Choose to be Emotionally Intelligent

Chose to be Emotionally Intelligent
This week we were treated to a rude shock when a video went viral showing a supervisor of a certain Kenyan supermarket slapping a lady employee in broad daylight. This is a very unfortunate act, a criminal offence and though the owners of the said supermarket apologized and distanced themselves from the act, the matter needs to be treated with the seriousness it deserves. While this is unacceptable it re-awakened my realization that every day in the Business world Business leaders are faced with circumstances that test their patience and especially when it comes to dealing with employees.
While some of the behaviors by an employee could be as a result of outright arrogance or disrespect, others arise from circumstances that are beyond the staff control. Consider Sally, for example, I worked with her as a coordinator of a certain project. We recruited Sally because she was the most competent of all the candidates and we had no doubt she will deliver. But to our surprise in less than a year down the line, the same Sally who was excited about her job and looking all determined to go that extra mile to accomplish the task, all of a sudden lost interest in her work, was often irritable and could not deliver on timelines. This led to frequent disagreements with her immediate supervisor and eventually unresolvable conflicts that found their way to my table as the next level supervisor. In my first meeting with Sally, she cried a lot and did not want to discuss much about what was going on. This tested my patience, not because I could not wait until when she is ready to talk but because there was work that needed to be done and targets to be met. I, however, gave her a few days to calm down, reflect on issues at hand and then come back we discuss. I met Sally again after five days as agreed and this time round she was ready to talk. Sally was going through what can weaken the hands of even the strongest staff leave alone a young lady like her. Her mum who single handedly raised her and her brother was going through a life threatening illness and Sally had tried what was within her capacity to have her treated but had reached the end of her capacity-she had no more money to support her mum’s treatment. Her extended family members were offering very little support. Her only brother was ruining his life in alcohol and substance abuse and this was making the mother’s condition worse. Since I will not give all the details of what happened here I will sum it to say that; I got to know what was affecting Sally, I got to know why she was not performing and I knew she needed help. What would have happened if I was not patient with Sally to give her another chance to share her problem? Remember I had a good reason to take action at the first instance because there was work at stake. Thank God Sally completed the project and successfully so.
I took my time this week to talk about Emotional Intelligence looking at a few aspects of it every day. While the emotional needs of today’s workforce may seem like a tall order for you as a leader, they’re worth your attention-It is important that you operate in Emotionally Intelligent ways in order to meet the needs of your team.
Take some time to evaluate how well you do in the following aspects of Emotional Intelligence;
Self-awareness; With a healthy sense of self-awareness, you understand your strengths and weaknesses, as well as how your actions affect others. As Steve Covey puts it; ‘self-awareness is the reason why man has dominion over all things in the world and why he can make significant advances from generation to generation’
Self-regulation;With High Emotional Intelligence you are able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in a healthy way, take initiative, follow through commitments and adapt to changing circumstances.
People skills; People are a vital resource in any Business and the success of any Business is largely determined by how effective a leader can influence people. You can’t achieve this without people skills. Read more on our page https://web.facebook.com/MOlivesM/
I like what the Bible says in Proverbs 12:18 ‘The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing’ (NIV). This applies not only to what we say but what we do. If we act in wisdom by being ‘conscious of our responsibility for how we behave, think, and feel’ then we would never have to ‘slap’ an employee. You might just bring ‘healing’ to them. And because people are creatures of emotion, chose to be emotionally intelligent.