Emotional intelligence in the workplace ankit sharma

Writer Name Ankit sharma Page 1 of 59 Date – 10/7/2017
Email – ankitsharma1983@gmail.com Blog - lifeandlearningblog.blogspot.com.au
BSBLDR501
Develop and use emotional
intelligence
Learner Resource

Contents
1. Identify the impact of own emotions on others in the workplace...................................................... 3
Identify own emotional strengths and weaknesses ......................................................................... 4
Emotional intelligence (EI) .......................................................................................................... 4
Elements of Emotional intelligence (EI)....................................................................................... 5
Practice task............................................................................................................................. 12
Practice task............................................................................................................................. 18
Develop awareness of own emotional triggers and use this awareness to enable control emotional
responses .................................................................................................................................... 19
Emotional triggers..................................................................................................................... 19
Model workplace behaviours that demonstrate management of emotions..................................... 23
Use self-reflection and feedback from others to improve development of own emotional intelligence
.................................................................................................................................................... 25
2. Recognise and appreciate the emotional strengths and weaknesses of others ............................. 29
Respond to the emotional states of co-workers and assess emotional cues.................................. 30
Identify the range of cultural expressions of emotions and respond appropriately ......................... 32
Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in dealing with others ....................................................... 35
Practice Task 3......................................................................................................................... 37
Take into account the emotions of others when making decisions ................................................ 38
3. Promote the development of emotional intelligence in others ....................................................... 41
Provide opportunities for others to express their thoughts and feelings ......................................... 42
Assist others to understand the effect of their behaviour and emotions on others in the workplace 45
Encourage the self-management of emotions in others ................................................................ 47
Encourage others to develop their own emotional intelligence to build productive relationships and
maximise workplace outcomes..................................................................................................... 49
4. Utilise emotional intelligence to maximise team outcomes............................................................ 52
Encourage a positive emotional climate in the workplace.............................................................. 53
Use the strengths of workgroup members to achieve workplace outcomes ................................... 55

1. Identify the impact of own emotions on others in
the workplace
People are the most valued resource of an organisation as well as its most volatile. The modern
workplace involves people working together with each other in a close manner day in and day out.
Working in such a close manner can result in people getting impacted by each other’s emotional
status and state of mind.
Irrespective of the position you have in the organisational hierarchy you need to be able to have an
understanding of how your own emotions affect those around you. Whether as a junior team member
or a senior management staffer, you need to have adequate emotional intelligence and self-
awareness to understand the impact of your emotions on the workplace and take steps to control your
emotions.
In this topic, you will learn how to:
• Identify own emotional strengths and weaknesses
• Identify personal stressors and own emotional states related to the workplace
• Develop awareness of own emotional triggers and use this awareness to enable control
emotional responses
• Model workplace behaviours that demonstrate management of emotions
• Use self-reflection and feedback from others to improve development of own emotional
intelligence

Identify own emotional strengths and weaknesses
Emotional intelligence (EI)
The term Emotional Intelligence was first coined by researchers Peter Salovey and John Mayer in
their 1990 article called Emotional Intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality. In their article,
they described emotional intelligence as ‘a set of skills hypothised to contribute to the accurate
appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself and in others, the effective regulation of emotion in
self and others and the use of feelings to motivate, plan and achieve in one’s life’. In the same year,
author and journalist Daniel Goleman, who was working as a science writer for the New York Times
came to know about the work of Salovey and Mayer. Goleman wrote his own book on emotional
intelligence in 1995 and is credited with bringing the term emotional intelligence to mainstream
popularity.
Emotional intelligence is increasingly being considered as one of the most important considerations in
team formation and organisational management. This is because emotional intelligence provides a
basis which can be used to better understand a number of aspects that can have a bearing on
individual, team and overall organisational performance. These aspects range from personal
attributes such as individual behaviour, styles and attitude to management style, outlook and
behaviour to the overall culture prevalent in the organisation. Due to these reasons, emotional
intelligence has gained as important role in various organisational functions such as recruitment,
performance appraisal, team development, organisational structure, professional development etc.
Emotional intelligence is often defined as a subset of social intelligence and is also described as such
in Howard Gardener’s work on social intelligence. In their original 1990 book Salvoy and Mayer (cited
in Golis, 2013) said that emotional intelligence ‘involves the ability to monitor one's own and others'
feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking
and actions.’
So, what is emotional intelligence in simple layman terms? In simple terms, emotional intelligence can
be described as an ability to manage emotions, both of our own and those of others around us and is
said to include three skills such as:
• the ability to use emotions to facilitate thinking and problem solving
• the ability to manage personal emotions
• the ability to manage emotions of others including cheering them up or calming them down
It should also be noted that emotional intelligence is very different to the much more traditional
concept of IQ or intelligence quotient. IQ is a measure of a person’s ability to effectively use reasoning
and logic. IQ is something that remains stable throughout a person’s life whereas emotional
intelligence tends to be very flexible and can be increased through learning certain skills. IQ tests had
long been in vogue as a way to understand a person’s intelligence levels but it was found that despite
the results of such tests a lot of people simply did not perform in the manner or to the effect that their

IQ test indicated. At the same time, it was also noted that certain people with less IQ scores than
some other people often performed better than those with higher IQ scores. Think of individuals who
are excellent performers on an academic level but are socially inept, which makes them look great on
paper due to their qualifications but they may not be able to perform as well as their qualifications
seem to suggest. This anomaly has been explained gradually since the publication of works by
Goleman, Salvoy and Mayer and others. Cherniss (2000) citing Feist & Barron in their 1996 work
provides the examples of 80 PhDs in science who were given a number of personality tests, IQ tests
and interviews during the 1950s when they were graduate students. Forty years later these PhDs
‘were tracked down and estimates were made of their success based on their resumes and
evaluations by experts in their own fields.’ Cherniss (2000) further adds that the results seemed to
indicate that ‘social and emotional abilities were four times more important than IQ in determining
professional success and prestige.’
Prior to publishing of Goleman’s 1995 book, questions were already being raised around the
effectiveness and utility of using IQ tests as a predictor of performance capability by researchers such
as David McClelland who voiced their concern at the futility of using IQ tests in determining future
success in life. Subsequent research has identified emotional intelligence as the main factor that
when used along with traditional IQ tests, works as a much better predictor of performance. Having
said that while some connection or association has been found between emotional intelligence and
IQ, in that there is research suggesting that emotional abilities help in improving cognitive functioning
(read IQ) and that they essentially remain two separate concepts that can be used together as a
predictor of performance.
Another difference to be kept in mind is that emotional intelligence and personality are two different
things. The word personality comes from the Latin word persona. This word persona refers to a mask
worn by performers in a theatre while performing, to disguise thier identities. According to the
American Psychology Association (2017) personality refers to ‘individual differences in characteristic
patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.’ In other words, personality refers to an individual’s overall
disposition or the diverse ways in which a person thinks, feels, acts and reacts. Also, personality has
something in common with IQ in that just like IQ, personality does not change much during the lifetime
of a person whereas emotional intelligence can be further developed.
Elements of Emotional intelligence (EI)
In Daniel Goleman’s 1995 book on emotional intelligence he has identified five key elements. These
key elements can help an individual determine their own emotional strengths and weaknesses. The
five elements are:
1. Self-awareness – Being self-aware means that you know how you feel about situations, and
events and how your own emotional state and being can affect people around you. Being
self-aware has tremendous significance in life as it gives you a lot of confidence to deal with
situations and events due to your awareness about how you feel regarding those situations

