Team Building: Emotional Intelligence and Authentic Leadership

Introduction

This literature review focuses on the keys to successful team building. The literature most relevant to this issue provides insight into what factors lead teams to develop well, including how team members relate to one another, how to create a sense of urgency, what Kotter's 8-step model contributes to that process, how emotional intelligence plays a part, and what leaders can do to bring it all together. The review shows that respect for team members, emotional self-leadership, and authentic leadership are all essential factors in developing a successful team.

The Need for Urgency

Zhang et al. (2018) used a gamification approach to team building by having teams escape a locked room. The exercise required participants to use problem-solving skills, collaboration, and communication to achieve the desired outcome. This was a pilot study employing a novel approach to team building based on educational learning theory. The concept driving the pilot program was the idea that stress, conflict, and varying skill levels among participants are typical of a team environment. The researchers used a sample of a dozen participants of both genders from a diverse range of generational employees in an organization to test their approach. They based their approach on the idea that training sessions like this one give participants the ability to adapt on the fly, learn to get along with one another in spite of differences, and find ways to involve everyone meaningfully in order to solve the puzzles required to escape the room.

The participants reported that the gamification approach to teamwork helped everyone manage conflicting personality types — such as introverted or extroverted personalities — and determine who would lead and who would follow, while also dealing with the problem of groupthink and embracing different ideas. This corresponds with what Werner (2017) describes as the importance of combating groupthink so as not to allow a team to lead itself into corners or dead ends. Zhang et al. (2018) cited behaviorism, social learning, and constructivist learning theories as the foundation for their theoretical approach to the pilot program. Their method also corresponds with Hebrews 10:24–25: "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching." The participants in the study by Zhang et al. (2018) encouraged one another to collaborate and cooperate without criticizing, because they recognized they had work to do, a problem to solve, and that it was no time for contention or bitterness. That sense of urgency was crucial to the performance of the participants.

That sense of urgency is also central to Kotter's 8-step model for change, which Kang et al. (2020) identified in their study of using Kotter's guidelines to facilitate team building. Part of Kotter's model is the need for leaders to build a coalition that will facilitate the development of support for the vision the organization wants to achieve. That coalition resembles a team that must come together, bringing stakeholders from different departments and backgrounds and uniting them under one vision. In their study, Kang et al. (2020) documented how Kotter's model can help bring about successful change. The researchers conducted a qualitative analysis by engaging in direct observation, taking field notes, interviewing participants in the change, and collecting artifacts. The analysis showed that when Kotter's model is used it promotes successful buy-in among participants. Buy-in is important in team building, as Werner (2017) notes, because it is a quality of cohesiveness that is essential to success.

Relationships also matter in this process, as Kang et al. (2020) found — but without buy-in, relationships cannot be fostered effectively. This corresponds with Werner's (2017) assertion that "there is evidence that the differential quality of exchange relationships among team members can influence a team's cohesiveness, internal satisfaction with coworkers, general job satisfaction, and both individual and team performance" (p. 44). It also corresponds with 1 Peter 4:8–10: "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." Without genuine care for one another, teams do not gel and do not come together as they should to support the vision of the organization — the overall aim that Kotter's model facilitates, as found by Kang et al. (2020).

Team Building Is About Building Relationships

Building relationships depends on the use of emotional intelligence among team members, according to the study by Lee and Wong (2019). The researchers examined data collected from 79 South Korean teams in companies and found that emotional intelligence is positively correlated with team success, as measured by performance, innovation, and conflict resolution. The more emotionally intelligent team members are, the more likely the team is to thrive even under adverse circumstances. The reason is that emotional intelligence assists in the development of trust among team members and unites them by strengthening relationships based on respect and understanding. The researchers used role theory as the starting point for their study, demonstrating that when roles are misunderstood or come into conflict, frustration can occur. However, emotional intelligence provides a moderating influence and thus acts as a circuit breaker when tensions start to build because of role conflict. Emotionally intelligent team members are able to identify that situations are overheating and can use their emotional intelligence to calm them and prevent open hostility. This leads to respect, rapport, and relationship building, which in turn creates more effective teams.

