Applying Emotional Intelligence At Workplace Enhances Productivity.

Question 1

Outlined below are the attributes of emotional intelligence. Identify at least two ways of applying each attribute in the workplace.

a.    Self-awareness

i. Keeping a journal can help in improving one’s self-awareness. Spending a few minutes each day on wring one’s thought can move a person to the higher extent of the self-awareness.

ii. Slowing down is another way of self-awareness. When experiencing anger or any other strong emotion, a person must examine why by slowing down.

b.  Self-management

i. A person must a clearly know his or her values and must strive to obey those values, as it will help in making correct decision, when facing any ethical or moral decision.

ii. Practicing to be calm is another way of self-management. In a challenging situation, a person must try to be calm rather than stressing and shouting.

c.  Social awareness

i.  Understanding the emotions of others by recognizing and understanding the emotional reactions and responses of others; engaging in active, non-judgmental and reactive listening to understand others; and expressing respect, empathy and appreciation in an effective manner.

ii. Must be adaptable and flexible by using the inclusive approaches through understanding the unique attributes and differences of others.

d.    Relationship Management

i. Communicating assertively by engaging in non-defensive and assertive communication, which prevents passive, aggressive, or passive-aggressive behaviors.

ii. Managing conflict by approaching, resolving, and managing the emotional charged disagreements and conflicts in an effective manner (10).

Question 2

Answer the following questions on the principles of emotional intelligence using your own words. 

1. Describe the principle of self-awareness.

Self-awareness is the ability of recognizing and recognizing one’s emotions. One must be always aware that how his or her actions or emotions can affect the people around them (9).

1. Identify and briefly explain the three competencies of self-awareness.

Competencies identified here refer to the observable skills required to demonstrate self-awareness.

Competencies of Self-Awareness

Explanation of Each Competency of Self-Awareness

i.              Emotional self-awareness

      It shows the significance of recognizing a person’s own feelings and the way they affect their performance.

ii.              Accurate self-awareness

      It involves understanding one’s abilities, limits, and resources.

iii.              Self-confidence

      It comprises a strong sense of one’s capabilities and worth.

1. Describe the principle of empathy.

Empathy is an awareness of the emotions and feelings of the other people. It is an important element of the emotional intelligence, the relationship between self and the others, since it is the way a person as an individual understands what the other person is experiencing (8).

d.    Identify and define the three kinds of empathy.

Kinds of Empathy

Definition of Kinds of Empathy

i.              Cognitive Empathy

      It is understanding the emotions and thoughts of someone in a quite rational sense rather than emotional sense.

ii.              Emotional Empathy

      It is also referred as an emotional contagion, and is catching the feeling of someone else, so that one can feel them too.

iii.              Compassionate Empathy

      It involves understanding the feelings of someone, and taking suitable action to assist.

Question 3

Identify at least two strategies for using emotional intelligence. For each identified strategy, identify at least two methods. Briefly explain each identified method for each strategy.

Emotional Intelligence Strategies

Methods to Implement in Emotional Intelligence Strategy

Explanation for Methods in Emotional Intelligence Strategy

a.          Improving communication

      i.              Body Language

      Body language is considered to be the most powerful component of the way one communicates. It helps in accurately shaping communication, so that it shows ones’ intention without any confusion.

     ii.              Sensitive towards others

      It involves being sensitive to others by understanding the emotions and perspective of others, and accordingly responding to the others (6).

b.          Practicing empathy

      i.              Perspective taking

      Empathy is about putting oneself in the shoes of someone else and making an effort to see the things from their own perspective.

     ii.              Staying out of judgement

      It implies just listening without jumping to any conclusions. One must understand and listen to practice empathy (7).

Question 4

The following are different scenarios depicting employees from two different backgrounds. Read through each scenario and identify at least one strategy that can be used to communicate with each employee effectively.

Scenario 1

Takashi is working as a fitness instructor for Bounce Fitness. He is an excellent and efficient employee seen in his work ethic and the feedback from members of the fitness centre. He tends to be quiet during work-related events such as meetings and lunch outs. He also relies on non-verbal signals such as facial expressions and body language to convey his responses to his workgroup members. He often avoids eye contact with his workgroup members due to social anxiety.

Communication Strategy

i.  Takashi is a passive employee who relies mainly on the non-verbal signs and often avoid eye contact because of the social anxiety. Some of the strategy to deal with such employee are removing risk, encouraging them to communicate one-to-one, and offering multiples communication modes. As the passive employee are quite risk averse. A leader must reinforce them and help them to feel included as the valuable contributor to the success of a team, which can be facilitated by providing a positive environment at the workplace.

ii.  Talking one-on-one are the best friend of a passive employee, since they are less likely to speak up when there are more people around. These employees are more comfortable talking privately rather than publicly.

iii.  Giving the passive communicators different methods to communicate their concerns and feelings help them to express their feelings (4).

Scenario 2

Michael works as a fitness instructor for Bounce Fitness. He is very direct, clear, transparent, and open about work-related matters. He is also easily frustrated when something doesn’t go his way. When frustrated, Michael makes unnecessary comments about his workgroup members’ work ethics, causing some colleagues to view him as rude and aggressive.

Communication Strategy

i. Outlining and enforcing boundaries can help Michael to understand what needs to be done and what n

ii. Giving him a healthy and a safe way to burst their anger. A leader must talk to him one-on-one to address his concerns and try to resolve the matter (5).

Question 5

Below are two principles of emotional intelligence. For each area:

§  Identify at least one method of promoting the principle of emotional intelligence in other people.

§  Briefly explain how the method promotes the area of emotional intelligence in other people.

Principle of Emotional Intelligence

Method of Promoting Principle of Emotional Intelligence in Other People

How the Method Promotes the Principle of Emotional Intelligence in Other People

a.    Empathy

      Giving Complete Attention

      It involves carefully listening to what someone is intending to tell by using eyes, ears, and gut instincts to completely understand the overall message they are communicating. One can start with listening the phrases and key words that they use, especially if they are repeatedly used, after which thing regarding what and how they are saying, and understand their body language or tome (2).

b.    Self-regulation

      Considering the Perspective of Other People

      A person must assess his or own attitude and keep their mind open. After seeing why other believe what they are believing, one can acknowledge it. A person must keep listening and show some respect. In case of any doubt, a person must invite the other person to state their position some more, and ask the way issue can be resolved (3).

Question 6

Briefly explain how emotional intelligence improves workplace relationships.

Emotional intelligence is considered to be a valuable asset in the workplace. The employees with the high emotional intelligence level are able to cooperate with others in a better wat, manage the stress related to the work, solve conflicts with the workplace relationships, and try to learn from the previous inter-personal mistakes. Emotional intelligence facilitates effective communication by developing the ability of sending credible, clear, and convincing messages to the other people, and in turn helping to set expectations, receiving and giving feedback, and communicating intention with more clarity. EI helps in improving interpersonal effectiveness. It helps in increasing influencing skills. It helps in improving the ability of conflict management, and face the adaptation and change. It helps in managing the stress in a better way. Further, recognizing and understanding the emotion’s role in human behavior and thinking assist in building closer relational bonds between the people. EI improves collaboration and teamwork, which in turn, improves relationships. It helps in improving the ability of mentoring and coaching others. Lastly, EI helps in building greater integrity and trust (1).