and events. Being self-aware also implies that you know what your strengths and
weaknesses are in a given situation, which in turn enables you to determine the best
possible course of action to deal with the situation. Self-awareness can be improved by
writing down your thoughts in a diary or journal and by reflecting on how you react to certain
situations and events. The writing down action gives you access to your thoughts in a
collected and organised manner. The reflection activity in turn, helps you in identifying how
you reacted and why you reacted in a certain way which in turn can provide you with deeper
insights about yourself so you may take steps to either change the way you react or change
the way you perceive things. To take an example from our very own RTO world consider the
wonderful situation presented during an ASQA audit. Think about how you have felt in the
days preceding the audit. Did you feel angry? Anxious? Irritable? Once you realise how
certain situations make you feel you are better positioned to deal with the resultant emotions
because you are more aware of how a situation makes you feel or is liable to make you feel
and you become mentally prepared for it and are better able to manage yourself.
2. Self-regulate – Self-regulation is the strength manage or control our emotions. Self-regulation
is very significant as it provides us with a capacity to keep tabs on our impulses and allows us
to think about things in a rational manner (due to the ability to control negative emotions) and
also helps in coming across as a reasonable person. People who are good at self-regulating
tend to be reflective and thoughtful, accept uncertainty and change and as mentioned above
have the ability to control their impulses. The simple act of thinking before saying or acting
allows a person to take sophisticated approaches in how they come across others. Think
about the training manager, compliance manager or a CEO who flies into a blind rage when
an adverse audit report comes back or something else goes wrong and starts shouting at his
subordinates or starts throwing things about. Do you think this sort of behaviour will
encourage fact finding and a collaborative team effort to resolve the compliance issue? No, it
will not. On the contrary team members will try to evade this manager’s gaze where possible
lest he starts shouting at them again. His behaviour just might also start a culture of
defensiveness and blame games and root out initiative taking.
Contrast this with a manager who self-regulates and takes a measured approach when things
go wrong in an effort to find the reasons behind what went wrong. This sort of a manager is
well placed to induce an objective fact-finding exercise where team members might feel
confident in coming forward with actual reasons instead of apportioning blame on other team
members. This example provided is not just about managers as this self-regulation elements
and its benefits extend to everyone and not just managers. This simple act of regulating their
impulses also ensures they seldom make emotional decisions and since self-regulation also
helps in ‘coming across’ as a reasonable person, these kinds of leaders also evoke trust and
respect from their team members.

3. Motivation – This element of emotional intelligence refers to the self- motivation found in
emotionally intelligent people. Motivation is what pushes an individual to try and achieve their
goals. Motivation is what keeps people keep following their dreams and be optimistic about
situations and results. Motivation is what drives an individual to improve themselves and their
life. Keeping yourself motivated can be a challenging thing at times but even in the most
adverse of circumstances one should try to motivate themselves as being motivated allows us
the clarity of thoughts that helps us to achieve our goals. Whereas wallowing in self-pity or
giving up on something stops the mental process that we have been following to achieve our
goals completely.
Motivation can be categorised in two different forms namely external or extrinsic motivation
and internal or intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when we are encouraged by
external factors such as pay rise, perks, bonus, threat of job loss etc. Intrinsic motivation on
the other hand is the kind of motivation that comes from within us through factors such as
taking pride in our work, being productive, delivering results, being helpful, being
acknowledged or praised etc. Think about instances where you really needed to get
something done like get an audit report that said your RTO was fully compliant or achieve
something important. What did you do in that instance, what external factors further propped
you up or drove you to action, what actions did you take and what did you do to achieve that
goal, were you successful?
Conversely, also think about instances where you did not achieve full compliance in your
audit report and think whether you really made the effort to achieve it, did you feel a burning
desire inside you to make something work? On analysing both of these instances
(successful and not successful) you will get an idea about the powerful effect of motivation.
Granted there might be occasions when despite the most motivation and best of our efforts
we may not be able to achieve the results we want to achieve due to a number of factors
outside our control but without a doubt motivation remains the single most important factor
when it comes to achieving our goals and objectives. Motivation whether intrinsic or extrinsic
is very important as it gives us that extra energy, that additional drive to reach our goals. So
how can a person get motivated or increase their motivation levels or find motivation to do
something, especially when they find the situation overbearing? There are a number of ways
to achieve this:
o Using a journal – Using or writing a journal is a very good way to analyse what you
have done or said as well as reflect about your thought process and purpose. The
analysis and reflection of what you have recorded can be used to determine the
changes that you need to make.
o Internal dialogue – This is a very effective technique where a person has an internal
conversation with their self, especially in instances where self-doubt develops. A sort
of pep talks for self, in this conversation, the person may tell themselves about the

results that they have achieved or the experiences that they have accumulated and
the things they have achieved earlier and then tell themselves that they can do this.
o Analyse and break up the task before you – This is a good approach if a person is
faced with a task that they believe they may not be able to carry out. In such a case,
the task should be broken down and then analyse the individual sub-tasks. Once this
is done the larger task itself starts appearing to be manageable and doable.
o Heroes – No, we are not talking about fantasy heroes rather we are talking about
people you admire. Look to them and ask yourself what would they have done or
better still look at instances where they faced difficult situations and then resolved
them. Take your inspiration from them to recharge your motivation meter.
o Remain positive – Look at all that you have achieved and tell yourself what you are
going to achieve and view setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow. Surround
yourself with people who themselves have a positive and optimistic outlook towards
things. These people can provide motivation through their deeds and actions as well
as verbally motivate you when you need it.
o Remember your purpose – Never lose sight of your purpose. Even if you receive
certain setbacks or even failures (something that happens to everyone) always try
and remember why were you pursuing that goal, why did you want to achieve what
you wanted to achieve. This line of thinking will refocus your thought patterns and
may also tell you where you went wrong.
4. Empathy – Ioannidou (2008) explains that the word empathy comes from the German word
‘einfuhlung’ which was coined by psychologist Theodore Lipps and literally means in-feeling.
Though there are a number of ways in which empathy has been defined, in its simplest form
empathy can be described as the ability to understand and share the feelings of other people.
When we say put yourself in another person’s shoes we are essentially saying we should
empathise with others. Yet another definition of empathy is that it is the ability to understand
and identify with the needs and viewpoints of others. While it should be remembered that
empathy does not only mean compassion, generally speaking empathy does have a positive
connotation associated with it. Empathy is a very important element of emotional intelligence
and provides the basis for formation of relationships. Daniel Goleman has defined empathy as
the foundation skill for all social competencies at work. Empathy leads to trust and trust is the
basis of all relationships.
Empathy is what allows a professional to understand the constraints faced by their co-worker.
Empathy is what allows a manager to understand the ground realities being faced by their
team members and empathy is what allows a team member to understand how a customer is
feeling. For example, you might notice that with a few days to go before the audit, the

compliance manager has become very irritable and is being short with people around them.
You need to empathise with the compliance manager and understand the stressful situations
that he or she is going through during this time. It is only by understanding and exploring what
the other person is feeling that we can truly start connecting with them on an emotional basis.
Then this connection puts the seeds of trust and gradually the formation of a solid
relationship. Think about the manager who understood while your young child was sick and
was patient with you when you had to arrive late or leave early. Think about the colleague
who stepped in to share your workload when she saw how overwhelmed you were with it. It is
also important to understand that empathy is very different from sympathy. Sympathy is when
we feel sorry for the person in a difficult situation whereas empathy is when we feel what the
other person feels and so can look at the situation from a different perspective. Sympathy is
more of a fleeting emotional reaction in which we briefly express our regrets for the other
person’s situation and then move on with our lives whereas in case of empathy we use our
skills to understand the other person’s feelings. Showing empathy takes time and effort but it
also conveys to the other person that you really care and if you show to the other person that
you truly care then they might feel the same way for you.
Empathy has been found to be very effective in contributing to organisational success.
Cherniss (2000) identifies research by Rosenthal and colleagues at Harvard in the 80s, in
which they found that people ‘who were best at identifying others’ emotions were more
successful in their work as well as in their social lives’ and that finding has been reiterated in a
survey of retail sales in which ‘buyers found that apparel sales reps were valued primarily for
their empathy’. In this research it was identified that buyers explicitly wanted reps who were
good listeners and understood what the buyer wanted as well as what were the concerns of
the buyers. Empathy does not only need to be about work. Discussing matters outside of
work with co-workers or team members about their families, hobbies, interests etc. can
provide a good idea about what is important to them. This information can then be used to
increase trust and comfort levels which are precursors to good working relationships. Good
workplace relationship ultimately allow us to enjoy our work and be more productive as well
as inducing feelings of well-being between us and the others.
Now a good question might be how does one develop empathy. Workingresources (2017)
has outlined several ways that can be used by an individual to develop empathy. These are:
o Keeping a log or a record of events and situations in which you felt
that you could or could not show empathy. Identify any opportunities
where you might have missed in responding with empathy.
o Try to identify any events or incidents in which the underlying
concerns are not clearly expressed by others.
o Identify and note down possible emotions that are being experienced
by the other person.

