Developing Emotional Intelligence In Workplace Communication Is Crucial For Success.

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Workplace Communication

Discuss about the Emotional Intelligence and Elementary Principals.

Effective communication is one of the most important aspects of business management as it helps to express our needs and wants. It also helps to others to make us know what they want to reveal to us (Hogue et al. 2015). Successful communication leads to successful completion of work, smooth workflow, reduced cases of miscommunication, higher productivity, team binding, relationship building and many others. Reflecting oneself in his business communication skills will make the individual identify the mistakes or the weakness he has in his communication skills and help him develop strategies by which he can overcome the weakness and perform successful communication (Davidson 2015). In this assignment, I will be reflecting my experiences while conducting business communication, stating what went wrong and developing strategies which would help me to overcome such incidences in my future endeavors.

While I was under my internship placement, I was allocated in a team of 8 members and there were altogether 7 teams in the placement. We were assigned a task for our team where each and every of the 8 individuals had to complete a chapter of total 8 chapters. The work was to be proceeded only when the previous chapter was completed by other team members and discussed thoroughly before starting about the summary of the previous chapters. While conducting such team work, I faced a lot of issues. As my team member who was to perform the previous task did not submit it on time as he found it hard. This made me disappointed and I perceived that he was making excuses for which I had a verbal fight with him where I could not keep up my temper and humiliated him stating him to be a poor performer. Moreover, my biasness made me talk negatively with a rude tone to the other cultures specially who were Chinese and Japanese in my team which created an unstable environment in the workplace. There were many instances where I could to control myself and criticized my team members for being late of being poor in quality. All these were making me upset later for which I was getting depressed. There was an instance, where a member of a diverse background was arguing with another team members on a particular ground. In such an instance, I tended to support my friend without trying to know about the real issue which affected my relations with the opponent members and also showed that I am culturally biased. All these incidences showed that I am poor in my emotional intelligence as many of the characteristics required in order to be emotionally intelligent was absent in me. Another issue I faced was due to my improper oral communication skills. While conducting teamwork, I was absent for a day for which my team members came to me the next day. They wanted to discuss the changes in the planning that took place when I was absent. However, due to my impatient listening skills, I cut them short and stated them that I had already understood. They felt disappointed for cutting them short but wished me luck. However, I did the wrong work as I did not hear their plans entirely and it affected the team performance. I was criticized for that by my team members which affected my ego.

Personal Experience of Poor Emotional Intelligence

Through the different events described above, I noticed that several of my soft skills are not well developed and for this reason I am failing miserably to be emotionally intelligent while conducting my communication in my workplace. I noticed that I have very poor self control which is an important element of being emotionally intelligent. I could not hold on to my temper when I saw the improper work of the team member. This incidence, besides reflecting my poor self control a tribute also showed that I do not show empathy towards others. Although, the member stated that he found the work difficult, still I did not show him any empathy and humiliated him. This attitude also showed that I also have no proper skill in relationship building. This skill is very much important in a team work for proper coordination and collaboration while performing a task which increases the productivity of the organization and helps to align with the objectives of the organization (Celly and Thomas 2015). I also could not develop trustworthiness among the members as they were not able to rely on my changing behaviors. Moreover, I also have no proper knowledge in conflict management procedures as I commented in the conflict between the team members without judging the main issues and trying to solve them. Rather I took sides which only escalated the issue rather than creating solution for this. I also failed miserably in social skills like building bonds, conflict management, collaboration and cooperation. Secondly, my biasness towards cultures also shows that I have poor multicultural communication knowledge and did not have any idea about how to behave and communicate with people from other cultures so that the workplace stability is maintained.

