Emotional Intelligence - Desmond Nicholson - Assignment Example

Emotional Intelligence; A Case Study Analysis Name Course Instructor Date Introduction Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognize, analyze and manage or control one’s own emotions or those of others. A high EI enables one to identify what they are feeling, make appropriate decisions on how to proceed with handling these emotions, and then to deal with them in a productive manner thereafter. One is also able to replicate this process with the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence is important when it comes to management in general- of the self or of others- in whichever circumstance be it in business or in relationships (Bar-On and Parker, 2000). There are 2 types of EI: trait EI and ability EI (Goleman, 1996). Some researchers argue that EI is an inborn quality (trait EI) while others suggest that it can be learned and strengthened over time. According to Salovey, Brackett, Mayer (2004), ability EI can be defined as the use of emotions as an information source to aid in making sense of and navigation of the social environment. It is the use of one’s emotions as a guiding compass. Question 1 In the case study, Desmond Nicholson demonstrates a thorough lack of emotional intelligence as his behavior demonstrates a lack of the EI competencies – personal and social competencies – (Kunnanatt, 2008, pp. 614--629). Des decides to go into the travel industry and launch a business even though the only experience he had had in the field had been his own travels. Though he lacked a business background, he ignored this fact and relied solely on his baseless optimism as the guiding compass through which he made his series of decisions. Although Des had the adequate capital to begin his business, he failed to consider all the other factors needed to run a good business like a good knowledge base of business administration, and how to be an effective leader or manager. He proved to have a very low level of emotional literacy in this way (Kunnanatt, 2008, pp. 620--622). He had very little insight into his own feelings and the actions they resulted in. He insisted that the call center operators follow a rigid script when answering phone calls- a script which entailed stories he had written himself based on his own experiences in his travels. He did all this without taking into account that not everyone shares his sentiments about his experiences and that just because they weren’t necessarily looking for his exact same travelling experience. Because Des had low emotional literacy/self-awareness levels, he was unable to self-regulate his emotions (Kunnanatt, 2008, pp. 620--622). When the call center begun to experience problems because of the rigidity by which they were forced to operate, the call center operators did the appropriate thing at the time; they wrote to Desmond to air their grievances and asked for more flexibility in the handling of customers in their phone conversations. Desmond’s lack of emotional literacy informed his self-regulation capacity, and he was therefore unable to separate his emotions from his thought process. This caused him to ignore all the glaring evidence that their claims were justified which subsequently led to him coming to the irrational conclusion that his employees were being insubordinate. Des was unable to put aside his disturbing feelings and look at the situation as it really was. He called a meeting in order to reinforce his position on the script provided to the call operators rather than to listen to what they had to say in order to make decisions that would be useful to his company. He went further to fire one of his workers simply because he felt that his authority was being undermined, failing to consider the repercussions of this drastic action. He failed to stay calm and focused under pressure, or to think clearly and make sound decisions (Kunnanatt, 2008, pp. 620--622). This barrage of decisions and actions prove his low levels of personal competence (self-awareness and self-regulation) as described by Kunnanatt. Desmond further demonstrated a lack of social competence through his actions. He failed to consider the impact that he was having on his employees’ emotions and consequently to create an environment that was conducive to work in. He did not consider the fact that he had created an atmosphere of fear in his organization when he fired one of his employees based on his feelings towards him. He ignored his employees’ opinions on the advertisement he placed in the paper for the new “call center guru”. He then proceeded to hire someone without to the necessary qualifications or knowledge base to head his call center against the recommendations of the team he had put together to conduct the interviews. Desmond then held a party to celebrate his latest employee without inviting any of the call center workers. He did not see that his actions were insensitive especially because he had banned snacks during meetings and he was now having a full blown party as they looked on. He failed to perceive the emotions of his employees at every single turn, and only took more