Emotional Intelligence - Benefits for Team Leaders and Teams

I've been helping people enhance their Emotional Intelligence skills for over a decade. The roles of people participating in my Emotional Intelligence (EI) skill-building programs have ranged from executives to administrative staff. While the challenges they face are quite different, the emotions they experience are the same. They all have experienced anxiety, frustration and even anger at times as they are confronted with today's enormous stress and fast-paced change. However, when they develop the EI competency of becoming internally self-managed, they become empowered and make their greatest contributions. And when employees work in that zone of peak performance, so does the organization. Below are a few examples of how development of EI skills can benefit team leaders and teams.

Team Leaders and Project Managers:

Team Leaders and Project Managers are held accountable for setting and maintaining a positive environment where very diverse, non-local individuals can work together to achieve success in shorter and shorter time periods on projects of greater magnitude and importance. They must eliminate roadblocks and internal and external or organizational barriers so their teams can achieve success. Working in the political environment of organizations can cause a lot of frustration, anxiety, suspicion, and resentment as the maze of organizational change is deciphered. Members may leave the team, causing further delays, and teams and projects fall behind schedule.

Enhancing EI skills of Team Leaders and Project Managers enables them to maintain a positive attitude as they eliminate impediments to team success. By improving their own internal motivation and persistence, they motivate their team to high, sustained levels of performance and achievement. Major projects of significant importance to the organization are achieved on time and on budget. Critical talented staff are developed and retained.

Teams:

Teams are shouldering more and more responsibility for major organizational initiatives. They are under pressure to work smoothly with people they may never see face-to-face both inside and outside their organization. Deadlines are tight, resources are scarce, technology is rapidly advancing, and team members are constantly changing. As things change and the demands increase, it's easy to feel dejected, overwhelmed and confused. It's normal to feel angry when a team member doesn't deliver, disgusted when resources are taken away, and frustrated when you are still expected to meet tight deadlines. Product introductions are missed and market share can be lost to competitors as team cohesion and effectiveness break down and progress slows to a creep.

The storming phase of team formation can be dramatically shortened when the team enhances its EI skills. With enhanced skills, team members can more efficiently and effectively deal with their own and other member's emotional turmoil, using this bond as a source for developing team cohesion and trust. Esprit de corps is developed with a can-do attitude. Major projects of significant importance to the organization are completed on time and on budget, and the organization gains a reputation as a great place to work and grow.

A True Story:

This true story about two team leaders who had a long history of antagonism and unwillingness to work together provides evidence of the power of developing EI skills. Joe and Dan (not their real names) had not supported each other and their respective teams for 17 years. As a result of EI training, Joe and Dan learned how to transform their negative emotions toward each other into more positive emotions and productive behaviors.

After the training, they talked to each other in the hallway and then started listening and talking to each other on a regular basis. During the second coaching a couple of weeks after the training, each one of them, independently, told me that for the first time ever they were inviting the other's staff to their staff meetings as a means to improve communication and work jointly in addressing problems occurring in their departments. By promoting team-to-team coordination, they were able to eliminate the "silo" mentality. They also created a positive trickle-down effect on everyone in the entire organization (about 5000 employees). Of significance is the fact that this change happened within a few days after each had mastered simple EI techniques.

And this example is not unusual. Participants in EI training programs have reported a range of 20% to 35% increase in personal productivity, 15% to 35% increased teamwork, a 20% to 40% reduction in stress and worry, and similar improvements in management of emotional reactiveness, personal motivation, creativity, work/life balance and more. These increases can translate into a positive return on investment for the organization.