o Develop some open-ended questions that you can ask that person
the next time you meet, so that the person may have an opportunity
to openly express themselves
o Try to listen without interrupting and allow the other person to
complete their viewpoint before you offer yours.
o Try not to be defensive as that reduces the opportunity for an open
dialogue and exploring possibilities.
o Try not being judgemental when people are expressing their opinions
and ideas.
o Understand and use active listening in your dealings. If you are
unclear what the other person said, then check with them.
Paraphrasing is also a valuable tool to check and deepen your
understanding.
o Refocus the conversation if it is going elsewhere.
o Try to achieve a balance between focus, goal orientation and
empathic listening.
So, what happens when there is lack of empathy? Lack of empathy can result in a lot of
problems when working in a team. People who lack empathy may often find it difficult to
form workplace relationships. This is especially true of cross functional teams and large
diversified departments. This then carries on over in form of communication
misinterpretations, poor understanding of each other’s’ work methods,
misunderstanding of intent and conflict, all of which leads to poor performance for the
individuals concerned and starts destroying morale and the cultural fabric of the
workplace.
5. Social skills – The last element that makes up emotional intelligence is social skills. Social
skills are a very broad concept that refer to how we engage with others around us both
verbally and non-verbally (tone, volume of speech, type of words spoken) and influence their
emotions. It includes a number of skills such as persuasion skills, communication skills,
conflict management skills, leadership skills, change management skills, teamwork skills,
relationship skills etc. Development of social skills can make an individual become more
charismatic. Charisma is difficult to define but generally speaking refers to accumulation of
traits that are appealing to others. Charismatic individuals come across as confident,
optimistic, interesting, interested in others, understanding, intelligent and assertive.
Some advantages of developing social skills are:

o Establishment and development of effective workplace relationships – Modern
workplaces place onus on development of workplace relationships and rapport
building on the individual. Rapport is when we have a friendly, understanding and
harmonious relationship with another person or group which allows us to have better
communication and an overall easier workflow when working with them. There are a
number of ways that can be used to build rapport such as:
▪ Break the ice with topics that won’t cause controversy
▪ Use active listening when another person is talking
▪ Use humour where suitable and appropriate
▪ Be aware of your body language and change it so that you come across as
interested
▪ Smile and nod as much as possible
▪ Find out about the other person’s interests and use them in your
conversations
▪ Talk about ideas that another person has provided
▪ Use positive gestures
▪ Reiterate what the person talking to you has said
▪ Find any common experiences to talk about
▪ Show empathy
▪ Provide genuine praise
▪ Openly acknowledge if you agree with what the other person is saying
▪ Be polite, respectful and avoid criticism
o Workplace efficiency – Good social skills enable you to get on the good side of other
people. This in turn can be very useful when you need their help with workplace
projects as they will be more inclined to help you out and be more efficient with the type
and volume of assistance they provide.
o Development of communication skills – Being in the company of others and engaging
with them over a period of time can lead to development of our own communication
skills.
o Development of professional networks and career prospects – Engaging with people
and identifying with them will make them have a positive impression of us. This in turn

can lead to them providing valuable inputs as far as better jobs and opportunities are
concerned. Additionally, most of the jobs nowadays rate team work and social
interactions with others quite highly and having great social skills and the ability to get
along with others and form relationships is almost mandatory when it comes to career
advancement.
o Overall happiness – If we are able to form effective workplace relationships and can
develop communication skills as well as professional networks and career prospects
then it is bound lead to higher levels of happiness for us.
Practice task 1
We have seen the fundamentals elements or principals that underpin emotional intelligence and their
importance. We have also seen the habits and actions that can be used to develop our emotional
intelligence. Before we start using these habits and actions it is important to identify our own
emotional strengths and weaknesses so that we may have a better idea on the skills that we need to
focus on.
In the table below list your emotional strengths and weaknesses in the section headed strengths and
weaknesses and in the second column write any changes steps you would like to take to increase
your emotional intelligence with respect to that strength or weakness.
Strength and weaknesses Steps to increase emotional intelligence

Identify personal stressors and own emotional states related to the
workplace
Stress
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt simply overwhelmed by all that was going on around
you and all that you had to complete or achieve? How about that uneasy feeling back in school or
university when you had your examinations the next week and you realised you simply were not
adequately prepared? Or how about that feeling when you had to make a presentation in front of
senior management? That feeling is called stress.
The Australian Psychological Society (2012) defines stress as ‘a feeling of being overloaded, wound-
up tight, tense and worried’. Stress is our body’s way of responding when faced with challenging or
threatening situations. Stress triggers our fight or flight mechanism. We can either fight the situation in
a bid to resolve it or run away from it. This mechanism developed during earlier phase of human
evolution when humans were surrounded by dangerous situations and animals and the onset of
stress would serve a very important function in preparing the human body for the fight or flight
response by boosting energy levels, diverting blood to certain muscles, heightening our senses,
shutting down unnecessary body functions etc.
Due to stress, the early humans would take the necessary action and either resolve the situation or
get away from the stressor (thing that causes stress) to a safe location and the body functions would
return to normal. This fight or flight stimulus was very handy in dealing with certain situations and
ensured the survival of mankind. Nowadays while humans are not dealing with dangerous animals on
an everyday basis (at least most of us), nevertheless the demands placed by modern workplaces do
cause the same kind of stress as that faced by the earliest humans but the fight or flight response
may not work as originally intended. For instance, in the modern workplace the fight response caused
by stress may cause us to focus on getting the task done or it may also cause us into getting into an
aggressive stance with a co-worker which may negatively impact upon our relationships in the
workplace. Similarly, the flight response may push us into moving away from the stressor but in the
modern workplace the stressor may not go away, unlike the stressor for early men, and in fact may
even escalate. Stress has been found to have been a major contributor to a number of workplace
issues such as absenteeism, poor performance and workplace conflict.
While stress can be useful in certain situation by providing you with the necessary impetus or
motivation to get into action mode in order to finish a task, stress that lasts a long time or which
overwhelms us over a prolonged period of time can be very harmful. Think of the stress caused by the
notice of an audit. That notice provides us with the necessary impetus and focus to get to the task at
hand of preparing for the audit but if this same stress continues over an extended period of time then
it can manifest itself in a number of harmful manners to our physical and psychological self. It can
cause physical harm to us as our body reacts to prolonged stress by continuously secreting hormones
that are not meant to be secreted over a lengthy period of time. The human body is not designed to

withstand stress over a long period. The secretion of these hormones over a long period causes our
body to change the way it works resulting in development of physical issues related to heart and
blood vessels and accelerating the ageing process. It can also affect an individual in psychological
way by causing depression, anxiety, irritability, aggressiveness etc. all of which can affect their social
and professional life.
Different types of Stress
There are different types of stress. The Australian Psychological Society has classified them as:
• Acute stress – This is the short-lived kind of stress that results from specific situations
involving unpredictability. As mentioned previously this can be good example of stress caused
by the notification of an audit and spurs us on to take necessary actions to deal with a
situation, in this case an audit.It is sometimes also called the good stress as this type of
stress can be beneficial and may provide us the required motivation to deal with the stressor.
Think about the stress before the university exam or the presentation to the CEO. Another
example could be of the stress we feel before taking on a challenge such as sky diving. The
stress induced in those situations will give an individual the capacity and the focus to take
appropriate measures to resolve the situation by doing adequate amount of study, creating an
appropriate presentation and summoning up required courage respectively. And as the case
with sky diving shows us it may even be a bit thrilling. The body will deal with this type of
stress and then get back to its normal functioning. This is the kind of stress the human body
has evolved to cope with and does not result in any lasting damage to our body. Common
symptoms of acute stress are distress, muscular problems, stomach and gut problems and
headaches and dizziness.
• Episodic acute stress – This stress occurs when an acute stress situation is faced by an
individual over and over again. Think of getting repeated audits by different regulators. This
type of stress can often occur during a series of stress events. An example being studying for
examinations and also being asked to take over additional shifts at work as well as being
forced to move all at the same time. This type of tress can get worsened by worrying about
things. According to the American Psychology Association (2017) it is common for people
with episodic acute stress reactions to be over aroused, short-tempered, irritable, anxious and
tense. American Psychology Association (2017) further adds that this causes people to
always be in a hurry, to be abrupt, and sometimes their irritability comes across as hostility
which causes interpersonal relationships to deteriorate rapidly when others respond with real
hostility and the workplace becomes a very stressful place for them. Type A personalities are
described to be particularly susceptible to this kind of stress due to their innate personality
traits of competitiveness, impatience, demanding and generally being short of time. Common

