Emotional Intelligence at Workplace: Role in Decision Making

Session II

Traits of Emotionally Intelligent Person

Aware of thoughts and feelings and their impact on behaviour. Aware of strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities and open to feedback from others. Able to contain intense negative or positive emotions without losing control. Clear about values and principles that are consistent with actions. Proactive and persistent in achieving goals even in the face of setbacks. Sensitive to other peoples feelings and able to offer constructive feedback. Promote other peoples success without feeling threatened..

Communicate openly, and are willing and able to listen to others.

Capable of taking leading roles in work and family life. Believe in the power of teams and the positive effect of synergy.

Low Emotional Intelligence

External locus of control Hunting, killing, or fishing for personal pleasure, Causing harm to others for personal pleasure Disregard for personal safety and health Disregard for future consequences of one's bad behavior

Impulsive behaviors and reckless fun

Use of drugs and substances to alter the states of the mind,, Narcissism, inflated sense of mental superiority, and self-importance Distorted mental perception of one's body, Detachment from one's body, treating it as an object Belief that events happen because of a supernatural reason or purpose Belief that bad things happen because someone expresses them in words Rationalization (false and unsound interpretation of an obvious phenomenon) Easy acceptance of unjustified claims of others (healing power of magnets)

Low Emotional Intelligence

- Being fat or anorexic, Sleeping less than 6 hours a night, taking no work breaks, and eating just 1 meal a day. Strict following of daily routines from dawn to bedtime, Narrow focus and a very limited mental world. - Idolatry and following in the footsteps of role models - Fearlessness and lack of emotion

- Exaggerated interest in one activity

- Subconscious feeling of inadequacy, Preoccupation with one's level of intelligence - Strong desire to receive praise, reward, and recognition, even if unjustified - Pursuit of unnecessary goals (become a Ph.D., President, Olympic medalist) - Association with entities that are considered prestigious, - Magical thinking (belief that reality can be altered through wishful thinking or prayer) - Superstition and belief in destiny

Exercise

Think of a person for whom or with whom you worked - one that you would gladly work with or for again.

Think of a person in a leadership position that you try to avoid, or left you drained, or hoping for more.

How would you describe these people? How did they make you feel?

Boss?
Good Boss Visionary Humorous Kind Appreciative Good communicator Clear, precise

Bad Boss

Good team builder Positive Ethical Resultsoriented (vs. process)

(communication)

Hard worker Empathetic

Disrespectful Belligerent Demeaning Moody Negative Unethical Incompetent Discouraging

Self-absorbed Inconsistent direction Vindictive Ego-maniac Prideful Manipulative Paranoid

The Feelings...
Empowered Enthusiastic Valued Energized Hopeful Confident Safe Relaxed Mutual admiration Respected Motivated to excel
Good Boss

Little, small, demeaned Hopeless Stupid Drained, Very Stressed Angry, Fearful Depressed Unappreciated Incompetent Rebellious Withdrawn Uncooperative Unproductive Eager to sabotage
Bad Boss

Job and EI
Jobs that require emotional and intelligent thinking (that is deep understanding of things and events) include Scientists Researchers, Judges, Presidents.

Jobs that need memory and attentional abilities along with high IQ include these professions: Fighting general Pilot, Emergency room doctor, Air controller, Flight manager, Project manager, or an Event manager.

Job and EI
Average education, IQ, and EQ, but with outstanding attentional and memory abilities, may excel in occupations requiring divided attention and quick mental responses. Cashier, Customer service clerk Waiter Entertainer Bus driver, or policeman. Low overall intelligence and poor attentional and memory abilities are best suited for jobs that do not require divided attention. Various laborers, but also folk artists, artisans, story tellers, singers, writers, and similar professions that only require a specific talent or skill.

Decision Making
Decision Making is using problem solving skills.
2 separate things: Problem solving and decision making Problem solving means being coerced to make a decision because of things not in ones control. Good decision making is to employ both thinking and feeling in ones decisions (Gardner, 1983). Positive moods and emotions seem to help decision making. Positive emotions also enhance problem-solving skills so that positive people find better solutions to problems (Isen, 2001).

Emotions and Reason

Behavior promoted by emotions may not suit the current circumstances so that it appears irrational or produces undesirable effects.

Examples:
Attacking the boss for not giving you an expected raise; Poor public -speaking performance due to evaluation apprehension. Antonio Damasio proposed, based on clinical studies of brain-damaged individuals, that solid decision-making requires input from emotional-evaluative systems.

