An organizational review is a procedure of undertaking an analysis of an analysis of a business’ functions, operation methods, and employee management. This process of collecting and interpreting relevant information is a strategic process that allows the management to ensure the smooth running and improving the organizational culture, structure, and functional systems. Most notably is the fact that it aids in exploring and increasing the performance levels of the corporation. In this endeavour, therefore, managing the human resource aspect is crucial to the success of an effective organizational review. In improving the performance levels and efficiencies of the company, it is important to manage change in the process and practices of the day-to-day activities. Therefore, this research paper will focus on managing change with emotional intelligence, the six primal leadership styles, and relevant theories and develop a training strategy to implement emotional intelligence training in a specific workplace environment.
Background
In analyzing, researching and synthesizing on the organizational environment, this research will concentrate on previous work environments that the researcher worked and use it as the basis of reporting on emotional intelligence and primal leadership. Most organizations depend on utilizing team efforts to accomplish both short-term and long-term goals and objectives. Therefore, the investigation will intend to discuss the team initiatives, roles, scope and performance in regards to discussing the correlation between emotional intelligence and the six leadership styles and other relevant theories. Additionally, implementing an effective strategy or policy of implementing and training employees on emotional intelligence will follow.
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Emotional Intelligence and Primal Leadership
Emotional intelligence is the capability of an individual to recognize or be aware of, understand, control and manage one’s emotions. Once this occurs, then an individual can also identify the same traits in other individuals and influence them. After an individual obtains the capability to distinguish between one’s emotions and those of others, then they can influence their behaviour and think to adapt to particular situations or experiences (Goleman, 2006). However, it is critical to understand that the success of an emotionally intelligent individual, especially leaders, depends on one’s ability to first, recognize these emotions and become aware of them before they can lead or influence others and how they act, speak, or relate to each other.
Scientific evidence proves that a competent and effective leader ought to analyze and develop skills related to emotional leadership in order to harness and build an efficient organization (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). Therefore, there are four elements of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, relationship management and social competence. Bradberry and Greaves continue to classify these capabilities under personal competencies; self-awareness and self-management and social competencies; social skills and relationship management (2009). According to Bradberry and Greaves, self-awareness results to managing oneself while social skills allow an individual to manage their relationships.
Self-awareness comprises of emotional cognizance, self-confidence, and accurate self-assessment. It is imperative for leaders to realize how their emotional tendencies affect their job performance and themselves. This is an essential component especially in a work environment because how a leader reacts or communicates can determine the future of their employees and overall organizational performance. Additionally, proper self-assessment allows leaders to learn continually from their mistakes and accepting positive criticism where necessary. This allows them to gain more self-confidence. In the previous corporation, the CEO was very expressive and stood out as he had a sense of assurance in his abilities and control over difficult situations. In retrospect, this trait permeated to his employees as we always had control over ourselves since there was no need to worry or panic.
Self-management, mastery, or regulation is the process of managing or controlling one’s emotions which leads to handling the reactions and mannerisms (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). When a leader becomes aware of their emotions, they can then acquire self-control in managing themselves and various situations. In turn, this control is essential to leaders as they can adapt and achieve any goals that they set for the organization and also at a personal level. Additionally, this skill allows people to remain open and set high standards of achievement without offending or discouraging their followers since they understand the trivialities that relate to challenges, behaviour and taking risks. In an organizational setting, this aspect is crucial in managing and delegating responsibilities. It allows optimistic leaders to learn, observe and rectify mistakes and unwanted behaviour in their employees if a company is to thrive and attain its vision.
Social awareness encompasses empathy, organizational awareness and a spirit of service to others. It is crucial that leaders acquire a sense of compassion to help others and encourage an organizational climate that centers or focuses on satisfying the desires of their clients. This mindful attribute acquired by letting other people express them emotionally and accepting their opinions or perspectives on an array of issues to foster good working relationship (Goleman, 2006). This is true in organizations as they allow employees to express their opinions on long-term projects that usually require the inputs from different quotas. This attribute is also crucial in building a cohesive and accommodative relationship with the clients as when one put themselves in other’s people’s shoes, it is easier to come up with ideas and solutions to serve all.
