Wish you felt better about yourself, your job, and your direction? Feeling "stuck" and wonder if there really are tools that can make you successful or workplaces that are happy? For some people, that is an elusive hope you had many years ago that was lost somewhere between your first job review and the latest management program that blew through your workplace to streamline processes for success. But if you don't give up, and you learn more effectively how to align what you have already to where you want to be, you could be on the brink of an amazing journey back to the place where hope and reality work together for you. Let's first look at some of the facts.
First, let us agree that any tool used to try to predict whether or not a prospective applicant will “fit” or be successful in a company is only as reliable as the company’s own level of self-awareness about its identity, culture, structural limitations, and leadership. (Masluk-Meller, 2008). As Bolman and Deal (2009) suggest in their introductory comments regarding organizational frameworks, the successful learning organization is one in which the company has some accurate bearings about itself, its industry, and its purpose while it is navigating, accumulating, and processing knowledge within that framework. (p. viii – x). So organizational tools alone, particularly in recruiting efforts, cannot weed out applicants from jobs they shouldn't be in. The criteria and expectation may be wrong from the start. Any organization will only create roles that mirror its own level of self-awareness and ability to meet its own needs (e.g., self-actualization, self-navigation, self-regard). From your point of view, applying personal and leadership success tools in an environment that cannot support the use of them will not be wholly successful. Nor can it ensure promotion of the most meritorious worker who deserves it. The organization might not be actively recruiting for its real needs - only its perceived needs. But if that is you, all is not lost.
Assuming that the organization is at least self-aware enough to operate in a way that does not produce ancillary issues of bias, prejudice, abusive, illegal or discriminatory practices, there will most likely be a great fluidity of job descriptions and responsibilities. Times have changed, and so must the tools. We are living in a post-modern age identified by Eric Eisenberg and H. L. Goodall (1993) as being based on five principles of the postmodern organization: decentralization of power, changes in markets and commodity values, flattening of hierarchies, cultures based on trust and respect for diff
erences, and the use of groups. (Shockley-Zalback, Patricia, 2002) Even the NFL has admittedly little evidence to support recent use of intelligence tests, an old paradigm, to judge success “on the field” according to the article inset on page 160 of Hitt, Miller, & Colella (2009). Downsizing managerial levels, instituting job-sharing, technological mobility, and other creative modern company tools used to address financial and human resource issues in the workplace come on the heels of changing roles that are inherently less defined by one single set of skills or duties. Someone hired for a secretarial job might find themselves actually doing computer entry, training employees, running employee support programs, or scheduling resources for departments their specific job may not even report to. Project Managers may find themselves indirectly dependent upon others who aren't under or even influenced by their project or role and have no incentive to adjust. It is that elusive undefined and therefore unreachable fluid organizational expectation that makes workers unsure of their own importance or worth. More responsibility for decision-making, managing, navigating, promoting , and rewarding oneself for success in his or her workplace today rests on the employee more than ever.
That is the very reason why Emotional Intelligence (EQi) is the most able success tool for both the organization and the employee. Emotional Intelligence has proved the greater predictor of workplace success, both in employee feelings of well-being and in performance by external standards. This has been true in studies of students and work-experience (Shipley, Jackson, & Segress, n.d.), sales performance (Brown , 2014), project management (Gonzales, n.d.), and many other fields including health. Although Hurn (2006) found that there was increasingly no difference in the tested traits for in-country and overseas managerial positions that determining their job performance success, those traits can still be tested and ascertained as being present. (p. 282-3). Some of those universal traits are: cultural sensitivity, ability to manage ethical and cultural differences, B linguistic ability, building and leading multinational teams, adaptability, resilience, self-motivation, and managing work/family balance. These are all directly related to Emotional Intelligence skills that can be developed by both organizations AND employees!
To the extent that any organization is focused on Emotional Intelligence as part of its core identity and culture, using tools that multiply those skills at the organizational level will also be increasingly useful in helping to recruit, train, recognize the success of its workers more accurately, and create a happier workplace. Employees who utilize the tool also will find it increasingly easier to navigate their way to success within any organization - even a somewhat difficult organization. They will increasingly learn to manage expectations and perceptions, reality with optimism, actions with active listening, and distinguish between good stress and bad stress. And you can start now.
Review the exercises below and choose one to practice on your own this week. Then invest in yourself and book a business coaching session with us that includes your full Emotional Intelligence assessment (A), goal-setting session for success (M), and a progress follow-up meeting (P) later - our AMP method of coaching. Call toll-free 844-LDR-TEAM extension 402 or book online.
Brown, Carleton, 2014. The Effects of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Leadership Style on Sales Performance. Economic Insights - Trends and Challenges, Vol. III (LXVI), March 2014. Retrieved online: http://www.upg-bulletin-se.ro/archive/2014-3/1.Brown.pdf.
Eisenberg, Eric and Goodall H.L. (1993), as quoted by Shockley-Zalbak, Pamela, (2002). Fundamentals of Organizational Communication: Knowledge, Sensitivity, Skills, Values, 5th ed., pp. 122-23.
Gonzalez, Matthew D, PhD/PMP, n.d. Emotional Intelligence in Project Management, "The Role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in Project Management over the Next Five Years". Retrieved online: http://adcap.uiw.edu/news/emotional-intelligence-in-project-management.
Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. (2011). Organizational behavior: A strategic approach (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hurn, Brian J. (2006). “The Selection of International Business Managers, part 1”. Industrial & Commercial Training Journal, 38(6), pp. 279-286. Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
Masluk-Meller, Magdalena. (2008). “Organizational Self-Awareness”. Breakpoint HR, online. Retrieved from http://breakpointhr.blogspot.com/2008/02/organizational-self-awareness.html.
Shipley, Natalie L., Jackson, Mary Jo, Segrest, Sharon Larisa (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/10535.pdf.[dt_sc_hr_medium /]
Practice the first skill better: Self-Perception. Three components impact your self-perception. Self-Regard is respecting oneself while understanding and accepting one's strengths and weaknesses, and is associated with feelings of inner strength an self-confidence. Self-Actualization is the willingness to persistently try to improve oneself and engage in the pursuit of personally relevant and meaningful objectives that lead to a a rich and enjoyable life. Self-Awareness includes recognizing and understanding one's own emotions, which includes the ability to differentiate between subtleties in one's own emotions while understanding the cause of these emotions and the impact they have on the thoughts and actions of oneself and others. Try these exercises:
- Self-Awareness. Download the feelings wheel. At least three times per day for the next week, identify a feeling while you are feeling it and try to discover why that feeling was triggered in you. Was it similar to another experience that triggered it in the current situation? How did you express that feeling, and was it appropriate to the feeling itself and what the situation allowed? This skill will help you become more aware of yourself and the emotional wake you create around you.
- Self-Actualization. Most people have heard of a Bucket List - things to do, places to visit, or people to see before you die so that you feel like you've lived a meaningful life. Create one for yourself now and imagine that there are no limitations on resources, but that the items on the list are things that feed your soul or make you the best or happiest self you can be. Pick one and find a way to make it realistic by taking steps to accomplish it.
- Self-Regard. Make a list of your strengths and make a separate list of your weaknesses, but take several days to complete each list. When finished, ask yourself if they are they out-of-balance from one list or the other. Now try to match up your strengths with your weaknesses on one page in a picture/list/diagram that makes sense to you so that your strengths are surrounding, balancing, or compensating for various weaknesses. All of it is you. How can all of it together make you feel proud of yourself and what you can do?[dt_sc_hr_medium /]