symptoms of episodic acute stress are persistent headaches, hypertension, heart disease,
migraines etc.
• Chronic stress –
Chronic stress is in some regards the exact opposite of acute stress. Chronic stress is the
long term, non-thrilling that grinds people down. Think of working in a very unhappy,
unappreciated workplace, where the RTO owner/directors are forever on your back and
blame you when things go wrong? According to the Australian Psychological Society (2012)
chronic stress involves ongoing demands, pressures and worries that seem to go on forever,
with little hope of letting up which is very harmful to people’s health and happiness. It is
different than episodic stress in the sense that while in episodic stress individuals face the
same stressful situation again and again, there is some sort of a break and the individual can
get away from the stressor for an amount of time or it ceases to be on the mind of the person
whereas in chronic stress the stressor remains there day and night. Think about being in a
poor relationship with your partner with daily arguments and fights or about being a in a toxic
workplace where petty politics rules the day and your manager is always there to give you
grief. Those are examples of chronic stress.
The American Psychology Association has also quoted a study by Miller, LH and Smith AD
which says chronic stress comes when a person never sees a way out of a miserable
situation and is the stress of unrelenting demands and pressures for seemingly interminable
periods of time and with no hope, the individual gives up searching for solutions. Our body is
not designed to handle chronic stress. Chronic stress can cause our body to react and work in
ways that are not natural and can and often leads to health problems. Another worrying bit
about chronic stress is that people stop noticing it and accept it as a part of their lives and
stop taking any measures to stop or reduce it which further compounds the problem of

chronic stress. Symptoms of chronic stress are irritability, frequent urination, difficulty in
breathing, problems with concentrating, difficulty in sleeping, frequent fatigue feeling etc.
Stressors
We have seen that stress is caused when a person comes across stressors. Stressors are events,
processes or other persons that raise our stress levels. For example – if we just do not like anything
about our job then even the mere sight of the workplace can cause us to get stressed. Similarly, the
very sight of someone with whom we have an uncomfortable relationship can cause us to feel stress.
It could also be a particular aspect of a larger thing that can cause us to feel stress. For example – we
like our work but we may not like a particular part of our role (such as an ASQA audit) and we might
feel stressed on the day when we have to perform the duties that we do not like. These stressors can
be personal - emanating from and generally affecting personal life or they can be occupational –
emanating from and generally affecting our work life. Occasionally there can be an overlap between
them. Some common stressors are:
Occupational
• Tight deadlines (student results need to be finalised today)
• Poor communication (does the CEO want a document developed or not)
• Harassment
• Ambiguousness regarding role
• Repetitive and boring work (checking assessment tools again and again)
• Conflict with co-workers (trainers not following reporting guidelines)
• Job insecurity
• Unsuitable job
• Poor relationship with training manager
• Lack of adequate resources to perform work (inadequate number of computers)
• Unsafe work practices
• Timing of shifts
• Irregular and unsocial work timings
• Lack of social interaction at work
• Frequent long hours of work

Personal
• Raising children
• Death in the family
• Financial commitments and stress (e.g. mortgage repayments)
• Family commitments
• Providing long term care to another
• Divorce
• Marital problems
• Academic pressure
Disease Stress management
While avoiding stress or escaping from it may not be possible its effect can be reduced or curtailed by
managing it. Some ways to manage stress are:
• Breathing exercises – One of the easiest ways to manage stress is by doing breathing
exercises. When we are under stress our breathing becomes shallow and rapid, which is a
product of our evolution and is designed to aid in our fight or flight response. A few minutes of
deep breathing also called diaphragmatic breathing effectively lowers our stress levels.
• Meditation – Meditation has been shown to be very effective in lowering stress levels.
Meditation helps in secretion of GABA, which is a neurotransmitter. A neurotransmitter acts
as an agent that communicates between neighbouring brain cells. The role of GABA is to
reduce the neurons that relate to the fear or anxiety emotions.
• Yoga – Yoga is a 5000-year-old Indian spiritual and physical discipline. It includes several
meditation exercises which aid in moderating breathing and lowering of blood pressure
• Hobbies and enjoyable activities – This is perhaps the easiest way to manage stress as it
links with things that we already enjoy doing and would be willingly to do as much as possible.
Doing things, we enjoy and indulging in our hobbies helps in the release of the hormone
dopamine which acts as a counter to the stress hormone cortisol and reduces our stress
levels. So next time you are feeling stressed go and do the things that you have been wanting
to do anyway but could not find time till now.
• Experiencing nature – Spending time in nature can help in reducing cortisol levels as well as
control blood pressure and heart rates.

Practice task
We have talked about stress, its different types and personal stressors. To better understand your
own personal stressors and how to deal with them, have a look at the practice task below.
In the table below list your personal stressors, your emotional state at the onset of these stressors
and what you are going to do to manage them.
Personal stressors Emotional state Management of stressors

Develop awareness of own emotional triggers and use this
awareness to enable control emotional responses
Emotional triggers
Emotional triggers are things that cause us to respond to certain events, actions, behaviours or
people in a particularly emotional manner. These triggers might be things that we perceive as threats
or things that make us question how we look at the other things or we may remember the losses that
we have faced when we come across these things and these triggers bring forth pleasant or
unpleasant memories. For example, a person might remind us of our childhood or a smell might
remind us of an unpleasant experience that we have had in the past. Triggers may also unearth some
suppressed emotions or memories as well as indicate our true feelings regarding a particular
situation, event or person. It is also important to know that it is quite natural to have such triggers and
everyone has some sort of triggers like these. Some examples of such triggers are:
• Thinking about a loved one
• Being rejected
• Being alone
• Being threatened
• Coming across an authority figure
• Being mocked
• Being ignored
• Hearing music
• Familiar smells
• Being in a familiar place
• Being recognised for achievements

• Thinking about failure
• Past trauma
Developing awareness of triggers
In order to manage the emotional triggers, it is important to first identify them. In order to identify them
we should notice the environmental factors under which these triggers kick in. We should take note of
situations in which you reacted in a peculiar or undesired manner, the persons in whose presence the
trigger kicked in, the events that caused the trigger, your thoughts and emotions at the time etc. For
example, if you recall getting irritable around the time of an audit or if you get depressed after getting
an audit report then you need to make a note of it to identify the instances which cause such
emotional states in you. With help of such analysis we can identify the root cause that is making us
act in the undesired manner. For example – you may get tensed up when a particular person comes
close to you. You should note this and then think about why you react in such a way around this
person. Once you make this identification you are far more likely to deal with your triggers in an
effective manner by being able to control your habitual response to those triggers. Let’s look at this
process in a bit more detail below.
Managing emotional triggers
We have discussed the importance of identifying emotional triggers. So how do we manage our
emotional triggers? The management of emotional triggers can be done through a process, such as
one discussed below:
• Accept responsibility for your reactions – the first thing to do in the process of managing your
triggers is to accept responsibility for the way we react. It is easy but futile to put the blame of
how you reacted on another person or external events. Accept responsibility that you did what
you did. Only by accepting this responsibility will your mind get freed up to take steps needed
to manage the trigger as we can only change what we control. If we think or accept that we
don’t control something then we simply can’t muster the inclination to change that aspect
because we keep justifying to ourselves “what’s the point, it’s all outside of my control
anyway!”. So, the first step is to take ownership of our reaction.
• Recognise your emotional reactions at their onset – The second thing to do in this process is
to recognise any physical or psychological developments linked to a particular reaction. This
may be the clenching of your fists, the dryness in your mouth, the increase in the rate of
breathing and/or blood flow to the tensing up of muscles and so on and so forth. Recognising
these physical or psychological developments gives us an early indicator of what our general
emotional state is going to be.

