Management and Emotional Intelligence

Prompt One

Susan as a manager took a prudent initiative of accepting to make self-assessment on her strengths and weaknesses. In her assessment, Susan opts for “24 classifications of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths.” From the self-assessment report, Susan happily discovers that she has humour and teamwork as her credible and influential strengths. However, she concludes that because humour and teamwork are her two strengths, she should change anything about the application of these strengths.

Susan as a manager is not making use of her assessment effectively. Any form of assessment is associated or followed with some stratified changes that aim at improving the current state into a more advanced version. Susan is not making the right decision of not embracing change. She has discovered the right and essential strengths within her. I feel that this is not the right kind of assessment. Susan ought to embrace some changes. Some of the changes that Susan could consider adopting include turning to other approaches to evaluation such as a behavioural checklist, 360-Degree feedback, ratings scale and management by objectives.

By refusing to adopt new changes, Susan is not making good of her assessment. This is not the best way of using humour and teamwork. She ought to make some changes. Humour (activeness) and teamwork (collaboration) are essential personalities any manager ought to embrace (Cantore & Passmore, 2012). Any workplace environment filled with people with high humour and teamwork is the most productive. Therefore, Susan should consider enforcing an organisational culture that fosters and encourage teamwork and participative approach of operational implementation. Such a corporate culture should ensure high-class innovation and well-structured decision making.

Prompt Two

Harold has acquired MBA degree from Harvard. This ambitious young man aims at becoming a CEO at age 45 and below. As a focus towards his ambition, Harold is a good networker. Most often, the networks with the people who are of higher rank than his current position in the organisation. However, his subordinates perceive that Harold is making decisions that biased. His choices are based on what could facilitate his promotion instead of focusing on that which is best for his subordinates or that which would improve the organisation.

Harold’s character and personality can be addressed based on emotional intelligence (EQ). Emotional intelligence is the ability of the individual to manage the emotional, perceptional and beliefs for higher personal and professional accomplishment. According to Tearle (2014), the different elements of emotional intelligence include self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management. In this context, Harold has portrayed some critical elements emotional intelligence in his dealings. On the other hand, Harold has proven to miss some essential elements of emotional intelligence.

In the characterisation of Harold’s emotional intelligence, it is clear that Harold has a high level of self-awareness and self-management. Due to his high self-awareness, Harold develops high self-esteem and that why he is working actively to achieve his CEO promotion ambition in his company (Jacket Sterrett, 2000). His dream is becoming a true endeavour because he has self-management element of the emotional intelligence. Due to his self-management competence, Harold is working incredibly trusting his enthusiastic emotions that influenced his confidence.

Even though Harold has some positive elements that portray his high emotional intelligence, he is on the other side showing some low emotional intelligence (Jacket Sterrett, 2000). This is seen when he fails to understand the feelings of his subordinates. He is blindfolded by the ambition, forgetting to regulate the environment around him. As a result, it is right to say that Harold lacks self-regulation, social awareness and relationship management. Such emotional intelligence elements are essential for the realisation of personal performance, employees’ performance and organisational productivity. However, Harold is mainly overcrowded by the urge for personal achievement, neglecting other aspects.

Prompt Three

Carl is a kind and caring manager. She is always concerned with her employees’ wellbeing. Carl takes the time to understand the problems experienced by her employees and taking crucial moments of scrutinising every employee and knowing them personally. Almost every employee in the company actually admires her. However, one of her weaknesses is that Carl gets upset so quickly. Primarily when the operations don’t work out very smoothly producing the desired outcome, Carl takes things too personal to solve the issue. For instance, when she discovered that the profitability of her unit reduced the previous month, Carol became upset leading her to be sick.

Carl has both high and low emotional intelligence skills. Carl as a manager has portrayed a high level of social awareness and relationship management in her dealings with the employee. As a result, Carl promotes employee motivation and concern that increases employee participation. This is clearly depicted in Carl’s urge for positive outcomes. However, when the negative results came out, she becomes upset and takes leave. This shows how she loves good organisational performance.

On the other hand, there are some emotional intelligence elements that Carl as a manager is lacking. She lacks self-regulation and self-esteem. After the profitability of her unit went down, Carl became so emotional and guilty such that she could not endure effectively. As a result, she took sick leave. Instead of handling the situation boldly sealing all the loopholes resulting in the low profitability, she becomes too nervous to figure out anything constructive.

References

Cantore, S., & Passmore, J. (2012). Chapter 15: How can people understand and build on their strengths? Top Business Psychology Models: 50 Transforming Ideas for Leaders, Consultants, and Coaches. London: Kogan Page.

Jacket Sterrett, E. A. (2000). Manager’s Pocket Guide to Emotional Intelligence: From Management to Leadership. Amherst, MA, USA: HRD Press.

Tearle, R. (2014) Emotional Intelligence. Intelligent Executive, Maidenhead, UK. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MepJp7KpaH4.