PowerPoint Presentation
BSBPEF502
Develop and use
emotional intelligence
Prepare to develop emotional
intelligence
1.1 Develop evaluation criteria for assessing
emotional strengths and weaknesses
Emotional intelligence
The concept of emotional intelligence in terms of leadership
and management is relatively new, becoming popular in the
mid-1990s. Before this, intelligence was measured by an
individual’s intellectual ability or IQ. Intellectual intelligence
and emotional intelligence are two completely different
functions and very often do not go hand in hand.
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is an individual’s ability to recognise
their own emotions and feelings, manage their behaviour
in response and make balanced decisions in emotional
situations. An individual also can recognise the emotions
and feelings of others and interact with them in a way that
manages their behaviour. An emotionally intelligent
individual is highly conscious of their emotional states
including negativity, frustration and sadness etc.
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence generally includes at least three
skills:
➢ Emotional awareness, i.e. the ability to identify and
name one’s own emotions
➢ The ability to harness emotions and apply them
constructively to tasks such as thinking and problem
solving
➢ The ability to manage emotions when necessary and help
others to do the same.
Emotional intelligence
The concept of emotional intelligence has gained wide
ecognition as research shows there is a strong link
etween emotional intelligence and job performance. In
ecent years, some employers have incorporated
emotional intelligence tests into their hiring process, at
the application and interview stages. This is due to the
theory that someone with high emotional intelligence
would make a better leader or co-worker as they are
more understanding and aware of other’s emotions.
Evaluation models
There are many variations of evaluation models for
emotional intelligence, but it is widely accepted that there
are four components to emotional intelligence which are
categorised in pairs by both personal and social
competence, and recognition and regulation. For effective
leadership, a manager must demonstrate all of the four
components in each given situation or predicament.
Evaluation models
Identify emotional strengths and
weaknesses
Emotional strengths are qualities that help you manage
challenges and difficult situations. Using your emotional
strengths can help you think more clearly and decisively, and
in result feel less stressed and calmer. Before you start to
consider what causes you stress in the workplace, first identify
your emotional strengths and weaknesses.
Emotional strengths and weaknesses
Prepare to develop emotional
intelligence
1.2 Assess emotional strengths and weaknesses
against evaluation criteria
Assess emotional strengths and
weaknesses
Understanding your own emotional strengths and
weaknesses in the workplace is very important as it allows
you to understand why you and others might react in
certain ways. You will realise you have strengths in certain
areas and then things you need to work on. This will
increase self-awareness and self-regulation in the
workplace and will help you to conduct yourself more
professionally.
Assess emotional strengths and
weaknesses
Now you have identified your emotional strengths and
weaknesses, you can start to assess them against the
evaluation criteria. For effective leadership, a manager
should demonstrate all of the four components in each
given situation or predicament. Using your list of emotional
strengths and weaknesses, you can see how you fit into each
component and evaluate which ones may need some
additional attention and work.
Evaluation criteria
Evaluating emotional strengths
and weaknesses
When evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, you may
ealise that you are very strong in certain areas and are
offering the best you can right now, while you may admit
that some of your strengths need a bit of work so you can
develop them to the fullest potential. Think about areas in
which you succeed at work or what people in your team
may have said about you.
Prepare to develop emotional
intelligence
1.3 Identify and analyse potential emotional stressors in
the workplace
Stressors in the workplace
In most working environments, many potential stressors can
trigger emotional responses from yourself and others.
Within a management or leadership role, the number of
stressors is bound to increase as there are usually more
esponsibilities and pressures. People respond differently to
stressors and everyone has different tolerance levels.
Potential stressors
Potential stressors in the workplace might include:
➢Demands
➢ Poor leadership
➢ Relationships
➢Dealing with conflict
➢ Lack of support
➢ Lack of understanding
➢ Change.
Emotional states
Different types of work-related stressors may evoke
different emotional responses depending on the individual
and the circumstances. You should take note of the
emotions you are feeling in certain workplace situations so
you are aware of what your emotional triggers are and can
look for ways to deal with it better in the future.
Types of emotional states
Analysing emotional triggers
To identify your emotional triggers, you need to consider
the things that are most important or sensitive to you, that
if threatened or removed would cause an extreme
emotional reaction from you. They are often your morals
and values. Analysing your triggers will help you to
understand why you feel and react a certain way, and why
others might do so.