• Record your findings – once you have identified the developments that indicate onset of an
emotional reaction you need to record them in a journal for reflection and reviewing.
• Find out what triggers the emotion – In this step you need to analyse what was it that caused
the emotion to trigger. Was it something someone said or did, was it the sight of something or
someone, was it the smell, was it a situation that has happened earlier as well.
• Make the connection and remember – once you have identified the physical or psychological
changes that takes place in your body with certain, events, processes, memories or
personalities you would have made a connection between them and remember it so that you
know what is happening and why it is happening the next time.
• Change the trigger – You now have established the connection between the trigger and your
response. The next step is to change the trigger. Changing the trigger implies changing the
mental association we have made with that trigger up till now. For example – a crowded place
might trigger the memory of an event where you were pushed and shoved. Changing the
mental association can be done in several ways. In the case of our crowded place trigger it
can be done by going into a crowded place with friends to provide you courage, safety and
confidence. This process can be repeated a number of times and with each successive
iteration the previous association of crowded place = shoving becomes weaker and gradually
replaced by crowded place = normal.
The other approach is more difficult to achieve. It involves thinking about the original
association and the experience that caused it and question the continuing validity of the
association. Chances are that due to change in personal circumstances, capabilities,
environments etc. the association might still be there but the factors that allowed the
association may no longer be there. For example – the sight of a school bully might have
caused you to become fearful due to what the bully might have done. If the sight of that
person again evokes the same reaction then you need to reflect and question why that is
happening. That association was true for a time but not anymore and the general environment
has also changed. Now if that person were to engage in a similar kind of behaviour the
repercussions would be a lot different for them too. So, the question needs to be around the
validity of that association.
• Develop alternative behaviours – If you are unable or unwilling to change the trigger, then
another way of changing the emotional outcome could be by how you respond to the trigger.
For example – if the sight of your workplace nemesis induces teeth clenching response then
you should try and change the response from teeth clenching one to a smile. Over a period
this subtle act will also change how you react to any action by this person thereby changing
your whole emotional status pertaining to this person.
• Develop a support network – Sometimes when we are trying to effectively deal with a trigger it
is possible that we may need some additional help. This additional help may come from

friends and families as well as others in a formal help group. Share with them what behaviour
or response you are trying to change so they may help you in achieving it.
• Seek professional help – If your efforts in changing the trigger and the response you give has
not changed or not changed to an appreciable extent, it might be useful to seek professional
help such as that provided by a psychologist. There might be some deep-seated issues that
might need to be resolved and may require professional help.

Model workplace behaviours that demonstrate management of
emotions
Managing emotions
In the previous section we have talked about managing emotional triggers. Management of triggers is
important to modify or change the emotional reaction we might give in a particular situation or event.
However, it is possible that despite managing or changing an emotional trigger we still might end up
responding in an emotional manner. For example – In the past you had a negative experience in a
crowded place where you were pushed and shoved, due to this you used to get fearful or irritable as
soon as you would see a crowded place. This is the emotional trigger in action. So, you recognised
this trigger and took steps to overcome it and now you don’t get fearful or irritable when you see a
crowded place anymore. However, despite overcoming that trigger there have been instances where
you have shouted at other people in the crowd or pushed and shoved against them in an aggressive
manner. This is your emotional reaction that is not tied to the earlier trigger of seeing crowded places.
Another example could be of the stressed out feeling you get when the CEO of your RTO asks you to
put specific details in all assessment tools and you get agitated. This is the trigger bit. After sitting
down to insert the specifications you feel angry, frustrated or helpless. This is the emotional reaction.
So, while we should make efforts to control the emotional triggers, we also need to take steps to
control or mange our emotions, especially if they have the potential to cause damage to our
relationships with others. Management of emotions in the workplace is especially important if you are
a leader. Being a leader means that other team members look up to you and take their cues from you
regarding what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. A leader or manager who reacts in an
emotionally inappropriate manner send out a signal that it is okay to have such a reaction or such an
attitude at work. If not checked, this might result in the other employees also gradually starting to
behave in a similar manner and pretty soon there is a huge cultural issue at hand not to mention all
the HR problems such a situation would entail.
So, what can you do to manage your negative emotions at work? The following techniques may take
some effort but can be very useful in managing negative emotions:
• Don’t be judgemental – There may be times when you don’t understand why certain things
were not followed up on or why certain things were done in a certain way by your team
members. At this juncture, instead of making assumptions wait for an appropriate time to
actually discuss things with your team members.
• Don’t react immediately – when faced with a negative situation, event or person, suspend
your reaction. The simple act of suspending your action momentarily instantly reduces the
intensity of the emotional reaction you would have had otherwise and also provides time for
de-escalation to both you and the other party. This in turn will allow you to also think about
what the other party is saying or doing and come up with a more measured response.

• Analyse your perceptions – Carefully analyse your perceptions. Sometimes thigs are not the
way they seem and we make assumptions based on our feelings about a situation or a
person. These perception, if unchecked, can cause us to react in an unwarranted way and
damage relationships. Always question your own perceptions to determine what is causing us
to perceive something or someone in a particular manner and are those reasons valid.
• Ask questions – Again when faced with a situation like the one described in the previous
point, a good strategy is to ask questions instead of giving in to the temptation of providing a
tit for tat response. When we ask questions in a negative situation it comes across as neutral
and non-judgemental. It tells the other party that instead of reacting to what they were saying
or doing we are trying to better understand their position and intent. This subtle act sends a
very powerful, non-verbal calming signal to the other party and can lead to a quick de-
escalation of a situation that could have otherwise gone bad.
• Count to 10 – This technique has been around for a very long time and is a version of the
don’t react immediately strategy discussed earlier. When faced with a negative situation
instead of immediately reacting or responding, quickly count to 10 in your head. Counting to
10 reduces the intensity of our reaction drastically and makes for a thought out and measured
response.
• Keep a low voice – During a negative situation, it is almost natural to match the other party’s
escalation acts and tactics. One of these is raising your own voice in response to the raising
of voice by the other party. However, if we don’t raise our voice when the other party does
and keep talking in a low conversational tone then it sends a signal to the other party for de-
escalation and they also start to return to conversational voice levels.
• Excuse yourself from the situation – If all your efforts at managing your emotions are proving
difficult or the other party is simply proving to be implacable or the situation is becoming too
overwhelming them utilise your option of excusing yourself. Say that you want to take a break
and remove yourself from that environment completely. Physically removing yourself from that
environment will give you the mental space for getting your emotions back on the normal
sphere and also gives you the opportunity to avoid making a poor reaction to the other party
or situation.
• Smile – smiling during a negative situation can be a very powerful tool to quickly de-escalate
the situation. However, one should be careful with how they smile. A genuine friendly smile
will de-escalate things, while a snide or mocking smile can do the opposite.
While some people are naturally good at managing their emotions and some cultures even put an
emphasis on being able to control emotions, management of emotions is a useful skill to master for
everyone. Following strategies discussed above will ensure that you come across as an emotionally
stable and intelligent person. In addition, always aim to be polite and respectful towards others,

especially online as in the absence of facial expressions, written words can be misinterpreted. If you
show respect to others the others will show respect to you as well.
Use self-reflection and feedback from others to improve
development of own emotional intelligence
Self-reflection
Self-reflection is we think about our own actions, behaviours and feelings. It’s an excellent tool to
assess the efficacy of how we approach certain situations and relationships. In a 2012 article in
Harvard business review, the author of the article AK Tian says that self-reflection is the quality that is
evident in ‘every great entrepreneur, manager and leader’ and something that leaders use to improve
their effectiveness. Self-reflection helps us to develop our skills and assess their effectiveness, rather
than just carrying on and doing things the way we have always done them. It’s about asking

ourselves, what we do and why we do it, then deciding whether there is a better way, or a more
efficient way of doing it in the future.
We have already discussed that self-awareness and self-regulation are two fundamental elements of
emotional intelligence. Self-reflection is the tool that enables us to become self-aware and then again
helps us in self-regulation. Using self-reflection a person would have an honest look at how they
behaved in certain instances and ask themselves questions around their conduct, their capabilities,
their relationships, their actions, their intent, how their behaviour has affected others etc. For example,
think about in the days leading up to an audit – how did you behave with your co-workers? Were you
irritable, short, aggressive etc. and ask yourself why you behaved in such a manner, was your
behaviour justified and reasonable and how did it affect others around you? This self-reflection
process and the answers to their questions are what would enable a person to know who they are
and what impact are they having on others around them.
Similarly, self-reflection is also the tool that assists us in self-regulation. For example – a person has
had an argument with a co-worker. A common tendency among emotionally intelligent is to blame the
other person. However, an emotionally intelligent person or someone who wants to further develop
their emotional intelligence skills will reflect on the incident and think about what they said to the other
person, how they said it, what was the other person’s body language before and after what they said,
could the same thing have been said in a different way or could a different approach have been taken
to get their point across without resorting to an argument. This level of self-reflection will provide
answers that will allow the person to regulate or change their behaviour so that this type of incident
does not happen again.
Apart from helping improve our self-awareness and self-regulation skills some other ways that self-
reflection can be beneficial are:
• Increased confidence – The number one thing that self-reflection provides you with is clarity.
Clarity about our role, our ability, our thought process etc. Clarity also helps in removing self-
doubt. The removal of self-doubt leads to confidence. Confidence in turn makes a person a
better leader and someone around whom the others can get together.
• Integrity – Self-reflection can provide that moment of clarity when a difficult decision needs to
be made or when you are not sure about the path you have taken. That clarity becomes
especially important during stressful times when our thinking becomes unusually muddled.
Modern workplaces are a very stressful environment. Everything seems to be in short supply
including patience and due consideration. Results are expected quickly and decisions need to
be taken instantly. In such circumstances, it is very easy to lose sight of certain
considerations and be inclined to take a decision just to get the ball rolling again. This is
where self-reflection can come in to save you from making a wrong decision by allowing you
time to review what you are about to do. That brief self-reflection time can save your
reputation and the business.