Relationship management is another aspect of effective and emotional leadership. Once all the other competencies are recognized, and accepted, they culminate in building stronger working relations. At this level, leaders are capable of inspiring, influencing and developing others through the different strategies of emotional intelligence. Advertently, relationship management can solve conflicts or encourage teamwork. In the researcher’s previous workplace, this was one of the most important aspects of achieving and continuing the organization’s goal and vision. Good and productive teamwork success was a result of continually forging and implementing cooperation and commitment towards one agenda. It is a successful and necessary prerequisite if a leader intends to make any advancement.
Primal leadership, on the other hand, is the ability to “prime good feelings in those we lead (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013).” Primal leadership is the process and articulation of emotional intelligence in organizations. It is the effective arousal of emotions in individuals with the intention of focusing and directing them towards desired outcomes and directions. Through emotional intelligence, a leader is as effective as his ability to resonate and influence his followers by tapping into their emotional expressions and responses. According to Boyatzis, Smith, Van Oosten, & Woolford, “In other words, to be an effective leader, manager, or professional, a person needs to understand and skillfully manage his emotions appropriately based on each person or situation and understand the emotional cues of others in order to effectively interact with others (2013).” Therefore, it is important to discuss the six primal leadership styles, how they relate to the researcher’s former workplace environment.
Six Primal Leadership Styles
According to Benincasa (2012), a Harvard Business Review study found that leadership styles account for 30% of an organization’s overall profitability. Therefore, it is essential for leaders to provide an environment where every person is in harmony to encourage teamwork and impact on the leaders’ effective and strategic management capabilities. The six leadership styles are in two categories; the first group nurture quality attributes and consists of Visionary, Democratic Coaching, and Affiliative leadership styles. On the other hand, Commanding, and Pacesetting leadership styles can affect resonance when applied inappropriately, hence causing tension.
Affiliative leadership is one in which people and teamwork take precedence. This leadership style encourages creating emotional bonds and relationships hence creating trust and a sense of belonging to an organization. It promotes putting other people first. This is an effective strategy when dealing with conflict and stressful situations. According to Goleman, this style is essential “when trying to heighten team harmony, increase morale, improve communication, or repair broken trust in an organization (2006)." In the previous company the researcher worked, it is vital to harness every person in the organization to encourage optimism in order to raise the standards of motivation. Through focusing on the emotional levels of employees, the leader was able to determine where the problem was. To him, it was not just about meeting the corporation’s goals and objectives, but rather relating to his employees on an emotional level. This act goes a long way in fostering trust and achieving monthly or annual targets since it is a continual process.
Visionary leadership entails the aspect of inspiring people towards a common cause. Visionary leaders are exceptional in articulating what direction to take but the trivialities of how to get there are up to the team members. This style is essential especially to new employees of team members as it encourages empathy and self-confidence on both the leader and staff. This style often articulates what the leader expects out of his employees and that was what our CEO applied. It was beneficial to me when I started working there as it was the first engagement the researcher had after graduating. The fact that he made suggestions about what to try and to do rather than commanding resulted in an open and sincere relationship that reassured my belief in myself and the work at hand.
Coaching leadership style is often time-consuming. However, when leaders communicate with their members of staff and encourage a rapport, this often leads to building trust and empathy resulting in efficacy in the firm. Additionally, some employees may regard this as micromanagement since it involves the leader guiding and directing the staff’s work. Therefore, leaders ought to distinguish and choose wisely, which employees are receptive to this leadership style instead of “imposing” on individual efforts of the employees. An example of how this style was in use the workplace environment was through mentorship programs where different managers would access each employee performance by examining how they handle various situations. It was an effective strategy since the leaders would offer advice and increase our experience through enthusiasm.
