5.6 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Creating a Positive, Balanced Team

(EXTRACTION FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Developing Your Team at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

Helping Your People Develop Emotional Intelligence

By focusing on increasing your people's emotional intelligence, you can reap many benefits from improved teamwork.  Emotional Intelligence  , also called EI.  It is partly the ability to recognize and control your own emotions, and understand what those emotions are telling you.  It also means that you can recognize the emotional wants and needs of others and respond appropriately.  EI determines your self-awareness and your people skills.

EI is necessary for:

·        building trust,

·        creating a sense of identity and efficacy,

·        solving problems with others,

·        cooperating, and

·        participating productively.

When emotionally intelligent people work together, they have the ability to

·        sweep aside minor conflicts in order to focus on the team's interests

·        deal well with more serious conflicts

·        grow from any disagreements that may arise

·        perform better and experience more job

Building Emotional Intelligence
Start With Yourself	·        lead by example ·        staying aware of your own thoughts and feelings, and managing them, so that you affect other people positively
Communicate the Benefits	·        communicate the benefits that they can expect
Develop Self-Awareness	·        People who are self-aware understand their own thoughts and emotions, as well as understanding how their actions affect others around them ·        build employees’ self-awareness by asking for their opinions on decisions ·        set aside time to talk about difficult situations or issues ·        encourage your team members to open up and talk about what they're thinking and feeling, the more likely they are to develop self-awareness
Strengthen Communication	·        People with high EI typically have excellent communication skills ·        Develop better communication by teaching people to understand body language ·        knowing how to deal with negative emotions ·        set aside five minutes of each meeting for complaints and frustrations ·        let your team know that their criticisms won't be frowned upon ·        create fun ways to acknowledge and deal with stress or tension ·        Teach everyone on your team to use active listening   skills ·        respect other people when they're speaking
Build Optimism	·        ability to think positively   is an important part of EI ·        positive thinking means acknowledging bad news and rationally deciding how to handle it
Encourage Healthy Conflict	·        engage in conflict in a healthy way ·        everyone's perspective is respected when they communicate their views ·        Make it clear that conflicts should never get personal ·        Set ground rules
Set Specific Learning Goals	·        help each person discover their strengths and weaknesses ·        set clear, specific goals   to help each person work on their weaknesses ·        provide constructive feedback   on each person's progress ·        word of encouragement or a helpful observation will go a long way