• Better workplace relationships – The basis of self-reflection is to analyse your own actions,
behaviours and feelings. Once we do this we start getting a better understanding of how we
might be coming across to others. Armed with this knowledge we can take steps to change or
modify our emotional responses which can lead to development of better relationships with
those around us.
One important thing about self-reflection is that it needs to be done in a dedicated manner. In other
words, you would need to devote some time exclusively to this activity to clarify things for yourself.
Some people set aside time when they wake up or right before they go to sleep to do self-reflection.
The good thing is that it does not take a large amount of time so it can easily be done even in five
minutes. The important thing is to do it every day and do it honestly with a view to find answers for
your actions not justifications.
Feedback from others
Feedback from others should be actively sought in order to improve our own emotional intelligence.
The reason why we should ask others for feedback is that there is a part of our personality that only
others can see. It is this part, that is just not covered when we get feedback from self (self-reflection).
Think of it as the back of your head. Try as you might you can never see the back of your head or
your upper body so if you want to locate a part on your back you would need to take somebody else’s
assistance regarding it.
The thing to consider is how you go about asking for feedback, especially if you are perceived to be
more powerful in an official capacity. If you are, then chances are that the other person may not be
willing to provide you with feedback fearing reprisals from you or they may provide pleasing but
ultimately useless feedback. It is important to establish a non-threatening environment before asking
for feedback. This can be achieved to a great extent by having the feedback talk in an informal setting
with no hints whatsoever of the power difference. It might also be helpful to indicate that this feedback
gathering exercise is part of an organisational process, like 360-degree feedback. This may help the
other party realise that it is something that is happening as part of organisational operations and not
something for which they are specifically being asked or targeted.
Another thing is that feedback should be collected should be for specific topics and should be
collected in a timely manner. Specific is important so people know what they should be talking about
and it also allows them to collect their thoughts and focus on an area instead of providing vague and
irrelevant feedback. Timely is important because if you ask somebody to provide feedback about your
behaviour a month after the said behaviour then there are chances that the other person has either
forgotten about it or has poor memory of it so that specific and useful feedback cannot be provided.
Finally, when the feedback is provided, it should be taken without being defensive or argumentative.
Getting all defensive and argumentative about feedback essentially renders the feedback process

useless as it indicates that you are not willing to take what you had asked for and also makes the
feedback provider very apprehensive of any future attempts at feedback gathering.
Then there is the informal feedback. Which in a workplace setting might mean reading a lot of
gestures and body language, tone, gaze, facial expressions etc. These can tell you a lot more than a
formal feedback gathering process because in a formal feedback gathering process the person
providing the feedback knows they are being watched and their feedback is being recorded. Whereas
in informal feedback, the person might give off certain signs of what they think of you because they do
not believe they are being watched or recorded. In fact, they themselves might not know about the
gesture they have made as it happens on such a sub-conscious level for most people. However, this
is the feedback that will tell you whether your co-workers and team members approve of your actions
and behaviour or not.

2. Recognise and appreciate the
emotional strengths and weaknesses of others
In a team, there will always be individuals who excel at certain things and are not good at certain
other things. The key for a manager is to recognise what these strengths and weaknesses are and
take steps to utilise and overcome them as necessary to get the maximum out of each team member
and increase productivity of the team.
• Respond to the emotional states of co-workers and assess emotional cues
• Identify the range of cultural expressions of emotions and respond appropriately
• Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in dealing with others
• Take into account the emotions of others when making decisions

Respond to the emotional states of co-workers and assess
emotional cues
Emotions and emotional states
Emotions are complex feelings expressed by humans and animals when they experience certain
situations and circumstances that influence our thoughts and behaviours. Charles Darwin has
proposed that basic emotions evolved in humans to enable their survival and reproduction. For
example – the emotion of fear results in a person running away from the source of fear or not
attempting something that may cause harm. Similarly, the expression of love and happiness prompted
the early humans to come together and form bonds and families. The emotions being felt by a person
induce a specific emotional state in that person. The famed psychologist Robert Plutchik has argued
that there are eight basic emotions, namely – aggression, optimism, love, submission, awe,
disapproval, remorse and contempt. According to Plutchik these basic emotions then go on to form
primary emotions, which are formed by mixing or deriving from basic emotions. The Plutchik wheel* is
shown below.
*Source – Crazyegg.com (2017)

So, what is the importance of knowing about emotions and emotional states? Employees in a
negative emotional state tend to be less productive that those in positive emotional states. Think of
the compliance manager who is preparing for an audit or changing the documentation for the
hundredth time and their productivity level. A person with problems is likely to focus more on their
problem rather than the job at hand. As a manager, it is both your duty and in your interest to ensure
the wellbeing of your team members. The wellbeing bit refers to both physical and emotional
wellbeing. This can only be achieved if you are aware of different emotional states being exhibited by
your team members. For example – the usually bubbly Tina has been very quiet since morning. Now
since you know that Tina is not the one to sit quietly in such a way should provide you with a hint that
something is wrong, which can provide a good conversation starter and enable you to find out what’s
bothering her. Similarly, other team members might also display emotional states that are either not
consistent with their general personality or it could be their way of subtly hinting that they are not
comfortable with something that is happening. Some of the signs that a team member might be
suffering from a negative emotional state are:
• Aggression
• Forgetful
• Unable to concentrate
• Withdrawn
• Overly critical
• Irritable
• Unusually quiet
Think of the trainer, student support officer or compliance manager who has been displaying any of
these emotional states over a long period of time or displaying them to a deeper level, enquire about
their well-being and take appropriate steps to ensure they come back to normal state of being. It is
also a manager’s responsibility to check for any signs of stress. Stress and its side effects are the
single biggest drag on an employee’s productivity. Stress can also have a significant impact on an
employee’s health. Stress can induce feelings of being overwhelmed, irritability and feeling isolated.
Left unchecked these feelings can lead to serious repercussions on a person’s psychological and
physical well-being. A manager should look for any signs of stress and take necessary steps up to
and including counselling and admitting the employee into stress management programs.
Assessing emotional behaviour
Emotional states can also signal employee’s overall satisfaction level and motivation with their work
and the workplace. In a 2015 article in the Harvard business review, the author Art Markman has said
that ‘there are three core aspects of motivation towards work that can be read from the emotions
people display: success, commitment, and orientation’. These three aspects might be communicated
by employees through a range of emotional cues. This information, gained from reading employee

emotional cues can give a manager valuable insight on what motivates a particular employee and use
this insight to determine how to make the most of employee motivations and ties them to operational
strengths. An employee experiencing success with their workplace goal attainment will exhibit
confidence and happiness. If the same employee starts displaying anxiety or looks down and
disappointed then it is a clear signal that something is wrong with their goal attainment process. In
such an instance, the manager should take active steps to resolve the situation before the employee
starts losing their motivation on account of not being able to attain their workplace goals. The very act
of approaching the employee will show the employee that you care, which in turn will enable them to
reengage and re-motivate themselves. An interesting thing to keep in mind with workplace success
and the lack of it is that non-attainment of workplace goals in certain instances can be a good thing.
Negative emotions resulting from unachieved workplace goals also means that the employee is in the
process of achieving their goals whereas a completely satisfied employee might indicate that they
have achieved their workplace goals and are now content with the status quo. This can be a bit
limiting because it might indicate that the employee is now content with the way things are and are not
feeling motivated to try and do new things. These types of situations can be a bit tricky for a manager
to navigate through, so as a rule a manager should only step in when an employee or co-worker has
been displaying negative emotions for a period of time.
Commitment to the job is another area that can be discerned by reading employee emotional cues.
Commitment refers to how deeply is a person attached to their work and work objectives. So, when
an employee puts up resistance to an idea or a new way of doing things it doesn’t just mean that they
are being difficult or disagreeable, as it may also mean that they are committed and invested in what
they are doing and that is where their negativity is coming from. Granted sometimes the workplace
takes a new direction and the old way of doing things may simply not be feasible anymore. In these
situations, the people putting up resistance may sometimes be seen as trouble makers but an
emotionally intelligent manager should be aware of and be able to see the reasons behind the
emotional behaviour.
The aspect of orientation toward work also needs to be understood by an emotionally intelligent
manager in order to better understand employee emotional cues. Workplace motivation orientation
consists of approach motivation and avoidance motivation. Art Markman has further added that ‘the
approach system is engaged when people are trying to pursue potential positive outcomes whereas
the avoidance system is engaged when people are trying to pursue potential negative outcomes’.
Pursuing negative outcomes does not mean that the employee is trying to pursue something illegal or
harmful to the business such as sabotage, rather it means that the employee maybe trying to put a
distance between themselves and their work because the work itself may be making the employee
uncomfortable. So, while it may appear that the employee is pursuing a negative outcome (not doing
work/getting work done), an emotionally intelligent manager should carefully consider the matter to
find out what is going on and modulate their own reactions towards the employee accordingly. Identify
the range of cultural expressions of emotions and respond appropriately

