Emotional Competence
On-the-Job Training for Emotional Competence
During the early stages of their careers, leaders tend to focus on developing their technical and analytical skills, paying little attention to their capacity to recognize and manage their own emotions and those of others. This can hurt them later in their careers. But emotional competence can be nurtured, and although formal programs are a good starting point, learning from everyday opportunities at work is most effective.
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or leaders, success or failure often comes down to how they handle challenges such as encounters with difficult colleagues, conflicts within a team, setbacks in projects, downturns in the business cycle, or the aftermath of a merger. Effectively managing such stressful …show more content…
The challenges cited at the beginning of this article— encounters with difficult colleagues, conflicts within a team, setbacks in projects, downturns in the business cycle, and the aftermath of a merger—are prime examples of opportunities to develop emotional competence. The stumbling block for most leaders as they pursue these everyday opportunities is that even though they leave off-site development programs filled with excitement and enthusiasm, they inevitably lose momentum. Sometimes daily work demands simply overshadow their ability to focus on development. Sometimes leaders don’t receive the same level of support they experienced during the program. They don’t get ongoing feedback on their progress or acknowledgment, let alone reinforcement, of their small successes. Too often, achieving dayto-day business outcomes is viewed as separate from or conflicting with the development of emotional competence. Shifting this mind-set is an important first step toward sustaining efforts to achieve these development goals. Part of this shift involves expanding the concepts of practice, feedback, and support. It can be compared to baseball batters who want to hit for a high average. They’re unlikely to achieve this goal by swinging for the fences in every at bat. They make the most of every opportunity and savor even the small successes that increase their average, such as a bloop single. As batters who take this approach develop into better hitters, the home runs often just come naturally. This is an important analogy to consider for leaders, who typically look to hit a home run in every situation. In the business world home runs are what tend to be rewarded, whereas there is less appreciation for smaller
During the early stages of their careers, leaders tend to focus on developing their technical and analytical skills, paying little attention to their capacity to recognize and manage their own emotions and those of others. This can hurt them later in their careers. But emotional competence can be nurtured, and although formal programs are a good starting point, learning from everyday opportunities at work is most effective.
F
or leaders, success or failure often comes down to how they handle challenges such as encounters with difficult colleagues, conflicts within a team, setbacks in projects, downturns in the business cycle, or the aftermath of a merger. Effectively managing such stressful …show more content…
The challenges cited at the beginning of this article— encounters with difficult colleagues, conflicts within a team, setbacks in projects, downturns in the business cycle, and the aftermath of a merger—are prime examples of opportunities to develop emotional competence. The stumbling block for most leaders as they pursue these everyday opportunities is that even though they leave off-site development programs filled with excitement and enthusiasm, they inevitably lose momentum. Sometimes daily work demands simply overshadow their ability to focus on development. Sometimes leaders don’t receive the same level of support they experienced during the program. They don’t get ongoing feedback on their progress or acknowledgment, let alone reinforcement, of their small successes. Too often, achieving dayto-day business outcomes is viewed as separate from or conflicting with the development of emotional competence. Shifting this mind-set is an important first step toward sustaining efforts to achieve these development goals. Part of this shift involves expanding the concepts of practice, feedback, and support. It can be compared to baseball batters who want to hit for a high average. They’re unlikely to achieve this goal by swinging for the fences in every at bat. They make the most of every opportunity and savor even the small successes that increase their average, such as a bloop single. As batters who take this approach develop into better hitters, the home runs often just come naturally. This is an important analogy to consider for leaders, who typically look to hit a home run in every situation. In the business world home runs are what tend to be rewarded, whereas there is less appreciation for smaller