Emotional imbalance new problem for businesses to grapple with

Maxwell RANASINGE

Predominant old school of thought was that “education and technical skills” were the assured path to success. It is a pity here in Sri Lanka and also in many other developed and developing countries are still pursuing this old concept and put lot of pressure on kids to study more technical courses than developing emotional and other soft skills. However it has revealed well by research, the craze in letting children gain more knowledge about technical subjects at the school level to the university and beyond makes them more emotionally unbalanced. This is much evident in youth problems such as despair, drug abuse, ragging, bullying, depression, inability to take criticism, defensive and hostile when weaknesses or short comings are pointed out etc. They are the ones who have and continue to join the work force and their emotional imbalances have become a new problem to grapple with for the organizations. Therefore, many organizations in the world are seeing that emotional intelligence is a vital skill that everyone in an organization should improve.

Maxwell Ranasinge

What is Emotional Intelligence ( EI)

Emotional Intelligence ( EI) is something to do with harmonizing head and heart. In other words it emphasizes the capacity to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them effectively. In practice, your success in the world of work will largely depend on your ability to handle yourself, get alone with others, and work in teams. In the past, popularly embraced theory that matters for success was your Technical Competency or Intelligent Quotient (IQ) alone. But now, widely done research prove that IQ takes place the second position to emotional intelligence in determining outstanding job performance.

Positive impacts of emotional intelligence

Improvement in personal productivity, development of leadership qualities,ability in handling conflictscreate satisfaction in customers, holistic approach to problem solving,reduce labour turnover, happier work force and industrial peace,better working culture and demand from outsiders to join the organization, ability of work force to adjust to change, make a learning organization, creation of an environment to be innovative and more creative,more focused work groups and teams,positive attitudes towards work and life,produce star performers.

Is emotional intelligence a brand new concept?

Some critiques say, emotional intelligence really is not new. In fact, it is based on a long history of research and theory in personality and in psychology. It has been there within the management stream in different forms in different degrees. We have discussed them under soft skills, inter personal relationships, negotiation skills, leadership, team work, positive attitudes, complaint handling, time management and many more other facets of management. Furthermore, Goleman who made this subject popular by his best seller publication: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ has never claimed that it is a new to the world theory. In fact, one of his main points was that the abilities associated with emotional intelligence have been studied by psychologists for many years, and there is an impressive, and growing, body of research suggesting that these abilities are important for success in many areas of life.

Core areas of EI

According to Daniel Goleman there are two basic areas of competencies that create emotional intelligence. They are personal and social competences.

Here he describes that knowing one’s internal state, preferences, resources and intuitions matter.

* Emotional awareness: recognizing one’s emotions and their effects
* Accurate self-assessment : knowing one’s strengths and limits
* Self-confidence: a strong sense of one’s self-worth and capabilities

[Self-regulation]

Here he describes managing one’s internal states, impulses and resources

* Self-Control; keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check
* Trustworthiness : maintaining standards of honesty and integrity
* Conscientiousness: taking responsibility for personal performance
* Adaptability: flexibility in handling change

* Innovation: being comfortable with novel ideas, approaches and new information.

[Motivation]

Here he describes emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals

* Achievement drive: striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence
* Commitment : aligning with goals of the group or organization
* Initiative: readiness to act on opportunities
* Optimism: persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacle and setbacks

[Social competence]

According to Goleman, these competencies determine how we handle relationships with others.

[Empathy]

This refers to awareness of others’ feelings, needs and concerns

* Understanding others : sensing others’ feelings and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns
* Developing others : Sensing others’ development needs and bolstering their abilities
* Service orientation; Anticipating, recognizing, and meeting customers needs
* Leveraging diversity: Cultivating opportunities through different kinds of people
* Political awareness: Reading group’s emotional currents and power relationships

[Social Skills]

Ability in inducing desirable responses in others

* Influence: Wielding( apply/use) effective tactics for persuasion
* Communication: listening openly and sending convincing messages
* Conflict management : ability to negotiate and resolve conflicts
* Leadership: Inspiring and guiding individuals and groups

(Ability in influencing others to follow)

*Change catalyst (agent) :Initiating or managing change
* Building bonds: nurturing instrumental relationships
* Collaborating and cooperation; Working with others towards shared goals
* Team capabilities ; Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals

Personnel in the organisations who require EI

Byron Stock & Associates, emotional intelligence training experts have compiled that almost all the levels of staff in an organization needs training in EI. They have specially listed following categories of staff and have elaborated why they should develop EI.

All the members in the higher executive positions should develop EI Skills. Executives must make decisions daily that may make or break their companies. They must rely on more people than ever to achieve results, they personally are held accountable for by the board.

They must quickly and flexibly lead system-wide organizational change, while inspiring and energizing their followers. This constant, burdensome pressure can create feelings of anxiety, fear, caution, and even guilt and depression.

Research has shown that high EI skills are the distinguishing characteristics that separate star performing executives from average ones.

In addition, managers and supervisors, Team Leaders and Project Managers, all persons in marketing and Technical Professionals should specifically develop EI Skills.

Testing Your Own EI

If you need to develop your EI, the best thing is to evaluate and find out where you are. Then you will be able to see your status and take appropriate steps to develop emotional intelligence. Therefore please log on to a website such as http://www.ihhp.com/quiz.php and you will be able to make an assessment free of charge.

No formal training is required, just do the following to improve EI

* Take responsibility for your emotions and happiness.
* Examine your feelings rather than the actions or motives of other people.
* Learn to relax when your emotions are running high and to get and move when you are feeling down.
* Look for the humor or life lesson in a negative situation.
* Be honest with yourself. Acknowledge your negative feelings, look for their source, and come up with a way to solve the underlying problem.
* Show respect by respecting other people’s feelings.
* Avoid people who invalidate or don’t respect your feelings.
* Listen twice as much as you talk.
* Pay attention to non-verbal communication: We communicate with our whole selves. Watch faces, listen to tone of voice and take note of body language.

Start now- you can improve

Although genetics may play a role, EI is not a factor that always comes from genetics.

Further it does not stop developing after our teen years like IQ. EI seems to be an area that develops as we go through life and learn from our experiences.

Therefore, our competencies in EI could be kept growing day by day. Everyone has emotional intelligence as such you have the chance to increase yours too.

Hence make a concerted effort to develop EI in you and see the difference in your overall effectiveness in work family and social life.