Culture and cultural expressions
What do we mean when we say or use the word culture? Culture is a very broad term that includes,
but not limited to, customs, practices, attitudes, belief system, lifestyle, outlook etc. In some instances,
we might be talking about food from a particular region of the world and use the food as a way to
indicate the culture of that region or we might point to a particular way of dressing as a sign of a
particular culture. Similarly, traditional games and celebrations are also aspects of a culture. The way
people express all these various aspects of culture are called cultural expressions. Cultural
expressions are not limited to festivals and traditional celebrations, (though they are the most well-
known ways of celebrating culture) they also reflect in how we talk, what we talk about, how we react
or do not react to things, how we behave in happiness and sadness, how we show displeasure. For a
manager, it is very useful to have an understanding of the different cultures as it can give them a
better understanding of behaviour of people who come from those cultures. This refers to both their
own team members as well as potential clients and business partners.
Cultural expressions are how people overtly and sub-consciously display the culture to which they
belong. The way people express their culture and how they express them could be very different to
what you are used to and can cause some confusion or friction based on how you look at it. For
example, in the Western world punctuality is valued and being late for an appointment is looked down
upon whereas in Asia being on time is not a huge priority and meetings often start later than the
official time. Now consider that you had scheduled a meeting and one of your team members was
about fifteen minutes late without a good explanation. You might think they are deliberately being
disrespectful, when they might just have been following a cultural norm. Now, granted this team
member would need to be advised that coming to meetings on time is a necessity for operational
efficiency and also because it is not fair on the remaining team members to be kept waiting on
account of one person, but the point is that you as a manager should understand that this is not being
done deliberately and the team member in this case would need some assistance regarding cultural
norms that are being followed in this part of the world. As an example, let’s look at some cultural
differences between the western/European world and Asia below:
• Providing instructions and expressing opinions - Wester/European – tend to be very direct
and candid whereas Asians often provide ideas and opinions in a roundabout manner with
verbal and non-verbal cues and references that link back to their own culture. Sometimes
they may not provide an opinion for fear of creating a conflict situation. Keep this in mind as
Asian co-workers may not provide clear opinions or even keep quite during an entire
interaction, which might mask how much they have understood or where they stand on
certain issues.
• Questioning – In the western culture subordinates are expected to ask questions to clarify
matters in an explicit and specific manner whereas in Asian culture asking questions of

supervisors and managers can be seen as challenging their authority and insult them. The
underlying feeling being the supervisor or manager either does not know what they are talking
about or has not been able to explain it very well resulting in loss of face. Keep this in mind
when providing instructions to a group of Asian students or learner cohort as they may not
ask questions out of sheer cultural norms and you might make an assumption that no
questions = message delivered successfully. It might be useful to check with your Asian
students by asking things like is there anything that I can further clarify
• Authority or power – In western world supervisors and managers often have very little power
distance with those they manage and can often be found socialising with their subordinates.
In Asian culture, the power distance between managers and employees is quite large and the
manager would not ordinarily be found socialising or mingling with their subordinates. At the
same time, Asian managers are viewed as father figures by their subordinates and the
managers also often provide guidance and advice about personal and professional matters
that is usually not found in relations between managers and subordinates in the western
world. Keep this in mind if your Asian trainer seems cagey about going out for after work
drinks. It’s not that they do not want to share your company but their cultural norm might be
telling them that they should not be having a drink with their manager.
• Workplace relationships – Generally speaking western world emphasises that workplace
relationships not become too personal whereas in the Asian world there is an effort to develop
personal relationships with other people in the workplace and there can be resentment if
reciprocal behaviour or effort is lacking.
• Meaning of yes – In western culture Yes means agreement. So, if you ask your subordinate if
they have understood what needs to be done and they respond “Yes” you can be reasonably
certain that they have understood that or else they would have said No. In Asian culture, the
word Yes can mean a number of things. It might mean that Yes- I have understood what you
have said or it might mean that yes, I have heard you. It is useful to have a follow up question
that establishes that they have understood what you wanted to convey.
• Confidentiality – In western culture confidential information is strictly shared between a
chosen few people selected on a need to know basis. In Asian culture, even confidential
information tends to get shared among a larger group and it is considered rude if there are
secrets are not being shared with other members of the group.
There are a number of other differences between these two cultures as well as between them and
other cultures around the world and discussing all those differences will be beyond the scope of this
document. The above are just examples and should not be inferred to apply uniformly to each and
every member of a given society and especially large geographical constructs such as Europe and
Asia which consist of a number of nations, each with its own unique culture. In addition, there are

several subcultures within these nations as well. Furthermore, there are cultural scripts may also
dictate how an individual might perform in a situation.
Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in dealing with others
Flexibility and adaptability
An RTO is a fast paced, competitive, quickly changing beast. Project parameters can change in an
instant, business priorities in a day and organisational direction can change in a matter of weeks. Add
to this, the tremendous capacity for communication and information sharing, the over regulation by
regulatory authorities and the changes and attention that they can bring on means that a manager
must have the ability to be flexible and adaptable and change themselves according to the situation.
Traditionally, flexibility and adaptability in the workplace have meant a willingness to change.
However, in the modern workplace it may mean several things such as:
• Reacting effectively to emerging situations
• Being able to assess a situation and its potential impact
• Planning ahead and having backup plans in case something goes wrong
• Be agile
• Be knowledgeable about different personalities and adapt your management style accordingly
• Successfully deal with different personalities
• Coming up with alternative solution based on emerging circumstances
• Taking new initiatives and challenges
• Outlining a new vision after missteps and setbacks
As we can see flexibility and adaptability are among the core competencies for a manager today and
their overall capability is often judged through the prism of how they manage change. Little wonder at
the explosion of job skills related to change management.
Majority of human beings by their very nature do not like change. Change is uncomfortable and needs
a lot of energy and effort around understanding the new factors at play. Payal Chanania wrote an
article in the Hindu back in 2011, in which she says that ‘most people prefer a static and predictable
environment and become uneasy and resistant at the very thought of change’ and that ‘they are just
too comfortable with being comfortable!’ But, change is such an inherent part of the workplace that
often there is no choice but to negotiate it. Like they say nothing is permanent but change.
A big part of managing change within an organisation involves managing the people in the
organisation. Managing people can be challenging due to the range of different personalities in the
workplace. Personality can be defined as the mixture of characteristics and traits that make up a
person and define their behaviour, attitudes, thought process, perception and emotional setup. Some
people are naturally flexible and adaptable in dealing with different personalities, whereas for others

