I did not plan to annoy the CEO when I reminded him, “You can’t talk yourself out of what you behaved yourself into.” The problem he was facing related to a large group of employees who had sent anonymous letters to key customers and the Board of Directors complaining that he was a “flaming racist and sexist.” He had been hired six months before to fix the operation which he believed came with the demand, “fix it no matter what it takes.” He had instructed his executive team to actively seek out the under performers and get them to move on, and to get all teams engaged in a turn around discussion. During a company wide meeting to explain the need for all hands on deck, he explained that there would be an elevation of performance standards that some would find uncomfortable and he used a couple of examples which highlighted people of color and women.
“I simply was being truthful about our financial challenges. Maybe I used a bad example,” the CEO said to me. And as we reviewed several situations in which I was able to give time, place, behavior, and reactions, I suggested that having situational awareness and demonstrating social intelligence, especially in large group situations were mission critical to his success. I suggested apologizing was important and equally so was his demonstrated attention to these two competencies. And I genuinely did not feel he was either racist or sexist, or at least he was attuned to those issues, and how important sensitivity is to his generation of employees.
He exhibited very ineffective Situational Awareness and Social Intelligence competencies (in the referenced company meeting and other larger group meetings).
Situational Awareness and Social Intelligence are defined as follows.
Situational Awareness
Being alert and informed about your environment; reading patterns of interactions among individuals and what may be unique about the setting
And if you are not so good at this, you tend to:
- Miss key elements of an immediate setting
- Overly focus on irrelevant factors or environmental characteristics
- Fail to read any body language or emotional expressions of those in a given context or setting
- Show lack of awareness or interest in how others view current circumstances
Social Intelligence
Sensing, understanding and reacting effectively to others' emotions and the interactions with and between them… getting along well with others and getting them to cooperate with you.
And if you do this well, you:
- Demonstrate a keen understanding of people, their emotions and how they interact
- Make it a habit to observe and reflect on interpersonal experiences to increase interpersonal understanding
- Advise others on how to act wisely in human relations
- Rely on ‘people smarts’ to inspire cooperation and commitment
At a minimum, my CEO needs to:
1) Learn how to scan your environment? Attention has two primary aspects—broad/narrow and internal/external. Narrow external attention is focusing on a specific aspect in one’s environment while brood external attention is core to situational awareness. Each individual tends to utilize one kind of attentional channel over another and needs to be intentional about switching channels as the situation demands. For example, when you are playing a sport like golf, narrow external attention is essential to performance whereas playing a sport like soccer requires a great deal of scanning, or broad external attention. You can make yourself scan your environment by creating a prompter to do so.
2) Create perceptual flexibility? Flexibility means being able to adjust depending on the circumstances. Often when we are emotional, we tend to rely on our preferences and we over utilize them. This over utilization facilitates greater loss of flexibility. Another source of loss of flexibility is related to negative emotions. As negative emotions increase, emotional flexibility decreases. To increase flexibility we need to (a) reduce the anxiety or stress we are dealing with and (b) practice shifting attentional channels.
3) Figure out body language clues? Body language tells when we—or those we are with-- are feeling comfortable, safe, anxious, or energized. Begin by paying attention to facial expressions of those whom you are observing. Notice shifts in leaning forward to backwards during conversations. Watch when an individual folds his or her arms during discussions. When paying attention to body clues, you will have reactions to others’ behavior. Trust those reactions and check them out with others.
These two competencies are part of a library of 54 EQ skills and perspectives developed in the People Skills Handbook: Action Tips for Improving your Emotional Intelligence. The resource was designed to be a personal development and coach guide. Let me know of your interest and I’ll sent a sample chapter of the book. Send note to: rogerpearman@yahoo.com.
You can get our book the People Skills handbook at http://www.leadership-systems.com/product/people-skills-handbook/
You can access the content on a digital platform at www.matrixinsights.com
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