I think emotional intelligence is very important for us in every aspects of life as it can help us move forward with spontaneity, engage others and succeed in our goal. Awareness, empathy, motivation, regulation and social skills are all very important areas of emotional intelligence. Most people cannot successfully master all 5 areas which is none of us are perfect. I am also learning to master them and have faced instances where I felt lack of awareness at some point in my professional life. However, I was still able to cope with it as I am strong on the other areas. I think motivation and social skills and are very important areas of emotional intelligence because they help draw people towards us to work for the same goal. We need motivation in every instances at a work place. Without motivation, nothing would keep us moving towards the goal. And social skills work more efficiently than our technical expertise as it helps us get more people involved in our professional life.  

I can recall a machine design project from college where we had to design a Cam Tester together as a total class. In the beginning, bringing everyone together was a hard job for the team leader. Everyone had different opinions, different time schedules, and different personalities. The class leader made sure that all of us felt included and he encouraged any suggestions whether good or bad. Also, as he had a good relationship with all in the class he had no problems. By the time we had finished the initial round of design iterations everyone was involved and had forgotten their differences. The leader was willing to take the risks and the team understood it. 

Empathy is the ability to be attuned to the feelings and emotions of other team members. And I think that this is what led to a very productive working environment for us during the machine design project. Empathy was what built the required trust between the team and the leader. There are three basic ways of empathy: effective empathy, cognitive empathy, and cognitive regulation. 

I agree that emotional intelligence is very important in order to be a successful leader, to often within some organizations, individuals are placed into leadership positions without the correct skill set to lead. Emotional intelligence is especially important during these times of COVID. None, if very few individuals who are currently in America's workforce have lived through an actual pandemic.  This pandemic as altered many American's ability to function at the highest capability due to all of the stressors that are currently upon us as a country. The 5 areas of emotional intelligence are needed more than ever in the work force to help balance coworkers and to provide whatever type of additional stability in an unstable situation.  I do agree that depending on the organization or company emotional intelligence may take a back seat to the academic profile but I do not think that that is the best answer.  

Yes, I have had an experience where I had to evaluate my emotional intelligence to get through a team project successfully. I worked with a team of Group Practice managers, one from Department of surgery, one from the radiology department, and one from the women's health clinic OB/GYN. We had to work together to prepare for a move from one hospital location to another. I truly butted heads with one because to me her rationale for the plan of organization was not safe for all patients, she was older then me and took offence to suggesting a different plan. We did actually but heads and then we finally sat down and compromised for the safety of our patients and other staff members. 

Of the five areas of emotional intelligence, awareness is the most important in my opinion. Awareness drives how you as a person respond to others and it serves as a regulator for empathy and motivation. Social skills to me can be taught which puts it on the lowest level to me and honestly, some people just don't have them neither do they care to develop them. 

While studying behavior, learning, individual reactions and group dynamics, I learned that the four components of emotional intelligence includes perceiving emotions which involves recognizing emotion via body language and other cues, understanding emotions which involves the ability to correctly
attribute emotions both one’s own and those of others, to a particular source, reasoning with emotions which involves the ability to employ emotions for cognitive ends, and finally managing emotions which involves regulating emotion by knowing when and to what degree to react in an emotionally- charged situation. Having a keen sense of Emotional intelligence can be the glue that melds together multiple personalities combined with empathy and understanding to ultimately accomplish any project.

I have had experiences that required that I evaluate myself and individuals' emotional intelligence on a team. One time in particular that needed this was working in groups to create a curriculum that would increase students' critical thinking. The project was challenging as there were some people with strong emotions and believed that activities or content should be taught in a particular manner different from others. The first day was challenging; however, by the second day and after reorganizing teams for a better fit, things went smoothly. By the end of the week, all goals were met. I think self-awareness is the most important emotional intelligence area because it dedicates how you respond to everything around you. When you can control your emotions and responses, it can sometimes alter how others respond, allowing for a better connection to others.

I truly believe that emotional intelligence does have a huge impact on the success of a team. While working with a group I had to evaluate my own emotional intelligence, in order to have a successful outcome when working on a project. I am an introvert so when working on this particular group project, I had to motivate myself to be more outgoing and talkative. I would have great ideas that would help with the project, however I did not have the courage to speak up about these ideas to my partners within the group. While finding my motivation to finally speak up, this improved other areas of my emotional intelligence such as my social skills, and awareness, because I became attentive of how to explain my ideas in different aspects for each group member to understand my point of reasoning. I believe that social skills is the most important area, because it ties all of the other areas together. Without social skills you will lack the ability to communicate with other people, making you unaware of there ideas, and it will make you less motivated as a group member. Also, with the lack of social skills you wont be able to share these feelings with group members which means empathy will not exist, and lastly the flow and regulation of the group will be discombobulated, and make the task very hard to complete.

Almost any decision we make is based on logic, emotions, or a combination of the two. With that being said, when it comes to making business-related decisions, say in the scope of project management or leadership, it is essential to understand both. The logical aspect of decision-making is the obvious one and the typical one deemed most professional and appropriate in business settings. This leaves the emotional element often overlooked. However, being in tune with one's emotions and others' feelings may be one of the most important aspects of being a leader and cooperating effectively as a team. I firmly believe that once you develop the emotional competency to understanding your own emotions, then you can effectively conquer your limitations, fears and focus on your motivations. Once you know the origins of your own emotions, you can understand others' emotions and have an empathetic view towards them. I think empathy is what distinguishes a true leader. This is increasingly important as we see today that business is becoming more global, and the basis for understanding people's cultures is understanding their emotions. Do you think if there was more emphasis on developing emotional intelligence over technical skills that the international business would be more efficient? 

