How Can Emotional Intelligence Boost Team Efficacy?
Emotional intelligence is defined as ability for a person effectively managing himself and his relationships (Goleman, “Leadership That Gets Results” 80), and it can be viewed as a crucial characteristic for an effective leader who is the soul of a team (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 94). But emotional intelligence actually is a vital ability for not only leaders but also employees in other job positions. Daniel Goleman indicated that, by calculating the ration of the components of excellent performance such as IQ, technical skills, etc., he found that emotional intelligence was more important than others for helping an employee working in any level to achieve admirable work performance; there was a positive correlation between the importance of emotional intelligence capability and the job position (“What Makes A Leader?” 94). Team efficacy basically can be improved by enhancing the team’s coordination, and all of the five components of emotional intelligence used at workplace can boost teamwork; the five components are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 95).
People with strong self-awareness are honest to themselves and others, and self- awareness refers to a trait that one is clearly and thoroughly aware of his emotions, desires, needs, drive, strengths, weaknesses and limitations (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 96). For example, an employee with self-awareness can properly judge his ability of dealing with stress, and only gives commitment to a bearable workload. If everyone in a team has this capability, the team can set a reachable goal, and can well deliver the work on time. Moreover, people with strong self-awareness are more confortable confessing their limitations and failures than people with low self-awareness (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 96). Having members with this characteristic, the team can feel that it is easier to accept a failure or problem, and then seek solutions for solving the problem.
Self-regulation allows a person to control his emotion instead of becoming a prisoner to it (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 98). Daniel Goleman implied that people who can master their emotions neither display negative emotion nor create conflict; therefore, the working environment is filled with trust and fairness (“What Makes A Leader?” 98). Although a person with self-regulation can be misunderstood as someone with no passion, people who can control their emotions are able to perform better in a changing environment, because they are able to stay calm and focus on seeking out useful information (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 98- 99). Furthermore, a team’s integrity can be enhanced with members who have self-regulation (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 98), because when there’s a conflict, members in the team can master their tempers instead of spending much time on blaming each other.
In addition, motivation, another component of emotional intelligence, helps to enhance team efficacy. Motivation can drive people to achieve beyond expectations, and also help them remain optimistic (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 100). If all members in a team have passion and high expectations for their work and team performance, they will be committed to their team, and consistently work together on the tasks to produce an excellent outcome. Besides motivation, empathy can also impact emotional intelligence. Daniel Goleman defined empathy as a capability for people to thoughtfully consider others feelings in the process of decision- making, and implied that people with empathy can better understand others’ emotions (“What Makes A Leader?” 100).
The last component of emotional intelligence used in work environment is social skill. Social skill is a key element among these five factors, because other components of emotional intelligence can only present their value through a good social skill (Goleman, “What Makes A Leader?” 102). For example, an employee won’t understand his colleague’s empathy if the colleague doesn’t properly express his understanding of the employee’s concerns.
In short, team efficacy can certainly be boosted by emotional intelligence. Team members with all five components of emotional intelligence can be motivated by high but reachable goals; also, everyone in the team has suitable amount of job responsibility. When there are different opinions or conflicts emerging in the team, its members can have their tempers in control, and find a proper way to discuss and solve the issue.
Bibliography
Goleman, Daniel. “Leadership That Gets Results.” Harvard Business Review March-April 2000: 80–90.
— . “What Makes A Leader?” HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW November-December 1998: 93- 102.
