Emotional Intelligence

This week’s lesson was mainly about emotional intelligence and how it can be an effective trait in a leader. After understanding the meaning of emotional intelligence through the readings and videos especially in Durbin’s text, I realize that I didn’t know much about it or how much it’s needed in the workplace. I especially paid close attention to Daniel Goleman’s video about his research on the brain and how you can basically train your brain to function a certain way. This reminds me of the research that I found done on brain defaults. A theory that suggest the brain can force you to respond to certain things based upon experiences that you’ve had in the past, which doesn’t allow you to recognize something new that is being present to you at that current time. I had no idea that there could be a possibility of my brain being pre-programmed in a manner which can result in me responding to a person’s issue a certain way. There is so much we don’t know about the brain and how it can affect our every day decisions in leadership roles. What I’ve learned from all of the readings as well as the videos is that as a leader you can train yourself to have emotional intelligence. There are plenty of methods, strategies and tactics that will allow the brain to break old habits while forming new ones that may prove beneficial to you, not only as a leader but a person in general.

I took my emotional intelligence quiz in greater good magazine. The quiz featured insight on facial emotions and if you can read a persons facial emotion correctly. There were 20 questions and I received a score of 15/20. What I found taking this test was that there is a lot that goes into emotional intelligence besides just hearing and comprehending what a person tells you. You have to be fully aware of every emotional characteristic that the person gives off. Just watching a person’s facial expressions may be able to tell you what they’re going through internally. Often times people hide their true emotions but it’s usually hard to hide your expressions to those emotions.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/ei_quiz/results/

The method that resonated with me the most throughout all of the readings this week, was in the Durban’s text when he explained the 360-degree feedback. I love this method because I believe that so many people in leadership roles have a hard time with emotional intellect and not understanding how they’re being perceived by the people working for them. The 360-degree feedback is a method that allows the leader to hear and retain how their workers feel about their leadership in hopes that they will adjust accordingly. Sometimes the raw truth is the best strategy to get someone to relize how they’re behaving and try to shock them into changing because maybe they don’t know that they’re coming off the way they are.