Possible emotional triggers
Possible emotional triggers could be the potential
compromise of any of the following concepts:
Controlling emotional responses
By identifying and understanding the reasons for your
emotional responses to work stressors, you have made
yourself more aware of the issue. This consciousness
should enable you to recognise the trigger and stop the
emotional reaction before it occurs. To control your
emotional response to the work stressors, you should
identify your emotional strength that is most
appropriate and suitable to deal with the issue.
Emotional triggers
When you get an emotional trigger, try to:
➢ Stop
➢ Detach yourself from the situation
➢ Use your emotional strength to analyse the problem
➢ Consider if the need that you believe is being compromised is really
under threat
➢ Consider if you have taken it personally when that was not the
intention of the action
➢ If the need is being compromised, how are you going to deal with it
objectively without being over-sensitive and emotional?
Documenting emotional triggers
Documenting your own emotional triggers will provide a
eference point which can be revisited at any point. This
means that in situations where you might be feeling
vulnerable, you will be able to identify things which may
heighten your emotions and put procedures in place to
avoid this from happening.
Prepare to develop emotional
intelligence
1.4 Identify methods for responding to emotional stressors
1.5 Seek feedback from others to identify and confirm methods for
esponding to emotional stressors in the workplace
Responding to emotional stressors
Once you have identified and analysed your emotional
stressors and triggers, you should have a better
understanding of what causes your reactions. This
understanding can help you to deal with these stressors
more effectively in the future and respond more
positively.
Responding to emotional stressors
As a leade
manager, you will have to deal with the
consequences of inappropriate emotional responses and
ehaviours from your subordinates and also possibly
complaints from customers/clients exhibiting heightened
emotions. If you are unable to manage your emotions
and respond appropriately to these scenarios, you will
exace
ate the situation. Learning to control your
emotions by detaching yourself from the issue and not
taking it personally is the goal.
Responding to situations
Dependent on the nature of the industry in which you
work, the scale of the emotions you will have to manage
might range from frustration at a printer that is out of
order and has not been reported, to fearing for safety if a
customer or staff member has lost their temper. You
should consider the different types of situation you may
have to deal with in your role and predict the emotions
you will have.
Evaluating your behaviou
A good way to ensure that your emotions are successfully
managed in the workplace is to evaluate the impact of your
own behaviour. In most cases, expressing heightened
emotion, whether this is wo
y, sadness, anger, etc., will
provoke a negative reaction from those around you.
To evaluate the impact of your own behaviour you could:
➢ Pay close attention to how people around you are
esponding
➢ Reflect on your feelings.
Talk about your feelings
It should help you to describe matters with feelings and put
an emotional label on how you felt at the time. For example,
if you were stuck in a traffic jam and late for a meeting you
might have been using expletives and saying things such as,
“This is just my luck”, or “I’m never going to make it on time.”
know that none of these remarks or behaviours is helpful
and heightens the emotion you are experiencing.
Talk about your feelings
You should try to think in emotions and feelings, saying
things such as:
➢ I feel impatient
➢ I feel annoyed
➢ I feel wo
ied.
As soon as you start detaching yourself from situations
and taking a step back to analyse how you are feeling, you
can start to manage your feelings and emotions more
ationally.
Take responsibility
When you look back at incidents where you have had to
manage your emotions, take responsibility for your feelings
and actions. Regardless of what has happened, nothing or
nobody can be held accountable for your chosen response
to a stimulus.
Use feelings to make decisions
When making decisions, you should ask
yourself:
➢ How will I feel if I do this?
➢ How will I feel if I don’t?
➢ Why will I feel like this?
➢ What else could I do that would make
me feel bette
different?
➢ What will others feel?
➢ What could I do to make others feel
etter?
.
Seek feedback from others
You could create a feedback system that allows your
employees/colleagues to voice their opinion on something
that happened in the workplace and how it made them
feel. Asking for feedback from people not only helps you
identify and assess your behaviour, but it also makes them
feel valued and important as you care about their
opinions. This is a good method of conflict resolution.
Self-reflection
Self-reflection is the key to understanding emotional
intelligence and could help you to identify and manage
your own emotions. As with all self-reflection, you have
to be honest and open for it to be of any value.