EQ for High Performing Teams

Knowledge and application of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is essential to create and maintain high performing teams.

Emotional Intelligence builds rapport enabling a person to communicate effectively at all levels.

Emotional Quotient (EQ) has been around since 1990 when Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer first coined the term “Emotional Intelligence” describing it as “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action”

The Collins dictionary definition of EQ :

1. emotional quotient, a (notional) measure of a person's adequacy in such areas as self-awareness, empathy, and dealing sensitively with other people

Technical skills required for any discipline from Accounting – Zoo Keeping can be learned by attending training courses, studying and getting recognised industry specific qualifications. Most skilled jobs will require some level of formal training and a person’s aptitude and IQ will influence their ability to carry out a specific job with it’s specific technical skills requirements.

The same level of training and learning needs to be given for EQ.

Sow to Reap passionately believe that skills in EQ count more than skills in IQ.

The best performing teams are always those where team members are trusted and empowered in their duties and given an opportunity to learn, grow and expand their responsibilities. This will build natural loyalty among the team such that the team members will go the extra mile to complete tasks.

For people in leadership and management positions it is essential for them to understand and apply EQ in the day to day running of their teams.

Team members without good EQ skills will not last long in a well performing team.

Bad Managers and bad leaders with poor EQ skills will result in demotivated teams and high turnover of team members.

The quality of managers has a direct impact on a organisation’s bottom line and it’s ability to attract and retain great staff. Moreover the quality of management will have a large impact on the results from employees.

EQ is the foundation for a host of essential skills as it impacts most of everything said or done by an individual. People can be intelligent but not emotionally intelligent.

The foundation elements of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) are :

Situational Awareness

Self Awareness

Self Management

Social Awareness

Relationship Management

Situational Awareness

Used by aeroplane pilots and government agencies – situational awareness is just as applicable in the work place or home life.

The ability to accurately assess what is going on around you and whether anyone or anything around your is an impact to your emotions or health and safety.

Self Awareness

The ability to accurately assess your own emotions in the moment and understand your tendencies in a situation.

Self Management

What you do when you act – or don’t act. The ability to use your awareness of your emotions to manage reactions to situations and people.

Social Awareness

The ability to pick up accurately the emotions of other people and understand what is really going on with them.

Relationship Management

The ability to use awareness of your own emotions and those of other to manage interactions successfully. Solid relationships should be sought and coveted.

Anyone running a team - however large or small - needs to continually learn EQ skills and understand how it affects the performance of individuals and teams.

References

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 – Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves 2009

For copies of this article or further information on how Sow to Reap can help your organisation please email us at: info@sowtoreap.org