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3 Beyond The Hype Questions Part 1

April 24th, 2007 by Galba Bright

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Anthony Mersino’s pathway to improving his Emotional Intelligence is featured in Sarah Fister Gale’s Beyond The Hype Article. If you’ve not read it yet, I encourage you to read it. If you’ve read it already, a refresher would probably also help you :).

The article will help you decide whether EQ can help project managers to be successful.

Anthony asked 3 great questions in his comments to my
Beyond The Hype: New EQ and Project Management Article post. He asks:

1) How do we determine where people are? (what is the current level of EQ)

2) Based on where they are, how do we determine their EQ potential?

3) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the tools (training, coaching,books)?

I’ll answer Anthony’s questions one by one in a series of posts.

1) How do we determine where people are?

The best way

Ideally, organisations would do thorough emotional intelligence assessments of everyone attending a development programme beforehand. They would also assess them at an agreed period after the programme has been completed. The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organisations recommends this approach.

A good way

Whilst I always keep the ideal in mind and promote the best practice, I also have a duty to meet my client where I find them. I usually discuss with the project sponsor where the organisation is at (what are the issues, problem,challenges and opportunities) to undetstand what is happening.

When clients give me good answers to these questions, I am able to develop an understanding of the overall situation. I then design a Learning Programme (not training, because I don’t think you can train people in EQ, I’ll talk about this later in the series) that seeks to achieve these outcomes. I used this approach to show How EQ Helped Build A World Cup Cricket Stadium and to demonstrate How To Transform Organisational Failure Into Positive Results
The client’s questions give me hints as to where the programme participants are likely to be at. Sadly, of course, this doesn’t give an insight into each participant’s EQ level. I seek to be flexible when I deliver the programme, based on the dynamic that is established between the participants and myself.

My approach is very much influenced by the years that I’ve spent in helping organisations and individuals to successfully implement major changes. It’s taught the importance of balancing a methodical approach with the flexibility to respond effectively to each unique individual and his/her circumstances.

How you feel about this approach?

Do you have an experience or ideas that you can share?

Thanks for the questions Anthony. I’ll answer your two remaining questions shortly.

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3 Responses to “3 Beyond The Hype Questions Part 1”

  1. Anthony Mersino Says:
    April 25th, 2007 at 4:44 am

    Galba, thank you for your response and analysis. I think the approach you have outlined is very practical and timely for me since I am in the process of conducting workshops for individuals. I will comment here in the context of my preparations leading up to these workshops which start tomorrow.

    I planned a short EQ assessment at the beginning of the workshop to help individuals get a sense of where they stood. I looked at several assessment instruments which would be suitable for my workshop. I actually wrote to Dr. Richard Boyatsis about the use of the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) individual assessment. Dr. Boyatzis discouraged me against using any type of individual assessment, calling them meaningless because of individuals bias. He stressed that he only uses 360 instruments or instruments that measure internal abilities like the MSCEIT.

    I can appreciate where Dr. Boyatzis is coming from. In my experience of dealing with individuals, frequently those that have low emotional self-awareness don’t even recognize that fact. It was that way for me; I was not able to see that my personal style and emotional deadness were contributing to relationship breakdowns. I attributed those relationship breakdowns to others more often than not - and I suspect that is what others with low emotional intelligence do as well.

    After my discussion with Dr. Boyatzis, I chose to use a simple assessment instrument from TalentSmart for my workshop participants. It is still an individual assessment - that could not be avoided for this workshop. The instrument is called the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal - ME Edition. I like this appraisal instrument because it is short and simple and it provides measures along the 4 quadrants consistent with Daniel Goleman’s EQ framework (Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management). It is also available online and that is helpful as the participants can take the assessment on their own prior to the workshop.

    I will let my participants know that it isn’t necessarily going to provide them everything they need to know about their EQ. It does give them a starting point and indications of relative EQ strengths and weaknesses for the workshop.

    During the course of the workshop, I hope to be able to observe and provide feedback for the individuals. The workshop is intended to be hands on and interactive so individuals will be expected to participate heavily. I will interject my comments and adjust the flow of the course based on where people are at.

    Finally, we will end the workshop with a fishbowl exercise. This exercise allows the participants that have worked in teams together to provide feedback to each other on what they perceive as strengths and weaknesses. The last time I taught this workshop two years ago, this was one of the most memorable parts of the workshop.

    Thanks again for responding to the first of three questions. I look forward to hearing from you on the other two questions.

    Anthony Mersino
    http://eq4pm.typepad.com

  2. Galba Bright Says:
    April 29th, 2007 at 1:10 pm

    Thanks for your patience Anthony. I admire your interest in following though on this issue and to reviewing the best way to give your participants a great learning experience. Do share the lessons that you’ve learnt.

  3. Tune up your EQ » Blog Archive » 3 “Beyond The Hype Questions”, Pt 6 of 6 Says:
    August 31st, 2007 at 8:45 am

    […] 3 “Beyond The Hype” Questions, Part 1 of 6My response to Anthony’s question: How do we determine where people are? (what is the current level of EQ)? […]

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