Leadership Emotional Intelligence Organization

Question: Discuss about the Leadership Emotional Intelligence Organization. Answer: The emotional intelligence of an individual plays a highly important role, as it determines the extent to which the employee working in an organization is able to control or express his emotions, while dealing with the subordinates at workplace. It is important for any employee to handle the interpersonal relationships with the colleagues and the subordinates in an effective way . The emotional intelligence of an individual not only determines how an individual employee responds to a specific situation, but it also determines the extent to which the employee is able to think empathetically and adapt to the emotional needs of his colleagues. As far as my emotional strengths are concerned, first of all, I would like to mention here that I am not usually discouraged by setbacks in the path of my professional career. I am emotionally strong enough to deal with any form of obstacle. The delay in the completion of a project or the failure of an implemented strategy does not de-motivate me, and I rather consider it to be a challenge that needs to be overcome. Besides, I can retain cool and composure under tough situations, and even if I have to deal with inefficient subordinates, or careless clients, I do not get stressed out . Another very important strength of mine is that whenever I am encountered with challenges, I tend to focus on the ways of overcoming the same, rather than focusing on the hurdle itself. However, I also have certain emotional weaknesses as well. First of all, I am very sensitive to the people around me. For example, suppose I am expected to deliver a public speech during the meeting, I become aware of th e people around me, and I fail to communicate effectively. However, I am working on my communication skills so as to enhance my interpersonal communication skills. Besides, another major emotional weakness I usually suffer from is that I am unable to accept change. For example, if the organization requires us to attend seminars and workshops during the weekend, asking for additional dedication, I tend to lose professional enthusiasm. I often suffer from professional burnout, owing to the intense pressure at my workplace. The primary cause of my professional stress has been my strict deadline based jobs. I often have to work for more than 9 hours a day, and as such I often get exhausted, sitting at my workplace. As a manager, I have to ensure that my subordinates are performing well, and they are able to submit their works within the strict deadline. However, in a few situations, my subordinates fail to complete their tasks within the given time, and that brings additional pressure on me. Since I do not get to control their performance or efficiency rate, I often end up stressing myself. Besides, it often happens that an employee fails to understand his job role, and I have to keep on communicating him the job role unless he completely comprehends the entire situation. This brings about unmanageable workload for me. Again, since I am working in a private sector, I also get stressed if I get apprehensive about the lack of professional security at workplace. The unrealistic deadlines and expectations of my job role add up to the problem. Being a manager, I am expected not only to administer and supervise the action of my subordinates, but also to evaluate their performance. Being professionally stressed out, I often encounter the problem of emotional triggers. I get emotionally triggered when the workers of my team show less likelihood of finishing up a task, the deadline of which is pending in a few days. Besides, I also get emotionally triggered if I get to hear that my subordinates or team members are talking behind my back. For example, if I get to hear that my subordinates are critical of my behavior, or are interrogating my leadership skills, I get annoyed. Besides, any kind of heated argument with my colleagues also produces emotional triggers in me. In order to operate my business activities in an effective way, I also adopt coping strategies so as to deal with the problem of emotional triggers. In order to deal with the problem of emotional triggers, I try to meditate twice a day, so as to keep control over my problems of distress and anxiety. Besides, I also keep a journal, where I try to note down the instances where I feel that I have behave d in an undesirable way. As I go through the instances where I have been emotionally triggered, I try to reflect on the alternative ways in which I could have behaved or responded. This reduces my chance of having emotional triggers during these instances. I have observed that some of the most common examples of negative emotions within the workplace include despair of the employees, anger or aggravation and disappointment. In order to ensure that my subordinates are able to control and manage the emotions, I will try to organize the seminars and the workshops for the subordinates so as to develop their team bonding capacity. Besides, during the weekend once a month I will try to arrange team-based fun, interesting activities that will enhance the team spirit among the employees. Though I have been encountering problems of emotional triggers in the recent face, I am quite open to any form of feedback related to the same. For example, if an employee comes to me and tells me that my behavior offended him, or that I reacted too aggressively on a specific occasion, I ensure that his words do not get unheard. I make a note of what my colleague or subordinate points out regarding my emotional triggers, and later I reflect on what comment or feedback I have received regarding my triggers. Although I get annoyed to find people complaining about my behavior, I respect it when they tell me about my problems on my face. In response to the feedback of my subordinates or fellow colleagues, I would try to change my behavior, or improve my emotional response, by raising my awareness or taking the help of self-reflection. Self-reflection helps in the continual