopt a flexible approach is not static, it fluctuates according to mood and the circumstances that we find ourselves in. Our flexibility can be enhanced with:

• Changing the context
• Trying something new
• Questioning our thoughts and words
• Planning to be spontaneous
• Deliberately trying to think in different ways

In cases where the manager or leader’s flexibility is limited, it may cause difficulties with:

• Solving problems creatively and adapting to novel situations or dynamic/changing situations
• Dealing with uncertain, unanticipated or unpredictable work situations
• Learning new tasks, technologies, and procedures
• Interpersonal adaptability: for example adapting interpersonal behaviour to work effectively with a new team
• Cultural adaptability which requires the ability to perform effectively in different cultures and environments
• Demonstrating physically oriented adaptability which involves adapting to various physical factors such heat, noise, uncomfortable climates, and difficult environments
  Although most people depend on flexibility for adaptability skills, this does not mean that people who have difficulty being flexible cannot possess the skill; rather, they may need reasonable adjustments to practice to enable them to develop or evidence the skill

Source: http://usemyability.com/resources/skills_abilities/flexibility-and-adaptability.html

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 2.3:  Review your own flexibility and adaptability by completing the following:

Take into account the emotions of others when making decisions

Understanding other’s feelings is central to emotional intelligence. In cases where managers and leaders get this wrong, they can be perceived by others as uncaring and insensitive. On the other hand, in cases where managers and leaders are able to take into account other’s emotions as part of the decision making process, teams functional effectively. In fact, in teams where managers are able to effectively consider others and collaborate with others to reach decisions, overall team effectiveness is improved.

Managers and leaders that are able to take into account the emotions of others in their decision making process require social awareness. In day to day situations, social awareness is demonstrated in many different ‘walks of life’:

• the waiter who suggests a better dish
• the salesperson who goes the extra mile
• the supportive team leader
• the executive that remembers your name

Returning to Daniel Goleman’s framework for developing emotional intelligence (EQ) the competencies associated with being socially aware are:

• Empathy: understanding the other person’s emotions, needs and concerns
• Organisational awareness: the ability to understand the politics within an organisation and how these affect the people working in them
• Service: the ability to understand and meet the needs of clients and customers

Essentially awareness of social situations is about carefully considering what people want, and planning to communicate with them in a way that is intended to meet that need.

Source: http://www.change-management-coach.com/social-awareness.html

In recent decades managers and leaders have begun to look at emotional decision making with a new perspective. Historically, there were two schools of thought for emotions and decision making:

• rationaldecision making
• emotional decision making

Of course, work is now more complex. Managers and leaders can no longer use one or the other of these two approaches in the decision making process. To take a more holistic view of the manager’s decision making process, we need to recognise the positives aspects as well as the negative impacts of emotions in the context of making decisions.

In the past, managers who employed a rational decision making approach focused on how to reduce or eliminate emotional bias. Recent research supported with advancements in technology, have provided the ability to study how our brains work during this process. This research has made it possible to further understand how emotions influence our judgment and choice selection.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

We live in the era of information overload. Interestingly, we are learning that in this era we are more likely to increase the amount of emotional decision making. Recent research on the human brain suggests that, as our minds have more to process, the likelihood to decide emotionally increases. The positive aspect for emotions in our decision making process is that they function to reduce and bound our reasoning. By creating these boundaries, we have the opportunity to reason more fully. If we can identify which decisions can be addressed emotionally, we generate the opportunity to make more complex decisions rationally.

Further to this research, there are additional positives in having an emotional perspective to support our decision making process:

• better decision efficiency
• better employee engagement in the workplace
• enhanced creativity

Recent research has revealed there are advantages to emotional decision making:

• A totally emotional decision is very fast in comparison to a rational decision, essentially  reactive (and largely subconscious), useful when faced with immediate danger
• Emotions may provide a way for coding and compacting experience, enabling fast response selection, reinforcing why expert’s “gut” level decisions have high accuracy rates
• Emotions are possible signals from the subconscious that provide information about what we really choose
• Decisions that start with logic may need emotions to enable the final selection, particularly when confronted with near equal options
• Emotions often drive us in directions conflicting with self-interest

As with all aspects of effective management, we need to consider the other side of the equation, the negative aspects of emotional decision making. Managers can make quick decisions without knowing why, often creating rational reasons to justify poor emotional decisions. The intensity of our emotions can override rational decision making in cases where it is clearly needed. Immediate and unrelated emotions can create mistakes by distorting and creating bias. If our mind is distracted with an overload of information, too many priorities and no time to debate, the likelihood that the emotional brain will overrule the rational one increases.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

Valuable decisions deserve analysis. In our competitive and dynamic workplace, risk is more complex, the demands on decision making solutions have increased. There is a need for interdependence of emotional and rational processes in our decision making process. The effective manager and leader needs decision making solutions that increase the positive benefits of both rational and emotional thought processes. The purpose of this interdependence is to minimise error and learn from mistakes. Flexibility and adaptability in the decision making process is a pre-requisite for the manager in using the emotional perspective to support their decision making.