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Effect of Mood on Decision Making

HAPPINESS Optimism about the present

ANGER Optimism about the future

Pessimism about the future FEAR

Pessimism about the present SADNESS

Two System View of Decision Making

(Epstein, 1994; Kahneman & Frederick, 2002; Loewenstein & ODonoghue, 2004; Metcalf & Mischell, 1999; Slovic & Peters, 2000; Sloman, 1996,)

Heart:
Emotional, Intuitive, Affective, based system Implicit, unconscious, automatic, associative, fast, parallel, noncompensatory, experiential, contextual Little demands on working memory

Mind:
Rational, Analytic, Reasoning based system Explicit, conscious, controlled and deliberative, slow, serial, compensatory, comprehensive, abstract Large demands on working memory

Does Mood Bias Information Processing?

Negative moods (as compared to positive moods) narrow the focus of attention make people more vigilant and systematic in information processing (Isen, 1999; Schwarz, 1990) Pleasant moods enhance helping behavior (Baron, 1997) Positive mood affects risk aversion. (Isen, Nygren, & Ashby, 1998)

Fearful moods generate pessimistic risk assements while anger produces less pessimistic risk assessments (Lerner & Keltner, 2000)

Affective Events Theory (AET)

Source: Based on N.M. Ashkanasy and C.S. Daus, Emotion in the Workplace: The New Challenge for Managers, Academy of Management Executive, February 2002, p. 77.

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Emotional Decision Making: Advantages?

A totally emotional decision is very fast in comparison to a rational decision. reactive (and largely subconscious) can be useful when faced with immediate danger, or in decisions of minimal significance. Emotions are possible signals from the subconscious that provide information about what we really choose. Decisions that start with logic may need emotions to enable the final selection, particularly when confronted with near equal options. Individuals care about the emotional features of decision options.

Emotions often drive us in directions conflicting with self19 interest.

Emotional Decision Making??

Emotional decision making: Number of negatives:

Quick decisions without knowing why, and then create rational reasons to justify a poor emotional decision.
Intensity of emotions can override rational decision making in cases where it is clearly needed. Immediate and unrelated emotions can create mistakes by distorting and creating bias in judgments. In some cases this can lead to unexpected and reckless action. Projected emotions can lead to errors because people are subject to systemic inaccuracy about how they will feel in the future.

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Assessment of Your Workplace Decision-Making Style

Indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the statements below:

- It is important to control emotions at work.

Decisions need to be made on logical and rational grounds.

People should try put their personal feelings aside.

Overly emotional people dont fit in well in the workplace. Expressing feelings should be limited. Emotional awareness is less important than logical thinking. At work, people should emphasize logic over feeling.

My Edorsement?
If you agree with these statements, then you are endorsing the rule of reason in the workplace. You probably value rational, logical thinking, and although you can be emotional, you are able to control your emotions so that they dont control you. If you disagree with these statements, then you are endorsing the rule of emotion in the workplace. Perhaps you find emotions to be an integral part of your work-life and are not able to separate thinking and feeling. Does it matter? Endorsing the rule of reason or the rule of emotion suggests something important about your management style.

Different Moods Influence Thinking in Different Ways

Positive Emotions

Expand our thinking Help generate new ideas Encourage us to consider possibilities
as they can enhance thinking in very useful and practical ways.
Some of the effects of negative mood or emotion on

Negative emotions are also important,

thinking include

Providing a clearer focus

Allowing details to be examined more efficiently Motivating a more efficient search for errors

Case Study: Too Much Delegation

(Adapted from Marshall & Hornak, 2008:178)

Every year your organization coordinates a zoo trip for a group of local disadvantaged youth. Cameron is the president of the organization and he tends to delegate everything. Most of the members wonder what he actually does as president. David is the vice president and often the person who receives most of the delegated tasks. David has difficulty saying no and is getting overwhelmed and frustrated because Cameron keeps dumping things on him.

Cameron asks David to coordinate the zoo field trip. David gets upset by the request and is ready to quit the organization.
1. What may be contributing to the problem from the way David handles things? 2. What would be an emotionally intelligent way to respond to the situation? 3. How might David confront Cameron, and what would be the objective of the interaction? 4. What are the alternative responses and solutions, should the interaction fail to achieve your intended goals?

Emotional Blueprint Abilities

Read PeopleIdentify Emotions: This refers to the ability to identify accurately how you, and those around you, are feeling and your ability to express these feelings. More than awareness, this ability stresses accuracy of awareness.

