People Skills Annotated Bibliography Koda,

People Skills

Annotated Bibliography

Koda, S. (2001) Schooling your emotions. The Hindu. This article outlines the role that managing your emotions can play in your career success. The author offers strategies for the management of emotions and provides insight into some winning tactics.

EQI (2005). Defining emotional intelligence. This page helps to define emotional intelligence. EI includes emotional sensitivity, emotional memory, emotional processing ability and emotional learning ability. Each individual has different potential EI, but there is a difference between potential EI and the actual usage of it.

Goleman, D. (2010). Emotional intelligence. This article outlines the foundations of emotional intelligence theory, beginning with Mayer and Salovey's conceptualization of EI. The author then outlines how the term has entered widespread acceptance and the role that the concept now plays in human development at the childhood stage.

Longatan, N. (2009). How to increase your emotional intelligence. This article highlights the four categories of EI -- self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship skills. The author highlights that to grow one's emotional intelligence requires commitment and reflect of past incidents.

Sen. S. (2008). Interpersonal skills through emotional intelligence: A psychological perspective. This author highlights that through proper harmony and use of emotional intelligence a wide range of problems can be solved. In particular, the improvement of interpersonal skills will result in a greater ability to work towards solutions by focusing problem-solving on the problems rather than on the people.

Goleman, D. (adapted) (1995). Emotional intelligence and emotional competence. This web page outlines what these two concepts are and how they differ. It provides insight into the types of competencies that emotionally intelligent people will foster, both in terms of social competence and personal competence.

Goleman, D. (2010). Social and emotional learning. This article outlines the benefits of emotional learning. Emotional competency can be taught, and when it is taught not only are there direct benefits but there are indirect benefits as well. This is analogous to the learning organization, which sees benefits from enhancing EI capabilities.

Smith, M. (2001). Peter Senge and the learning organization. This article infuses the topic with the concept of the learning organization. EI has been demonstrated to improve interpersonal communication and it has also been demonstrated to aid with conventional learning. The lesson that we can take from this is that organizational learning can be aided through the development of increased organizational emotional intelligence.

Segal, J. (2009). Emotional intelligence. This article outlines the five key skills that can be used to help develop emotional intelligence. These are the ability to quickly reduce stress; the ability to recognize and manage your emotions; the ability to connect with others using nonverbal communication; the ability to use humor to deal with colleagues; and the ability to resolve conflicts positively and with confidence.

Ruderman, M. (2001) Making the connection: Leadership skills and emotional intelligence. This article connects emotional intelligence with leadership. Emotional intelligence plays a key role in workplace success. There are specific behaviors associated with high emotional intelligence that are linked to leadership effectiveness.

Essay

Few organizations in business today have been able to succeed without strong leadership. Leaders set the tone for the organization. They shape the vision, structure the organization and they guide the organization's actions. If the workers are the engine that drives the company, leadership is the steering wheel. Where the analogy falls about is that the engine is not comprised of mechanical parts, but of human beings. Steering the vehicle, then, requires the ability to influence and inspire human beings. That is at the core of leadership today.

Leaders begin with vision. People will work harder and more effectively if they have a shared vision and a sense that they are contributing to something greater than the mere pursuit of profits. This is the first and most fundamental component of leadership -- setting the mission, the vision and building the shared values. This requires a high level of emotional intelligence. The leader must be able to read the pulse of not only individual employees but of the organization as well, and then respond in a manner that puts the organization back on the path to achieving the mission. Doing this exhibits core leadership traits, such as emotional self-awareness, adaptability, optimism, empathy and political awareness.

We learn that leaders must constantly address blind spots. Leadership, therefore, is not only about addressing known problems. That is management. Leadership also involves addressing unknown problems. It involves understanding what the rest of the organization does not, and then shoring up these organizational blind spots without alienating the organization's core values.

The ability to identify problems and address them in such a manner is known as organizational intelligence. The leader of the firm can demonstrate this trait and lead the firm to success, but in a large conglomerate one leader cannot do it all. The leader must develop organizational intelligence in order to help the entire company to take leadership roles, to identify issues and to solve them. Organizations are, after all, a series of connected feedback loops. The leader's role involves understanding these loops, and the people within them. This is where emotional intelligence comes into play. It has been determined in the education field that the higher the level of emotional intelligence in pupils, the higher they will perform on IQ tests as well. Thus, for the organization to demonstrate a high level of organizational intelligence, it would be beneficial that the organization build a high level of emotional intelligence. From a leadership perspective, this means building departments that work together rather than pass the buck; fostering positive relationships between senior managers rather than toxic ones; and inspiring workers to come together to solve common problems, rather than focusing myopically on their own individual goals.

There are some key signs of emotional intelligence in an organization: balancing human and financial sides; commitment to basic strategy; open communication; strong relationships; innovation and risk taking and a passion for continual improvement. All of these traits must be fostered at the leadership level. Another compelling case for including emotional intelligence in the standard leadership skill set is that many problems that meet with emotional resistance simply cannot be rationalized away. Rational arguments do not solve emotional problems. And many problems within an organization are emotional. Leaders need to recognize that employees make a personal commitment to the company and to their careers, but they also make a commitment to themselves, their families and their customers. When conflict emerges, it often takes on an emotional aspect. Organizations with a higher degree of emotional intelligence are able to identify this early and address it. Those with a low degree of emotional intelligence are doomed to ongoing conflict and negativity.