actions that further raised his mountain of insensitivity. Through all these actions, he showed that he lacked a social awareness (Kunnanatt, 2008, pp. 620—622; Goleman, 1996). Instead of tactfully convincing his employees to follow his direction and leadership, he ran roughshod over their opinions and suggestions. He imposed on them his will rather than conduct an open discussion to come to a consensus. Rather than influence his employees, he dictated their actions as he saw fit. The sum total of these events is evidence of his lack of social influence which is the other sub-competence of social competence (Kunnanatt, 2008, pp. 620—622). He lacked the interpersonal skills of communication, assertiveness, and empowering leadership. He did not seek to form an emotional bond with his workers, neglected to empathize with their circumstances, and failed to bethink persuading his employees to buy into his ideas as opposed to imposing them. Desmond’s lack of emotional intelligence is evidenced in his lack of the above four competencies, that is, self-awareness, self-regulation, social influence, and social awareness (Kunnanatt, 2008, pp. 620—622). Because of his low emotional intelligence, he inflicted his employees, his company, and himself indirectly through his poor choices. This also amounted in his poor decision-making skills (Hess and Bacigalupo, 2011, pp. 710--721). The result of his low emotional intelligence was poor leadership, which led to the demise of maritime holiday (all of which might have been avoided had he improved his emotional intelligence). Question 2 It is possible for Desmond to improve his emotional intelligence if he is willing to follow the necessary steps. Researchers have learnt that EQ can improve with deliberate training and coaching (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2013). He would have to take very intentional steps towards this goal as it cannot happen passively. His habits and thought patterns would have to change in order to achieve an increase in his EQ. There are several steps that Desmond can take towards raising his EQ. getting in contact with an EI practitioner/trainer will be a good place to start. According to The steps followed in the EI training process would generally involve the following: “emotional mapping, emotional diagnosis, emotional authentication, emotional navigation, empathy building, and building social influence” (Kunnanatt, 2008, pp. 622—625). EI training is intended to re-engineer one’s emotional structure and help them come up with meaningful changes that rewire the ways in which they deal with themselves (intrapersonally) and the ways by which they conduct themselves in their relationships (interpersonally). Desmond could personally take a number of steps on his own to improve his EI. He may begin by reducing stress and staying connected to himself and his surroundings (Helpguide.org, 2014). Stress is a major cause of low EI and therefore taking steps towards its reduction may be necessary in order to achieve the goal. He may reduce his stress levels in a number of ways including recognizing when he is stressed, identifying his automatic responses to stress when it is present and finding out which responses to stress would work best for him. He should make a conscious effort to recognize how stress looks and feels like for him. Once he has done this, he should take note of his behavior while he is under stress or in stressful situations. He should then replace any negative and counterproductive reactions to stress with only those that ameliorate the situation and are helpful to himself and everyone in his surroundings (Helpguide.org, 2014). Outside of himself, Des will need to consciously observe how he reacts to people; whether or not he rushes too judgments, or often stereotypes people. He can develop empathy by putting himself in other people’s shoes by asking himself how he would feel if somebody treated him in the same way. He can proceed from there by replacing how he usually treats people with how he would like to be treated in whichever situation. This should cause him to not only appear but actually be more considerate of others (Mayer, J. D., 2014). He can put this into action by acknowledging other people’s achievements in the workplace. He may also consider ensuring that his methods of acknowledgement are not just his ideas of he would like but what the one being acknowledged might like instead. This may help him take the focus off himself and put it on others to help them feel included and important. Furthermore, Des can work on improving his EI by doing frequent self-evaluations. He can do this by asking himself a couple questions and answering them as honestly as he can. Certain questions like what his weaknesses are, whether he is willing to accept that he is imperfect and to work toward becoming a better person may help him begin. He may also ask himself how he thinks other people view him and attempt to find justification for this. He may have to see himself as the one on the wrong if he consistently feels that other people are treating him unfairly. During his self evaluations, he may also look to evaluate