The 7E’s at the workplace

We always put more stress on the Intelligence quotient part throughout our school and college days that we neglect the emotional intelligence part. We forget that finally we have to work in an organisation where we would have to deal and interact with people. Today, many organisations are stressing on the emotional intelligence as a part of their recruitment policy. The interaction of the employees in a company affect the company’s ability to remain competitive in its given market or industry. The managers and the leaders must realise that these interactions will have a positive or negative effect on the company as a whole.

Important skills that managers and leaders will need to thrive in the current environment includes communication, discussion, negotiation and being able to manage the conflicts and also inspiring others to operate at a higher level. Equally important is the organisation’s ability to deal and handle the changes. It is also important for the organisations to work towards the stated business goals. This is where the Emotional Intelligence becomes very important and is directly related to do all these things.

There are seven emotional competencies, first of which is Emotional Self Awareness. This is all about understanding the impact of one’s feelings in the organisation and creation of self awareness. Self introspection is an important tool and employees in this category are aware of self understanding and ask for more feedback. 

Second is Emotional Expression. The outcome of this competence in an organisation is creating trust, genuineness and also creating understanding among other employees. People in this area of competence generally discuss various issues at work. 

Third is Emotional awareness of others. The outcomes of this are engagement of the employees, employee motivation and connecting with the employees. In this area, employees think differently about things that are causing and affecting them adversely. People create or identify more effective ways of responding to events and create environment that makes people feel more positive and optimistic. Employees understand their and company’s values and listen to the feelings.

Fourth is Emotional Reasoning. The outcome of identification of this competency is enhanced decision making and greater buy in. People in this area are beware of how they feel and react. Fifth is Emotional Self Management which is all about effectively managing your own emotions. The outcomes are better job satisfaction and people in this area remain more optimistic and are happy in the face. They feel the power of positive psychology. Sixth is the Emotional Management of Others. Outcome of this competency is positive satisfaction with the environment. People generally empathise with the other employees and engage with other as well. 

Lastly is the Emotional Control. The effect of identification of this competency is better dealing with the conflicts and improved relationships. Employees in this category overcome anger, identify issues and events and take some time out.

As per Daniel Goleman, about 70% of the communication is non-verbal and the impact of which is very important for an organisation. Hence, the organisations should include emotional intelligence as a part of their assessment of candidates in the recruitment and selection processes. The awareness of the level of EI will define how ‘fit’ is the employee in the organisation.

Social Media and the Gen Y

Are we tweeting, creating Facebook pages or connecting with the world through the social networking websites?

Organisations throughout the world have acknowledged the fact that the generation Y has entered the workforce and these are the employees who as we all say always ask ‘Y’. These are the employees who want to grow very fast in the organisation and earn a lot of money. These are unlike the Gen X people who were contented with what they were getting and grew steadily in the organisation. However, these out of box thinkers and entrepreneurial mindset employees want to become the CXO’s of the organisations in a short span of time. Are the organisations gearing themselves up to match the aspirations of such employees or are they allowing them to increase their turnover (attrition).

Today the Gen Y will spend at least 2-3 hours daily on either Facebook or Twitter. One comment about anything in the world will spread like fire over these networking sites. If Facebook is a country, it is now the third largest country in the world. Today, not many organisations are leveraging on this fact. They should know that any good comment or a status update about a particular company policy or organisational culture will help them to boost their image without incurring any cost. Organisations should create and update respective pages on such social networking sites because a simple ‘Like’ by a Gen Y will attract another Gen Y. This will help a lot in creating the brand of the employer. Moreover, organisations can also connect with their customers and provide them with a near real time update. Organisations should create such unique culture in the organisation wherein the existing employees can help the organisation to connect to these Gen Y people.

In organisations we often talk about what is the ROI , however, we forget about the return we would be reaping if we are able to meet the expectations of these Gen Y employees.