development of my emotional intelligence. As and when I become emotionally aware of my emotional triggers or undesirable emotional responses, I can assess and evaluate my behavior in a more effective way. Hence, I try to reflect based on my personal judgment as well as the feedback I receive from others. The act of self-reflection helps me assess my emotional weakness in a more effective way, and change my behavior accordingly. In case I am being encountered with an angry worker, I will try to keep myself calm and composed. Since the employee is already disturbed or disappointed for some reason or the other, I will try not taking his words personally, and will ensure that I do not get offended by his behavior. I will try to listen to what the employee is offended about, and will actively sympathize with his situation. After listening to his problem, I will take a few minutes, and try to find out a solution. Again, if a worker is stressed out, I will ask him to relax down, and will offer him emotional support to help him combat with the problem. I will ask him to take a short time break and resume his work. In case of an upset and disgruntled worker, I will try to listen to his problem that is bothering him at workplace, and if the problem is professional and related to the workplace, I will ensure him that I will solve the problem. However, I will try to remain professional, and will not get involved in the personal problem of the employee. I am well aware of the fact that emotional response of each worker largely differs from the emotional response of the other, based on the cultural group he belongs to. For example, the people belonging to the US culture usually are more prone to exhibit negative emotions at workplace, such as fear, disgust or discontent. On the other hand, the Japanese people will not usually experience an outburst of emotions in the public. Hence, while dealing with the workers at a diverse workplace, I would try to interpret and understand their behavior in the light of cultural background they belong to. I would also try to participate in a couple of workshops and seminars that can enhance my awareness of cross-cultural communication skills. I believe in the transformational leadership style, and consequently I believe that this leadership style is the most effective style for handling the employees experiencing different kinds of emotion. I do not consider the option of giving out commands to my subordinates, following the style of an autocratic leader, as it often ends up de-motivating and upsetting the workers. Hence, I believe in communicating the strategy, sharing the workload and rewarding my clients for their little share of contribution. The employees with negative emotions, can also be encouraged and motivated to work harder, by offering them sufficient reward, recognition and appraisal for the same. I do not believe in maintaining distance with my clients, and rather I am an emotionally aware leader, who believes in increasing engagement with the respective employees. I am good in interacting with the subordinates, and as such I can easily pick up important emotional cues of my workers. This helps me understand the response or emotional attitude of my employees in a better way. Since the decisions I make in accordance with the organizational strategies of the company, may not be welcome by the employees with different emotional attitude, I am adept in handling their emotions. I have got a high persuasive skill, whereby I can convince my subordinates to work for the goal or the target I have set up. I can motivate the employees, influence their decisions, and believe in encouraging each employee to give their best effort. It is important for a manager to ensure that each of my subordinates is able to express his emotions and feelings in an effective way. Accordingly, I would ensure a culture of open, honest and free interpersonal communication among the team members, so that each employee can express and exchange his emotions with the other. Besides, I would also create a separate email id meant for helping the employees provide their feedback, and thereby express their emotions, positive or negative, to me in a highly confidential way. I would also organize interactive sessions twice each month, so as to help my workers ventilate their emotions and feelings, in presence of each other. I feel that it is important that each employee is being made aware of how their reaction or behavior affects their fellow colleagues. Hence, I would organize professional seminars and workshops for the workers, which can demonstrate how the behavior of a worker can affect the mental state of a colleague. Besides, I will also arrange training programs for helping the workers learn the self-management skills, so that they can control their emotions in a more effective way. I will create awareness among my workers, regarding the importance of emotional intelligence of an individual and his success in the professional life. I would try to organize meetings, focused on the importance of developing emotional intelligence, and I myself would like to demonstrate before the workers, how patience, perseverance and composure can help an employee achieve professional success. In order to create a positive emotional climate at the workplace, I would arrange interesting, fun games that would involve the participation of all the employees. Besides, I would also organize different get-together programs or family outings during the weekends, so that the employees can go out and interact with each other. This would help to eliminate the problems of stressed workplace relation or conspiracy at workplace. In order to achieve best workplace outcome, it is important that the workers are being assigned with duties that best suits their skills and capabilities. Hence, a skill testing assessment will be conducted so as to analyze and evaluate the skills and competencies of the individual employee, and in accordance with the result of this assessment, the employees will be allocated with the tasks. 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