his relations with other people- whether the changes he is making is causing improvements in his leadership and interpersonal skills (Antonakis and Ashkanasy et al., 2009, pp. 247--261). The next step he should take is to take responsibility. If self-evaluation has been successful, then he should be able to identify areas in which he has made mistakes and/or he is to blame; this may manifest as him having hurt someone’s feelings. To this, he should acknowledge his wrongdoing, apologize directly and seek to resolve any tension or ill feelings that may be harbored against him. He should make this a habit in order to avoid nullifying any progress he makes on his EQ. he should then make a conscious effort to examine the manner in which his actions may affect others before taking these actions. This will also serve to act as his own self-accountability system to keep him from ‘falling off the wagon’ in his quest (Bar-On and Parker, 2000). As Bradberry (2012) writes, researchers have discovered that high caffeine levels are detrimental to EI. They do this by causing the body to increase alertness by putting it in the “fight, flight, or fright” status. This condition puts the body into stress which consequently lowers one’s ability to think clearly and act rationally. Because caffeine is excreted from the body very slowly, caffeine taken in the morning as coffee is still in one’s system by the time they go to sleep at night. This same caffeine disrupts the sleep pattern and lowers the quality of sleep by disrupting rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. During REM, the body processes its emotions naturally through dreams and one is wakes up feeling resolved. By disrupting REM sleep, caffeine inhibits this process and lowers one’s ability to deal fully and appropriately with ones emotions thus lowering their EQ. Des would therefore be well advised to stay away from caffeine in any form. Question 3 Emotional labor as described by Hochschild (1983) is emotional regulation which creates visible facial and bodily display of positive emotions. Emotional labor is mostly done in the workplace by certain professionals such as restaurant workers who are expected to keep smiling and use an inviting and relaxing tone of voice when dealing with customers. EI on the other hand is defined as "The ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth" (Salovey and Brackett et al., 2004). Emotional labor is all about controlling appearances while emotional intelligence is concerned with managing one’s own or others emotions in order to prevent them from causing harm. Emotional intelligence is measurable and this measure is expressed as an emotional quotient (EQ). A test was developed by Mayer and Salovey et al. (2003, p. 97) known as the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) to measure EI. The test is modeled after ability-based IQ tests and comprises of a series of emotion-based questions. It tests the four EI branches, and produces one’s scores for each of the individual branches in addition to a total EI score- which is the EQ (Mayer, J. D., 2014). References Antonakis, J., Ashkanasy, N. M. and Dasborough, M. T. 2009. Does leadership need emotional intelligence?. The Leadership Quarterly, 20 (2), pp. 247--261. Bar-On, R. and Parker, J. D. A. 2000. The handbook of emotional intelligence. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass. Bradberry, T. 2012. Caffeine: The Silent Killer of Emotional Intelligence. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2012/08/21/caffeine-the-silent-killer-of-emotional-intelligence/ [Accessed: 12 Mar 2014]. Chamorro-Premuzic, T. 2013. Can You Really Improve Your Emotional Intelligence?. [online] Available at: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/05/can-you-really-improve-your-em/ [Accessed: 12 Mar 2014]. Goleman, D. 1996. Emotional intelligence. London: Bloomsbury. Helpguide.org. 2014. Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Five Key Skills for Raising Emotional Intelligence. [online] Available at: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/eq5_raising_emotional_intelligence.htm [Accessed: 11 Mar 2014]. Hess, J. D. and Bacigalupo, A. C. 2011. Enhancing decisions and decision-making processes through the application of emotional intelligence skills. Management Decision, 49 (5), pp. 710--721. Hochschild, A. R. 1983. The managed heart. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kunnanatt, J. T. 2008. Emotional intelligence: theory and description: A competency model for interpersonal effectiveness. Career Development International, 13 (7), pp. 614--629. Mayer, J. D. 2014. Emotional Intelligence. [online] Available at: http://www.unh.edu/emotional_intelligence/ [Accessed: 12 Mar 2014]. Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D. R. and Sitarenios, G. 2003. Measuring emotional intelligence with the MSCEIT V2. 0. Emotion, 3 (1), p. 97. Payne, L. W. 1985. A study of emotion: developing emotional intelligence; self integration; relating to fear, pain and desire. Ph.D. Salovey, P., Brackett, M. A. and Mayer, J. D. 2004. Emotional intelligence. Port Chester, N.Y.: Dude Pub. Read More