Democratic leadership involves teamwork and collaboration. Effective leaders using this style allow associates to contribute their ideas, opinions, based on their experiences and skills that they possess. This style of leadership promotes harmony and a sense of service and harmony since no one is left out. Additionally, it encourages people to feel valued as they participate in the decision-making process. The researcher has personally experienced this leadership style through the setting of goals, decisions, and ideas on how to achieve the company’s long-term and short-term goals within specified periods. In the former workplace, weekly meeting held on Fridays allowed people to come together and discuss what succeeded through the week and what was necessary in order to achieve better results in the periods to come. This initiative resonates well with the staff as they bring out ideas that they feel they can achieve and aid in accomplishing specific time-sensitive goals and objectives.
The commanding leadership style is one leader ought to use with caution and specific situations. It is a form of autocratic approach that is often ineffective in achieving desirable results. The reason behind this is the fact it undermines the staff input and overall job performance by discouraging enthusiasm, productivity and morale. This kind of leader often uses punishment, exerting authority, and threats in trying to manage employees. However, despite its undesirable nature, it plays a crucial role when a company faces serious concerns or when dealing with unproductive or stubborn staff. There are rare circumstances that this type of authoritarian leadership style was in use during the researcher’s tenure at the previous place of employment. Its purpose was of no use as the leaders were more accommodative and always had precautionary measures in place to deal with any uncertainties or adverse situations. However, when operational managers made bad decisions that would affect the company’s output, the senior administrators resulted in commanding orders to these high-pressure situations in order to rectify and cope with negative consequences.
Finally, the pacesetting mode of leading concentrates and puts emphasis on goal achievements and performance. These leaders set high standards of which to hold every individual. This leadership style does not allow mediocrity and often leaders perform these actions as an exemplification of what every staff is expected to follow. Often, this kind of leadership may result in employee burn out and work overloads as people try to keep up with their leader and attain excellence in a particular task. However, it can also encourage increased productivity to a particular set of skill attainment as long as it is efficiently used. For example, the researcher can record a particular incident when every individual had to accomplish an objective for the day during the early novice days. This experience resulted in unhealthy competition due to the strenuous task that required a set of skills and experiences the new employees did not have.
Relevant Theories
The organizational environments, both internal and external, are continually changing. Therefore, it is necessary for human resource management to employ measures that allow them to work efficiently, manage their human resources, meet their goals and objectives, survive and thrive in their respective industries, and increase employee productivity (Gill, 2011). One of the major theories is the change management theories that organizations can use to accomplish this endeavour. The change management theories are the most widely and effective tools of management in organizations intending to drive up change. In this discussion, the reference will base on the Lewin’s change management model, McKinsey 7-s model and Korter’s 8-step changes approach.
The first model for implementing change is the Korter’s 8-step process. John Korter organizes this approach in eight steps where management convinces individuals of the need for change by promoting its steps (Gill, 2011). These steps are; establishing and initiating urgency for change, building a dedicated team for change, building apparition and objectives for change, communicating this need for change, enabling staff to participate in the implementation of changes, creating short-term goals, maintaining persistence, and lastly, making these changes permanent or a matter of policy. This approach is often successful because of the various steps, ease of transition, and the fact that it promotes accepting change by individuals rather than the change itself
The McKinsey 7-S model created by Robert Waterman, Tom Peters, Richard Pascale, and Anthony Athos contains seven aspects of a holistic approach. These elements act collectively or are tailored by companies depending on their specific requirements or areas of modifications. The elements are shared value, strategy, staff, structure, style, systems, and skills (Gill, 2011). This particular model, though not widely in use due to its ambiguity, is a good basis to build on by the management. In an organizational setting, this model relates to the emotional intelligence, primal leadership in that it provides guidance to firms’ changes, combines both coherent, and emotional changes and it is effective in diagnosing and understanding organizations.
The final model is the Lewin’s change management model, created by Kurt Lewin, identifies three levels of change; unfreeze, transition and refreeze. This model claims that individuals have three levels of safety that they operate in. this method is essential in companies implementing long-term change as it takes time. In an organizational setting, this change management approach is vital, as the first phase is when people try to overcome their opposing change. Nevertheless, through training, the changes normally materialize, which is the refreeze concept, and the change becomes a policy.