Get in the MoodUse Emotion: This special ability helps you determine how emotions help you and how they work in harmony with thinking. Your ability to use emotions changes your perspective, allowing you to see the world in different ways and to feel what others feel.
Predict the Emotional FutureUnderstand Emotions: Emotions have their own language, and they have their own logical moves. The ability to understand emotion means that you can determine why you feel the way you do and what will happen next. Do It with FeelingManage Emotions: Emotions convey important information, so it is valuable to be open to our emotions and to use this information to make informed decisions. Emotional intelligence, then, consists of these four abilities: to identify how people feel, to use emotions to help you think, to understand the causes of emotions, and to include and manage emotions in your decision making to make optimal choices in life.

Don: A Geat Manager?

Don was a great manager. He was extremely effective in many ways, as reflected by his own job satisfaction, the satisfaction of the people reporting to him, and his ability to complete projects on a sched-ule that met his clients needs. That is why Don was initially quite surprised when his operations group at a high-powered Wall Street firm suddenly experienced an unanticipated change: a noticeable drop in morale and productivity. Recounting the history of his group, Don related that some problems had arisen during and after a partial staff relocation eight months earlier. In his inimitable, hands-on manner, Don had addressed each of these problems, resolved the issue, and moved on. He continued his detailed analysis of the group, discussing other problems they had experienced, the nature of their projects, and a host of other, possible causes for the precipitous productivity drop. The list of potential causes was long, but Don dismissed each one, and it did seem that none of these could have had such a major negative impact on this previously high-functioning team. Dons analytical skills were as strong as his managerial and technical skills, and he was quite open to possible personal failings. His systematic analysis was detailed, rational, and logicaland wrong. 1. What have you done in case you were at Don's place?

Don was wrong??

Symptoms of something else

Problem of Parking spaces

feelings of the department members who now had a shorter commute but no longer felt part of the community.

Problem of differrent tax forms

feeling of loss experienced by the people who stayed behind in the original Wall Street offices.

Faulty ACs

Don failed to conduct the emotional analysis of the situation

Emotional Blue Print

Situation
Describe the situationthe time, place, and people involved.

Identify List the feelings of each person.

Use
Describe the focus of attention.

Understand
Ask yourself why they feel this way. Consider whats next.

Manage
Ask yourself these questions: Should you ignore or accept feelings? What do the emotions tell you? What are some good options?

An Emotional Blueprint
Step Identify Emotions Goal Get complete and accurate data. Action Listen, ask questions ansd paraphrase to ensure you understand how your team feels. Determine how these feelings influence your thinking and that of a team Examine the causes of these feelings and what may happen next. Include the rational, logical information available with the emotional data just gathered to make an optimal decision

Use Emotions

Have feelings guide your thinking

Understand Emotion Manage Emotion

Evaluate possible emotional scenarios Determine underlying root cause and take the action to solve the problem.

Dons Emotional Blueprint Action Plan

Step Identify Emotions Use Emotions Understand Emotion What Don discovers

The team feels isolated, alone, and sad.

They are focused on negatives and fault-finding. They feel abandoned. As the situation continues, they may feel upset and angry. It may have been a mistake not to move with the group, but I need to stay open and try to solve the real issue.

Manage Emotion

Please suggest
One of your colleagues at work looks upset and asks if you will eat lunch with him. At the cafeteria, he motions for you to sit away from the other diners. After a few minutes of slow conversation, he says that he wants to talk to you about whats on his mind. He tells you that he lied on his rsum about having a college degree. Without the degree, he wouldnt have gotten the job. Which of the following would be most likely to result in having your colleague immediately feel better about the situation? 1. Ask him how he feels about it so you can understand whats going on.

2. Offer to help him, but dont push yourself on him if he really doesnt want your help.
3. Have him share all the possible negative consequences of his act. Get him to work through what the worst outcome could be so he realizes that the situation may not be as bad as he thinks. 4. Quickly change the subject and do not deal with his issue right now. Getting his mind off the problem is the best thing to do

Case Study
(Adapted from Marshall & Hornak, 2008:18-19)

Two roommates on your floor do not get along. They seem to disagree on nearly everything. One goes to bed early, and one stays up late. One listens to music, and the other prefers television. One studies a lot, and the other loves to socialize at all hours of the night. You have already sat down with them once to complete a roommate agreement form. At the time, they agreed to compromise on a variety of issues so that the living environment would be suitable for both. However, slowly, over time, the two started to deviate from the signed agreement. Rather than discuss their problems face-to-face, they e-mail and instant message (IM) each other. The e-mails and IMs get nastier over the course of several weeks. One of the roommates comes to you to learn how to break his housing contract. You ask the student if he has talked with his roommate about the problems and revisited the signed agreement. He admits that they talk electronically and that things have taken a turn for the worse. 1. As the residence director, how would you use your understanding, your emotional intelligence skills, in this situation? 2. What would you do to resolve the situation?

Thank You