30 Sep Emotional Intelligence And Your Team
The project is about to go live in 3 weeks. Roshan is one of my team members who can always be relied upon to finish his work and help others. I have worked with him on a project before and he was always the one to turn to whenever other team members needed support. I was delighted to have him on my current project too. Roshan just as always worked hard, helped freshers whenever they needed and everything went on well for the first six weeks. For the past couple of weeks, I observed that he was becoming a little moody.
His work was slipping, he was snapping at people and refusing any help. He was going into a shell. In fact, last week, when the team took a break to watch a cricket match on the guesthouse TV, he preferred to sleep in his room and requested the others not to disturb him. He was inexplicably rude when I tried to talk to him. I was worried. This was not like him.
Finally, one evening, when I spotted him sitting alone and trying to eat in the pantry, I went to him and started talking to him. For some time he ignored me and then suddenly, his lips started quivering, eyes became red and voice became hoarse. He told me about some personal problems in his life. He said he was finding it difficult to work with full focus due to the problem.
I only gave him a patient listening and showed empathy. That is all he needed to get back on track! Had I not made him talk, he might have continued to be unfocused and not interested. He might not have realized that the entire team work would suffer. I actually did not need to do anything for him. I realized what type of support he needed, listened actively to him and showed empathy. Understanding Emotional Intelligence was the key to the problem
Most of us give no importance to emotional intelligence and lose an opportunity to solve our issues more easily.
To help the team produce better results or to solve team problems, you need emotional intelligence skills. Absenteeism, lack of interest in interaction, not participating in the meetings, lack of motivation are some of the sure signs that emotional intelligence will help.
What can you do to solve such problems?
Give A Patient And Compassionate Ear
The team is upset with something. It could be something as small as the elevators not working for the past two days. All that your team needs is a realization that you are concerned about the team members. Rather than explaining things, many times a good listening ear is enough to solve such problems.
Listen More Talk Less
Allow others to express their ideas AND FEELINGS. Yes. Feelings too. When they are talking, LISTEN to them, do not just sit there and hear every word that comes out. Observe their body language. Listen to the tonality and respond appropriately.
Encourage Team To Speak Up
Give the confidence to the team that their views and opinions matter. You respect them. They will not be laughed at. Let them know that even if their opinions do not match with the rest, or even if they are not one the best speakers, you are keen on knowing what they feel
Give The Team respect they deserve
Respect diversity. Respect their knowledge. Give them freedom and appreciate when they come to you with questions. Appreciate when they come up with the out of box solution.
These few simple tips will make you proud of yourself and your team. Look forward to great results!
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