I am a 6’4” Athletically built African American man, and as such, I must constantly evaluate my emotional intelligence during project management engagements.  Job #1 is often ensuring “others” are comfortable by my presence – for all those reasons citizens were protesting last summer.  Still, you learn how to wear the “S” on your chest without being too much of superman. Hence, my superpower is empathy.  I realize that for many, they must overcome all sorts of perceptions, ideologies, and baggage when interacting with me.  When I once was a W2 employee, I was newly assigned to oversee workers at a company office with no African Americans employees.  The two key workers would support my projects.  How I dealt with workers, who could not provide reasonable answers for why they did not want to work for me, had parallels with a TV show I once watched.  In this TV show, Garth Brooks made a cameo appearance.  Upon Garth entering the scene with the lead actor of the TV show, the actor became “star struck” by Garth and started to scream, shout, and jump.  Garth, said to her with a smile, “go ahead, get it all out… Do you need to shout some more? Go ahead.”  Effectively, Garth empathized with them.  He realized that as a celebrity, public citizens can act crazy sometimes when meeting him for the first time.  In the same way, when I met with my new project managers for the first-time, I let them get their crazy out.  Which can be any number of things, from them reconciling for themselves how articulate I am to trusting my portion of the work product.  All so we can identify each others work patterns and coalesce.  Still, I never really know what perception if any must be overcome to ensure a successful project.  I just bring my "A" game.  By the way, the celebrity was not Garth Brooks, it was Prince.  We all have perceptions, ideologies and baggage, and my perception of anyone reading this post is they more likely know Garth Brooks than Prince 🙂         

In my school district we have an academy system.  Each of the four high schools host five academies one of which, the freshman academy, can be found at all of the schools while the other four are unique.  This system requires the teachers to be assigned to the academy so that the students are ability to receive the help of a team of teachers sharing the same students rather than teachers with no students in common.  It's quite a good idea however, there are some teachers who are unable to positively contribute to the overall atmosphere of most meetings or who try to control all aspects so that no one else receives credit.  Both of these behaviors are detrimental to the productivity of the team.  It is my belief that social skills is the most important of the five areas.  This is because when a person has great social skills, they encompass a bit of each of the other areas.  

Posted by: @llefevre

Having a keen sense of Emotional intelligence can be the glue that melds together multiple personalities combined with empathy and understanding to ultimately accomplish any project.

@llefevre Hi Lentz! I completely agree with this statement. While having multiple personality types on a team is wonderful for diversity and production, if there is a lack of understanding between team members, it could spell disaster.  In the example that I gave, one of the many issues is the lack of empathy between peers and even the administrator in charge.  Having more people that are respectful of the various personalities involved would have a positive impact on not only the meetings themselves but all so the effectiveness of said meetings on the students.

@llefevre That is a wonderful way to compile all the necessary elements of emotional intelligence. Recognition, understanding, reasoning, and management are all needed for effective communication within the project team. A breakdown of communication within a project can be the end of smooth progress for the project's duration. For example, if there is a lack of understanding of why the engineers are behind schedule due to a machine malfunction, those who are funding the project and are not familiar with the facility would be upset. The unfamiliarity and lack of empathy or understanding towards the engineers can cause tension within the team. A solution to this would be the Project Manager reasoning with the higher-ups and the engineers, acting as a bridge to communicate the change in schedule and determining a solution to the problem.

Working on a project will require high levels of emotional intelligence.  As a 6th grade math teacher, I don't only teach math content, but integrate social-emotional learning opportunities as well.  Our basic emotions of love, happiness, sadness, anger, and fear will have an impact on our everyday lives.  As stated previously, that is not going to change on a project team.  It is absolutely necessary for regulation to lay at the foundation of our emotional intelligence.  Engaging in any other concept is extremely difficult when emotions are not regulated effectively.  I have worked on a few business projects that have come to a complete halt because individuals did not regulate emotions well.  In a previous post Jay Teamer mentioned the importance of communication on a team.  I would take that a step further with the concept of crucial conversations.  Effective crucial conversations should be the practice within project teams.  Done correctly, it will allow for the proper regulation of emotions while working toward solutions.  

Yes, there have been many times where I have had to evaluate my emotional intelligence when working on a project with a group of people. In fact, it was due to my emotional intelligence that I knew to withdraw myself from the particular group. The project was successful in the end because of the morale of the rest of the team, however, it took emotional intelligence to get through the rough patches. Of the five areas, I believe it was the motivation that kept the group together long enough to complete the project. On the other hand, I believe empathy is the most important area of emotional intelligence in general.  

Project management usually covers all aspects of a project, from inception to completion. However, as the climate changes, project management has become more than that. Negotiation, relationship advancement, influencing, and team building are all aspects of project management that are part of Emotional Intelligence. I don't have a specific example where I had to evaluate my emotional intelligence, but I am aware of the importance it plays in team building. Emotional Intelligence refers to a person's ability to express thoughts, make judgments based on various layers of understanding, and empathize with others. In 1990, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer described emotional intelligence as "a type of social intelligence that includes the capacity to track one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to differentiate among them, and to use this knowledge to direct one's thought and behavior."