Source: http://www.decision-making-solutions.com/emotional_decision_making.html

!ACTIVITY 2.4:  Review your current balance of emotional and rational perspectives in making decisions. Is this balance working for you and your teams? Or could your decision-making process benefit from a re-balance between your emotional and rational perspectives?

On completion of Topic 2, you can now commence the assessment task for Topic 2, as outlined in the Assessment Guide.

Topic 3 – Promote the development of emotional intelligence in others

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR OTHERS TO EXPRESS THEIR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

As a manager and a leader, one of the best ways you can express yourself is by letting others express themselves. Teams, employees, work colleagues, peers, want to be listened to when they have something to say. You will be measured by your effectiveness when they leave a conversation thinking how good a communicator you are. Often this is achieved just by letting them say what’s on their mind. Here are a few tips for enabling others to express themselves:

• Letting team members finish what they’re saying, avoid interrupting them.
• Giving team members time to express themselves. Certain individuals need more time to say what they need to. Avoid rushing with strict time limits on discussions.
• Encouraging team members with phrases like, “What’s on your mind?” or if rushed, “Walk with me to my next appointment and tell me what you’re thinking about? I’d like to know.”
• Investing a couple of extra minutes for a particular conversation may be the most valuable couple of minutes of your whole day.
• Re-allocating time in situations where you are unable to make sufficient time, to an alternative time.
• Avoid knowing what the team member is about to say and saying it for them, allowing the team member to say what they want and how they want to express it.
• Approaching conversations in an open-minded and non-judgmental way to keep the communication flow.
• Avoid making assumptions as these block out their point of view or perspective. Provide team members the chance to offer additional insight and information that may be unknown or understood at the time and could make a real positive change.
• Asking questions, remember the wonderful “what, where, why, when, how” to support your team members articulate what they want to say. This also helps both of you think through the discussion and better understand each other.
• Keep paying attention, focus on the conversation at-hand.
• Continue listening, with your eyes, ears and non-verbal cues.
• Avoid dominating the conversation.

Source: http://www.expressyourselftosuccess.com/let-others-express-themselves/

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 3.1:  Review your ability in providing other’s opportunities to express themselves.

ASSIST OTHERS TO UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT OF THEIR BEHAVIOUR AND EMOTIONS

The manager and leader needs to have a framework to provide other’s feedback about the effect of their behaviour and emotions in the workplace. Firstly, the manager needs to be able to provide a context for this feedback. In particular, to be able to share with the individual the effect of their behaviour and emotions on:

• The individual
• The team
• The organisation

The manager and leader is able to use a three tiered structure to provide this feedback in a constructive way, enabling the team member to build their understanding of the effect their behaviour and emotions have on others. The three tiers of this structure are:

1. Situation
2. Behaviour
3. Impact

When you structure feedback in this way, your team will understand precisely what you are commenting on, and why. When you outline the impact of their behaviour on others, you are providing them the opportunity to reflect on their actions, and consider what they could change.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

The three tiered approach also supports you to avoid making assumptions that could upset the other person and damage your relationship with them. Take a look at how this three tiered approach could be applied:

1. Situation

When you provide feedback to a team member about the impact of their behaviour and emotions on others, you will need a starting point. Firstly, define the ‘where’ and ‘when’ of the situation you are referring to. This puts the feedback into context, and gives the team member a specific setting as a reference.

For example:

“During yesterday afternoon’s project review team meeting, when the other team members were trying to explain to you about the events that …”

2. Behaviour

To effectively assist others in understanding the impact of their behaviour and emotions on others, you will then need to describe the specific behaviours that you wish to highlight. This can prove to be a challenging part of the process, as there is a need for to communicate only the behaviours that you observed directly.

3. Impact

The final part of this three tiered approach is to use “I” statements to describe how the team member’s behaviour or emotions affected others.

For example:

“During yesterday morning’s team meeting, when you gave your presentation, you were uncertain about two of the slides and your calculations. This type of uncertainty affects the project team as the project has progressed based on these calculations. I am concerned about the effect of your uncertainty with these calculations on the other members of the project team.”

“During Tuesday’s team wrap-up meeting, you provided positive feedback to the team member responsible for the equipment resourcing for the team. This team member is not at all confident in their abilities. The way you provided this specific feedback was very supportive for building their confidence in their own abilities.”

Once you’ve delivered your feedback, encourage the team member to reflect on the situation, to understand the impact of their behaviour and emotions on others. Also, where someone has provided a positive impact on others, help the team member consider how they can build on this.