The method used by Lee and Wong (2019) was to visit all 79 teams in South Korean companies and collect data by way of a questionnaire. In total, 333 respondents from 79 teams participated in the study. Control variables included team size, age diversity, and gender diversity. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the data against the model — based on role theory and the moderating influence of emotional intelligence on conflict — that the researchers developed. The findings confirmed the researchers' hypothesis that emotional intelligence does moderate team conflict and build relationships, thus facilitating stronger team performance, innovation, and overall success.

These findings were corroborated by the study by Flores, Jiang, and Manz (2018), who examined the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on intra-team conflict and arrived at essentially the same conclusion as Lee and Wong (2019). Flores et al. (2018) showed that emotional self-leadership is a skill that empowers team members to anticipate, guide, and focus emotional responses in a positive direction, thereby reducing team stress. The researchers conducted a systematic review of existing literature to arrive at their conclusion and developed their own conceptual model to explain how emotional self-leadership moderates cognitive and affective conflict, directing emotions toward higher work-team decision quality. The researchers reviewed more than one hundred published studies as the sample for their review.

The findings of Flores et al. (2018) confirm what is written in 1 Corinthians 12:17–20: "If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body." In other words, there are many parts to a team — and necessarily so, since not every person can perform all the jobs a team requires. Yet at the same time the parts must work together as one unit, and that is where emotional self-leadership comes into play. Each member must regulate his or her own emotions in order to be an effective contributor to the whole.

This does present a tension with what Werner (2017) asserts — namely, that "it is much harder to write specific behavioral objectives for interventions dealing with attitudes or emotions" (p. 161). Werner's point is that emotional intelligence is a skill not all team members necessarily possess, nor one that can easily be taught. Nevertheless, what Flores et al. (2018) demonstrate is that when emotional intelligence is present, it can make a significant difference in strengthening relationships and reducing conflict within a team.

Conclusion

Team building effectively requires certain skills such as emotional intelligence and authentic leadership (Crawford et al., 2020; Flores et al., 2018; Johnsen, 2018). It also helps to have a sound relationship-building model, such as Kotter's 8-step model, which provides leaders a way to develop coalitions among diverse team members (Kang et al., 2020). Still, emotional intelligence remains one of the most critical individual skills that team members can develop to reduce conflict and create an environment of trust (Khosravi et al., 2020; Lee & Wong, 2019). Coming together as a single unit — even through enjoyable exercises like an escape room — can help a diverse team unite and learn to engage with one another (Zhang et al., 2018). Most critical of all is the openness and honesty that accompanies ethical leadership (Kim & Vandenberghe, 2020). And as the Bible points out, one must control one's own passions: "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" (James 4:1). This understanding can help teams build more effectively and achieve lasting success.

References

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Flores, H. R., Jiang, X., & Manz, C. C. (2018). Intra-team conflict: The moderating effect of emotional self-leadership. International Journal of Conflict Management, 29(3), 327–346.

Johnsen, C. G. (2018). Authenticating the leader: Why Bill George believes that a moral compass would have kept Jeffrey Skilling out of jail. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(1), 53–63.

Kang, S. P., Chen, Y., Svihla, V., Gallup, A., Ferris, K., & Datye, A. K. (2020). Guiding change in higher education: An emergent, iterative application of Kotter's change model. Studies in Higher Education, 1–20.

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Lee, C., & Wong, C. S. (2019). The effect of team emotional intelligence on team process and effectiveness. Journal of Management & Organization, 25(6), 844–859.

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Zhang, X. C., Lee, H., Rodriguez, C., Rudner, J., Chan, T. M., & Papanagnou, D. (2018). Trapped as a group, escape as a team: Applying gamification to incorporate team-building skills through an 'escape room' experience. Cureus, 10(3), 1–10.