successfully managing the various personalities may require them to do additional research. This
research may involve finding out various things about others such as thier likes and dislikes, interests,
how they like to work, outlook and opinions and then meeting me on their interest points. The
following list describes different personalities that you may find in the workplace. Please note this list
is not exhaustive and is indicative only and does not imply you will always find the personality range
outlined below in every workplace.
• People who chat too much – People who exhibit this personality often indulge in a lot of talk
with other co-workers. Now to be fair having a chat is actually good and is often encouraged
in the offices as a means for people to get closer and form good working relationships, which
is a sign of emotional intelligence and leads to better productivity. So, generally most
workplaces have a tolerance level for employees chatting among themselves due to the
mentioned operational benefits. However, this becomes a problem when you have an
individual who seems to chat more than they work and since chatting involves another person
or group of people, these personality types end up taking valuable work time from others as
well. This leads to a decrease in productivity which is the polar opposite of why workplaces
allow employees to chat among themselves in the first place. There can be a number of ways
to deal with such people such as not taking part in lengthy irrelevant conversations to politely
and diplomatically veer the conversation towards work related matters with these people. Also
consider if their energy can somehow be redirected in a more constructive manner elsewhere.
• People with inflated egos – People with these personalities will often have a notion that they
know everything and will not listen to instructions and guidelines and might even have a low
opinion of other co-workers but will not shy away from taking credit. This behaviour can lead
to operational setbacks and in some cases, may even prove to be dangerous. Dealing with
people of this personality requires assertiveness to clearly tell them in a polite but firm manner
that their behaviour will not be tolerated and unless they make drastic changes in how they
interact with others, there may not be a position for them in the workplace anymore.
• People who indulge in blame games – People with this personality type will put responsibility
for any failures away from themselves by blaming other team members, situations, resources
etc. without ever accepting their role in what went wrong or otherwise admit to their mistake.
In order to deal with these type of personalities firstly separate facts from fiction and then
base your discussion around verifiable facts.
• People who play the victim – People with this personality type often complain about their work
and personal life problems and try to draw other people’s attention towards them. They can
often be found complaining about the volume of their work or how they do not have enough or
relevant resources to perform their job properly. In order to deal with this personality type it is
important to remain objective and stay true to facts around their work condition or work
performance. Also check with any documentation and other team members to ascertain facts
and to ensure you have all relevant details before you have a discussion with them.

• People who are loners – People with this personality type are often not a complete part of the
team. This personality type is in some ways the opposite of the overly chatty personality type.
They often perform well on individual tasks but not so much when they are given team tasks.
Since, team work is so important nowadays, a manager needs to be able to draw people like
these into the team fold so they can contribute accordingly and adequately. This can be
achieved by gradually giving them more and more team or collaborative tasks. Also
encouraging them on the job they are doing as part of team and providing regular ongoing
one-on-one feedback will be very effective in making them feel more confident.
Navigating through the different personalities in the workplace takes a lot of skill and effort but dealing
with this variety of personalities in an effective manner can be very rewarding and assist in further
development of your own leadership skills and eases your career growth and success. Whatever you
do and however you deal with the various personalities and people in the workplace, always keep an
open mind and look at problems as opportunities and you will find that you are able to better adapt to
any emerging issues.
Practice Task 3
Identify a change that you have recently managed. This can be from your professional or personal
lives. Identify the stakeholders (other people) who were involved in that change and what challenges
did you face in implementing that change? Could you have done anything differently to better manage
the change?

Take into account the emotions of others when making decisions
Assessing others’ emotional state
In the workplace, the leader must make a number of decisions everyday regarding a range of issues.
Most of these decisions will affect the team members to varying degrees, particularly the ones that
involve significant change. As such it is important to assess and take team member emotions into
account when making a decision as the decision could have a significant bearing on them and can
negatively affect their emotional and psychological state. Not considering team member emotions
when making a decision can lead to a number of repercussions such as:
• Team members losing trust in you
• Team members losing commitment to work
• Fall in team members productivity levels due to confusion
• Deterioration in working relationships of team members with the manager as well as among
themselves
• Feeling anxious and losing confidence in own abilities
• Project delays and other operational setbacks
Think about an instance when someone you trusted took a decision or did something that went
against your interests. How did that make you feel? Were you taken aback? Did you feel confused or
betrayed? Take the example of the CEO of an RTO who requested certain modifications to some
documents which were carried out by the compliance manager. During the audit these same changes
were particularly flagged by an auditor as not meeting compliance requirements the blame for which
was put on compliance manager by the CEO! Similar feelings are bound to run in the team members
when a decision taken by the manager goes against their interests. These feelings are compounded
when the manager has not made the effort to determine where employees stand as afar as taking a
decision is concerned. The simple act of considering and consulting employee stance on certain
issues and communicating with them in a responsible manner can be the difference between the
smooth implementation of a decision or a rough and difficult one.
For example – Martha, a single mother enjoys working at xyz company because xyz company offers a
late afternoon shift. This has allowed Martha to pick her child up from school, leave the child with her
sister and then collect the child at the end of her shift. The manager of the company decides to cancel
the late afternoon shift due to falling profit margins and higher compensation costs associated with the
afternoon shift. When Martha hears about this she feels her world has turned upside down and feels
angry and confused. Martha feels overwhelmed considering all the lifestyle changes she would need
to make on account of this decision and feels a sense of hatred towards the manager. She can’t
immediately reconcile to the fact that this decision was taken keeping the business interests in mind,

instead she feels that the manager has taken this decision to save a few dollars while not thinking
about her and her child.
While the manager has taken the decision to scrap the late afternoon shift after carefully considering
certain business indicators, he obviously did not communicate the decision in an adequate manner
and also did not take any steps to consult with the employees regarding the decision to be taken. This
has resulted in employees like Martha feeling like they don’t matter and that the manager has
behaved in a high-handed manner without considering the feelings or situations of the employees.
Now consider another instance where the manager had communicated to employees weeks or
months in advance (whichever time frame was possible) that such a decision was being considered
and that employees are welcome to share their concerns with the manager. This could have been
followed up by the manager actually putting aside some time to discuss these matters with
employees. Such a communication and follow up actions would have given the employees ample
notice about what is happening and also the feeling that the manager is being considerate of their
personal feelings and situations.
It is quite possible that such an exercise would have only been aimed at making them aware about
the impending decision and not be about giving employees a chance to influence the manager to
reconsider the decision. However, the timeframe and the communication and the appearance of a
consultative approach would have given the employees the opportunity to internalise and assimilate
the information regarding why the late afternoon shifts are being cancelled. This understanding would
have then enabled the employees to get mentally prepared that such a decision was going to be
implemented and not become confused and angry as they did. There have been studies which have
shown that when employees are provided proper communication regarding a decision including the
emotional reasons behind the decision, they are much more likely to agree with that decision.
The employees could have been taken aboard through a consensus building approaches as
discussed below:
• Consensus building – Consensus building approach is also called as a collaborative problem-
solving approach. This approach aims to get all the involved parties on the same page with
the ultimate goal of getting a ‘consensus’ which means that a decision has been unanimously
agreed to by all the parties. Suitable for solving problems or clarifying issues in a group, it
allows group members to discuss and try to resolve problems in a timely manner. These
problems usually arise because either certain things are poorly defined or some stakeholders
have vested interests or there is technical complexity involved or the existing processes are
inadequate. The stages of consensus building are:
o Problem is identified – In the first stage the problem is identified and a
decision is taken whether the resolution of this problems requires a
consensus building approach or not.

o Identification of concerned parties – The second stage of the process
revolves around identification of persons and parties that have a stake in the
resolution. This is essentially an exercise in determining who speaks for
whom and that all involved parties have a legitimate interest in resolving the
situation.
o Identification of a convener – The consensus building process often requires
a convener. This figure is someone on whom the involved parties can agree
as having the intent and the capacity to protect every party’s interest during
the discussion process.
o Identification of resolution process – In this stage all concerned parties are
presented with a process that will be taken to achieve consensus. Further
steps are only taken once all parties have agreed to this resolution process.
In a way, this step acts as a mini consensus exercise.
o Discussion of solutions and options – In this step the concerned parties
come together under the identified resolution process and discuss a number
of ways that they see could solve the problem.
o Selecting a solution – This step involves selection of a possible solution out
of the options that have been put forward and discussed by the parties and
agreement to its selection and implementation by the parties.
o Implementation – Finally the selected resolution which has been agreed to
by the parties is implemented.
Consensus building approach is very effective in resolving problems that affect diverse
groups by providing group members with an input into the decision-making process and
guaranteeing that their interests will be considered and protected.

3. Promote the development of emotional
intelligence in others
Emotional intelligence is increasingly being seen as the binding factor in teams and achieving team
objectives. As such it is important for managers to ensure that team members are emotionally aware
and to assist them in increasing their emotional intelligence. This part will look at various things that a
manager can and should do to help team members develop their emotional intelligence.
• Provide opportunities for others to express their thoughts and feelings
• Assist others to understand the effect of their behaviour and emotions on others in the
workplace
• Encourage the self-management of emotions in others
• Encourage others to develop their own emotional intelligence to build productive relationships
and maximise workplace outcomes

Emotional intelligence in the workplace ankit sharma

Emotional intelligence in the workplace ankit sharma

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