It should be noted that there are situations when employees’ emotions escalate to unmanageable levels, adversely affect other employees, and need a different approach. There will be times where formal counselling, conflict resolution or mediation, and disciplinary action (in the case of excessive anger or harmful/abusive behaviour) will be required.

Employees’ emotions and pain challenge us to behave in a more compassionate way. We need to be ore mindful of how our day-to-day words and actions affect others. Consider the way we perceive the emotions of others, not always as problems, potentially as opportunities.

Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/situation-behavior-impact-feedback.htm

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 3.2:  Reflect on a situation where you could use this three tiered approach to provide a team member feedback about the effect of their behaviour and emotions on others. Remember this situation could be about a positive or negative effect. Review this situation by completing the table below:

EnCOURAGE THE SELF-MANAGEMENT OF EMOTIONS IN OTHERS, building their EQ

Managers and leaders at times may think that emotional issues are unworthy of their time and attention. The risk associated with not dealing with these emotions in others can be far greater. Teams lose precious and effective work time, not to mention individual productivity in situations where team members may not be effective in self-managing their emotions.

The time that you invest in supporting your team to self-manage their emotions can be worthwhile:

• Building the team member’s ability to self-manage their emotions better equips them to cope with the issue(s) they are dealing with
• Supporting team members to dissipate or absorb the emotions they experience can help reduce the number of emotional issues in the workplace, keeping them positive and productive

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

The following are a series of behaviours to support you in encouraging the self-management of emotions in others:

1. Provide feedback to others about their emotional cues and signals: provide team members about the signals they are telling you with their cues and signals. Explain to the team member how their emotional cues and signals are ‘read’ and interpreted by others.
2. Encourage team members to empathise with those who are hurt: encourage team members to view moments of emotion as opportunities to listen, empathise with, and show compassion to a hurting employee. Remind others that sometimes a few minutes is all it takes.
3. Support team members to understand their triggers: There’s always something underlying the emotional response. Coach team members in using open questions to help them understand what issue or situation is causing others to respond in a particular way.
4. Support team members to ‘transform the problem’: Once the team member can understand the problem, support them to transform it into an opportunity for positive change. During these moments, assist them in searching for solutions, in how they can resolve conflicts, and provide them specialist support if needed (employee assistance programs, coaching, and conflict skills/communication training).
5. Give team members space: Sometimes providing space for employees to deal with what’s going on is effective in helping employees move beyond the situation in a constructive way. This space could be a break in the work day, a day off, or loosening workload for a short period.
6. Ensure the team member’s dignity remains intact: Emotions in the workplace can be awkward and sometimes difficult to deal with. In situations such as crying, the team member should have their dignity kept intact. Never make an employee feel bad about crying and discipline or punish them for it. Most employees are very embarrassed when they become emotional and managers should allow them to keep their self-respect.
7. Support team members to reframe their messages: Poorly chosen words and tones are often the source of negative emotions. Support team members to think through their message and tone (of emails, in-person communication, and phone conversations) before communicating and consider possible emotional responses that may emerge from their communication. Support team members in reframing messages in a positive way.
8. Coach others to anticipate and handle responses to change: The degree of change occurring in our organisations and in the general workplace continues to cause a wide range of emotional responses in team members. A sound way to manage change is to encourage others to talk about the change with the affected team members. Encourage others tocommunicate honestly and directly about the change. Support team members to give each other the opportunity to vent and discuss their concerns with proposed transition plans.
9. Encourage others to stay connected and be caring: Ensure team members keep emotionally connectedto each other.  Continue to ask questions to gauge how they are feeling in meetings and become attuned and sensitive to what makes the emotional responses they demonstrate. Encourage employees to act compassionately and in a caring way with one another throughout the workplace.
10. Train your team leaders in positive management behaviours: This type of training includes critical areas of communication skills, conflict management, and other leadership skills gives them the tools to help them better manage emotional issues in the workplace. Continue to encourage your team leaders to be in tune with other team members’ emotional responses.
11. Remember the power of role modelling. Your team will continue to look to you for your leadership on emotional responses, as they build their emotional intelligence. Challenge yourself to further build your emotional intelligence, whilst supporting them in developing their skills to lead others more effectively to reduce the probability of negative emotions impacting the workplace.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 3.3:  Evaluate the frequency of your behaviours that support others in self managing their emotions, building their EQ

On completion of Topic 3, you can now commence the assessment task for Topic 3, as outlined in the Assessment Guide.

Topic 4 – Utilise emotional intelligence to maximise team outcomes

Encourage a positive emotional climate in the workplace

Positive emotions at work are beginning to gain traction. Whilst emotional intelligence can be seen as a ‘touchy feely’, non-tangible aspect of management, there is a great deal of research around the positive outcomes associated with a positive emotional climate.