I am also an impatient listener which increases the chance of miss-communication, inappropriate work submission, duplication of already completed task, improper collaboration, negative feeling among team members and others. Having proper emotional intelligence is very important as individuals with high emotional intelligence has the ability to identify and use, understand and thereby manage emotions in proper as well as an effective and positive ways. The component attributes of emotional intelligence when achieved successfully can help to communicate in a better way and also help in reduction of anxiety and stress. I was mainly getting upset after such incidences which were resulting in increasing anxiety and stress in me. I also realized that I was becoming physically ill as such stress was having a negative impact both on my mental and physical health. I could not empathize with others which made them develop negative outlook for me for which I could not get their help and they also tried to avoid collaborating and coordinating with me. As a result not only the team performance was affected but my individual performance was also affected since I was not being able to discuss or get help in any barriers I was acing (Thompson 2015). All this was affecting the production of the company. As I had no proper self-awareness, I also suffered since this enables us to lead much better lives with correct intention, autonomy and purpose. Emotional regulation is extremely important by not acting on the raw feelings in an impulsive way or in destructive manner as this my create rifts or raise conflicts in team members. Moreover I also need to be culturally competent so that all the members in the team feel that they are respected and cared for in the members. Negative outlooks will destroy their motivation and will harm their ego which will in turn impact their job satisfaction. This will in turn reduce the main productivity of the team (Martin and rough 2016).

The Need for Self-awareness and Soft Skills

I have realized that I need to modify a large number of my self-awareness skills and also my soft skills so that I can successfully develop relationships with my coworkers. Maintenance of a strong bond is very important as I have seen members who share good bonds are happier at workplace and they have higher job satisfaction. People with higher job satisfaction face less stress and therefore they are able to provide more productivity (Pool 2017). Having proper empathy and interpersonal skills can help us build rapport and develop both formal and informal bonding which reduces stress at work and also help to avoid any internal power struggles or backstabbing behaviors (Higgs and Dulewicz 2016). Moreover being self aware is important to remain motivated, handle constructive criticism and also to learn from mistakes.  In order to develop my emotional intelligence, I should note my emotional reactions throughout the day and then reflect on the parts which I think I can modify for betterment. I should also pay attention to my body language and be careful that it does not provide any rude vibe. I should also try observing how my reactions and my behaviors are connected with my activities and hence try to control myself in negative reactions. I should try my negative reactions to resurface and connect them with the incidences which I need to stop exhibiting. I should notice my patterns in emotional history and thereby practice deciding how to behave so that it does not harm any emotions. I should be open-minded, agreeable, improve my empathy skills, and read others body language successfully. For being culturally competent, I first need to be aware of my biasness and stop exhibiting them. I need to develop knowledge about other cultures like how they speak or behave and also their cultural preferences and inhibitions so that I can be careful when communicating with them. I should involve them in decisions making and feedback giving so that they feel respected and cared for. I should have curiosity while talking with them informally so that the feel enthusiastic about displaying their real self and cultural traditions which will reduce their job dissatisfaction. Moreover, for development of my listening skills, I need to attend workshops where I will be guided about the modifications I need to incorporate in my communication styles. Moreover I can also read articles which provided with strategies to develop listening skills. All these would help me to develop my emotional intelligence, cultural competency and listening skills.

This reflection assignment helped me to reflect upon my own experiences which helped me realize that I mainly have three issues like improper personal management skills, social skills, cultural competency and also impatient listening skills. These are affecting teamwork as they are creating rifts and conflicts. The organization’s production is also getting affected due to this reason. Hence, I will take initiatives strategically which will make me more competent in my career by overcome g the barriers. This would help me to reach the zenith of success.

References:

Celly, K.S. and Thomas, C.E., 2015. Partnering for Purpose: Cross-Cultural Model to Encourage Participation, Exploration, Appreciation, Reflection, and Learning in Undergraduate Education and Beyond. In Cross-Cultural Collaboration and Leadership in Modern Organizations (pp. 83-97). IGI Global.

Davidson, R., 2015. Wiki Use That Increases Communication and Collaboration Motivation: A Reflection Several Semesters Later. Journal of Learning Design, 8(3), pp.92-105.

Higgs, M. and Dulewicz, V., 2016. The Importance of Emotional Intelligence. In Leading with Emotional Intelligence (pp. 13-32). Springer International Publishing.

Hogue, A., Percival, J., El-Khatib, K. and Hayes, G., 2015. Reflection on Integrative Project-Based Learning in Business and Information Technology Programs.

Martin-Raugh, M.P., Kell, H.J. and Motowidlo, S.J., 2016. Prosocial knowledge mediates effects of agreeableness and emotional intelligence on prosocial behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 90, pp.41-49.

Pool, L.D., 2017. Developing Graduate Employability: The CareerEDGE Model and the Importance of Emotional Intelligence. In Graduate Employability in Context (pp. 317-338). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Thompson, S.S., 2015. Emotional Intelligence and Elementary Principals’ Leadership.