Developing a Training Strategy to Implement Emotional Intelligence Training in the Workplace
It is vital for organizations to develop training strategies that allow easy implementation of emotional intelligence in the workplace. The essence of this endeavour is to promote and encourage individuals at all levels to understand one another, create lasting relationships based on mutual trust and openness, and recognize the benefits of teamwork collaboration in endeavoring to achieve both organizational and personal goals and long-term achievements. Therefore, organizations can follow the following strategy in training people and implement emotional intelligence.
The first step involves getting leadership backing for the program. It is important to build a foundation that emphasizes the value of identifying and managing emotions in a workplace environment. Being more specific as to the areas most affected by emotional imbalances like the production or research departments is essential. This is a congruent part for the success of this training and implementation program since when the need, effects, and possible outcomes are defined, it makes it easier to gain and maintain support from all levels of management.
Secondly, it is necessary to expand the resources available. Since emotional intelligence is still a continual learning process, it might help if the organization sources for experts or consultants in this field. The reason for this is that it is important to acquire information on what works and its effectiveness in any organization. Therefore, after establishing the need for change, gaining more knowledge on the subject and building upon it, both at a personal and corporation’s level, is vital.
Continuous coaching for all staff members, leaders, and the dedicated implementation team results in persistent progress. Getting experienced coaches and trainers will encourage the staff to feel comfortable, as they are not part of the organization. This is important since most people might feel insecure in revealing their inadequacies to fellow colleagues.
Emotional intelligence encompasses various aspects like personal and social competencies. Therefore, developing a plan for the different emotional change implementation process, where to apply them is crucial. Different departments or roles have their responsibilities. It is therefore vital that implementation is specific to these needs and assessments. For example, assessing employee and department performance levels might help in directing and offering guidance on success probabilities.
Finally, is providing realistic and experiential emotional intelligence training. Emotional intelligence involves competencies in self-awareness, self-maintenance, social competencies and relationship building. These are difficult aspects to train people without guidance from experienced individuals. If the program is to succeed, it is important for the members of staff to learn how to detect and manage other people’s emotions.
In conclusion, emotional intelligence and primal leadership are vital to the success of any organization. Promoting healthy relationships with the company staff and their leaders is a sure way to predict success in achieving their goal, objectives and visions. Therefore, it is vital for leaders to identify problematic areas and employ emotional intelligence training methods to move swiftly and efficiently towards attaining the desired results. Hence, leaders ought to use the six primal leadership styles, merge them with other relevant theories and emotional intelligence aspects. The competencies of self-awareness, self-management or control, social awareness and relationship building in the endeavour to foster productivity and increased performance levels in any organization are a critical concept. Emotional Intelligence is important as it leads to intelligent thinking about emotions, leadership roles in decision-making and long-term success.
References
Benincasa, R. (2012). 6 Leadership Styles, And When You Should Use Them. Retrieved 26 Apr. 2018 from, http://www.fastcompany.com/1838481/6-leadership-styles-and-when-you-should-use-them
Boyatzis, R. E., Smith, M. L., Van Oosten, E., & Woolford, L. (2013). Developing resonant leaders through emotional intelligence, vision and coaching. Organizational Dynamics . Retrieved 26 Apr. 2018 from, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d2b6/4d5baa2f94c7625df3074311326a293a04be.pdf
Boyatzis, R., Goleman, D., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence , Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.
Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009) Emotional Intelligence 2.0, San Diego: TalentSmart ISBN 978-0-9743206-2-5
Gill, R. (2011). Theory and practice of leadership . London: SAGE Publications.
Goleman, D. (2006). Social intelligence: The new science of human relationships . New York: Bantam Books.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2013) Primal Leadership . Boston: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN: 1-4221-6803-4 or ISBN-13: 978-1-4221-6803-5