Building positive emotional climates in the workplace isn’t just a good idea, it is extremely good business. By building a positive emotional climate, there are specific features that relate to the team member’s emotional response to their work:

• Team members feel engaged
• Team members feel their work has meaning and purpose

Shawn Anchor, author of The Happiness Advantage, makes the case that the greatest advantage in today’s economy is a happy and engaged workforce. In his recent blog he highlights research over the past decade that proves happiness raises nearly every business and educational outcome: increasing sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%.

Tangible outcomes of positive emotional work climates include:

• Happier people are more productive
• Studies show that wellbeing has a stronger impact on work performance than job satisfaction
• When team members are in a good mood they tend to solve problems faster, more collaboratively and creatively
• Emotionally positive leaders receive higher ratings from customers and are more likely to have happier and healthier employees
• Organisations with high employee wellbeing report greater customer loyalty, productivity and profitability
• Positive outcomes are linked to employee engagement, team member’s day-to-day involvement and enthusiasm for work

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

In addition to the previously listed outcomes of an emotionally positive workplace, there are significant health benefits for the individuals involved:

• Studies have found that happiness or positive mental states like hopefulness, optimism and contentment appear to reduce risk or limit severity of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension and upper-respiratory infections
• Emotionally positive workplaces experience reduced levels of sick leave, absenteeism and employee turnover, supporting organisational productivity efforts
• Positive, satisfied team members are less likely to demonstrate “job withdrawal” through turnover, burnout and retaliation against the organisation
• Team members in emotionally positive workplaces are more likely to go beyond their job requirements, support other team members, make constructive contributions and commit to developing themselves within the organisation

Research suggests that positive emotions and mood are the prime drivers that engender organisational success. Positive emotions lead people to think, feel and act in ways that broaden their thinking patterns, build their personal and social resources and encourage them to work toward positive goals. When things are going well and they feel positive, team members can relax and expand their resources and relationships, take the opportunity to try out new strategies and skills, set new goals and prepare for challenges ahead.

It is important to understand that just as positive emotions boost our happiness and improve our thinking, negative emotions have important benefits as well. They are critical to our survival and, because they narrow our focus, can help us evaluate actions and risks. Steps to encouraging a positive emotional climate at work include:

1. Firstly, focus on increasing the duration and intensity of the ups and decreasing the duration and intensity of the downs. This will maximise the impact of positive emotions and make a significant difference to your organisation and the people who work in it.
2. Secondly, teach people practical strategies they can put into place in their everyday work life to increase their level of positive emotions and those of others.
3. Finally, create an environment that supports people to feel emotionally positive and perform at their best. That includes integrating positive practices into business strategy, people development initiatives, processes and systems at all levels of the organisation. Even small positive actions can make a difference when designed to leverage the way people work best.

Source: http://langleygroup.com.au/happiness-at-work-the-return-on-investment/

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 4.1:  To begin the process of encouraging a positive emotional climate, review your workplace using the following questions:

Use the strengths of workgroup members to achieve workplace outcomes

Team members who use their strengths in the workplace are far more likely to be engaged on the job. Recent research has established a compelling connection between strengths and employee engagement in the workplace. This connection is showing it has the power to accelerate performance when organisations work on enhancing both simultaneously.

The best way for team members to grow and develop is to identify how they most naturally think, feel, and behave. It is about teams being able to identify their talents. Once these talents are identified, managers and leaders need to build on those talents to create strengths.

Recent research continues to reinforce building employees’ strengths is a far more effective approach to improving performance than trying to improve weaknesses. When employees know and use their strengths, they are more engaged, perform better, and are less likely to leave their organisation.

Recent research is emphasising the importance of team members in being able to respond positively to the following questions:

1. Every week, I set goals and expectations based on my strengths.

2. I can name the strengths of five people I work with.

3. In the last three months, my supervisor and I have had a meaningful discussion about my strengths.

4. My organisation is committed to building the strengths of each associate.

When employees feel that their organisation cares and encourages them to make the most of their strengths, they are more likely to respond with:

• increased discretionary effort
• a stronger work ethic
• more enthusiasm and
• increased commitment

The best way for employers to maximise employees’ strengths is through their managers. This places an enormous expectation on the manager and leader. This expectation requires managers and leaders to be skilled and capable in being able to support team members in building on their strengths.

Source: www.flickr.com/creativecommons

!ACTIVITY 4.2:  Referring to the reading from the previous page, identify areas where you are skilled and capable in supporting team members to develop their strengths in the workplace? Provide ideas in how you could further develop this approach with your team?

On completion of Topic 4, you can now commence the assessment task for Topic 4, as outlined in the Assessment Guide.