Leading

Carla J. McCoy

Unit 4 Discussion Board – MGT240

March 1st, 2009

American InterContinental University

Introduction

As you can see there has been a bit of trouble connecting with this team as individuals.

An Employee made the statement that they were unfamiliar with Emotional Intelligence but once

he heard about it he was able to get a better understanding of the team and strategy in solving

some problems. Knowing t here has been trouble connecting with this team I decided to research

Emotional Intelligence to see if it could also help me with my own team problems. I found five

components of Emotional Intelligence that I feel will be great for my team. In this article you

will also be able to see how I evaluated my former Manager on each of the five components of

Emotional Intelligence after I researched it. A description of how the Principles of Emotional

Intelligence can apply to my own current situation with my own team members is evident in this

article. And you will be able to review, and learn about other Organizations and what they have

done to help develop the Emotional Intelligence of their own Managers and Employees. (AIU

Online, 2009)

Definition & list of Five Components of Emotional Intelligence

            There are five components of Emotional Intelligence that are defined and listed below as

well as a Review of the Hallmarks of each of the Five Components:

         Self Awareness is an ability to recognize and understand your own moods, drives, and emotions

as well as their effects on others. The Hallmarks of Self Awareness are Realistic self assessment,

Self-Deprecating sense of humor and Self-Confidence.

         Self Regulation is having the ability to control and redirect disruptive impulses and moods as

well as having the Propensity to suspend judgment which is to basically think before acting. The

Hallmarks of Self Regulation are comfort with ambiguity, Openness to change, and

Trustworthiness and Integrity.

         Motivation is when a person has a passion to work for various reasons that go beyond money or

status and is a propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence. The hallmarks of

Motivation are Organizational Commitment, Optimism, even in the face of failure, and having a

strong drive to achieve.

         Empathy is having the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people and having a

skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions. The Hallmarks of Empathy are

Expertise in building and retraining talent, Cross-cultural sensitivity, and a Service to clients and

customers.

         Social Skill is having Proficiency in managing relationships and building networks as well as

having the ability to find common ground and build rapport. The Hallmarks of Social Skills are

Effectiveness in leading change, Persuasiveness, and Expertise in building and leading teams.

(Infopeople.org, 2009)

Evaluation of Former Manager

            Concerning my former Manager on the five Components of Emotional Intelligence, I do

feel she had good Self Awareness; she could see and recognize self confidence in her workers,

and always gave a realistic self assessment that was very honest with a great sense of humor to

go along with it. She understood each of her employee’s moods, drives, and emotions and the

effect each of us had on other people. If she saw a problem she took us off privately to discuss

the problems. My former manager also had quite a bit of knowledge in Self Regulation as well,

she knew how to help each of her employees obtain an openness to change and that was

something that was needed in the Cellular Wireless Industry because it’s constantly changing.

She provided trust and knew she could trust each employee and she always thought it through

before acting upon any given situation. 

            The Motivation my former Manager had was very Inspiring, she not only showed a

passion in her own work but implemented it on all her employees, she is the reason I created a

presentation that passed the HR Departments standards that was to be presented to the Area

Manager so she gave me a strong drive, a lot of optimism, and organizational commitment. I can

honestly say the Empathy she had was humorous and fun, she made it stress free and allowed

each employee the space they needed even to make mistakes. She had the ability to understand

the emotional makeup of other people and was good at handling various types of situations that

were emotional. And the last Area would be Social Skill which I can’t stress enough how

Persuasive she was and knew exactly how to build and lead her team. Her Social Skills not only

with her team but customers, and other managers was outstanding.

Applying Principles of Emotional Intelligence in Current Situation

            These principles can be applied in my current situation because among learning and

furthering my education here at AIU I can take these Emotional Intelligence Principles and apply

them to everyday life, as well as future employment I will obtain. I had a good former Manager

and she expressed some great thought on Emotional Intelligence and provided each of her team

members with the knowledge we would need to perhaps one day be able to use them in

managing our own teams so I feel this can go with me throughout my lifetime and be very useful

in various situations. There are already three of these that I feel I am very good at and have been

told that I am very good at, and that is Self Awareness, Motivation, and Social Skills.

Organizations developing Emotional Intelligence among Managers and Employees

            Managers and Employees are trained and educated on the differences between average

leaders and high performers which can effectively use interpersonal skills and positive

motivational techniques. Being attuned with what’s going on with other people around you and

Having interpersonal skills will affect an individual’s career development so leaders must be able

to encourage and influence people to obtain job satisfaction. If you take two Managers with their

Employees and you train one in Emotional Intelligence and the other is not then the result will

stem in Organizational growth in the long run. The Manager and their Employees who were

trained in Emotional Intelligence will have a much higher growth in business than the Manager

and Employees who did not have training. Having Social Judgment is important in this area but

it also takes commitment and practice to develop skills such as these so being optimistic is good

because having the realization that people can change by being exposed to Emotional

Intelligence role models will give you more of an edge. (Carey, W.P., 2007)

Conclusion

After realizing there was trouble connecting with my own team as individuals I

researched Emotional Intelligence through the suggestion of another Employee and found that I

had better understanding of my own team after learning there were other ways to solve some of

the problems I’d been having and develop a strategy to help solve those problems. The Five

components of Emotional Intelligence is something every Manager needs to be trained on as well

as every Employee within the Organization because it will help them get a better understanding

of exactly what Emotional Intelligence is and provide some good Organizational growth in the

long run. After learning about Emotional Intelligence I decided to evaluate my own former

Manager and found that she had some pretty strong Emotional Intelligence skills because I

couldn’t find one area that she could have worked on within all five components. I have given an

explanation on how I feel I can apply the principles of Emotional Intelligence to my own Current

Situation as well as my own personal life where my family, friends, and yes even strangers are

concerned. One thing is evident is that each manager and employee of every Organization would

do well to have some Emotional Intelligence Training. With this in mind, Organizational Growth

will evolve from some good decision making and in the long run everyone wins. (AIU Online,

2009)

 

References

Web Definitions:

Infopeople.org, (2009) The Five Components of Emotional Intelligence at Work retrieved on

 March 1st, 2009 at

http://www.infopeople.org/training/webcasts/webcast_data/204/FiveComponentsEmotion

alIntelligence.pdf

 

Web Article:

Carey, W.P., (2007) Heart Smart management: Emotional Intelligence in the corporate world

 Retrieved on March 1st, 2009 at http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu/article.cfm?

articleid=1373

AIU University Assignment:

AIU Online, (2009) Leading American InterContinental University MGT240 Unit 4 Discussion

Board Assignment retrieved on March 4th, 2009 at https://aiu-online.com