Four Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence

Reflection Blog on the 4 Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence

MSLD 641 – Module 3

January 27, 2017

URL: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4574314487193895552#editor/target=post;postID=2059353947491888686

This reflection blog will discuss the 4 dimensions of emotional intelligence, and how it applies to myself, my strengths, areas that I need to develop, and how the dimensions have helped or hindered me in my performance and/or career.

Dimension 1:  Self Awareness.

Dan Goleman talks about this dimension of emotional intelligence to include having a moral compass.  When I reflect upon the statement “having a moral compass”, I usually include several aspects to this.  Morality is taught in the home and through religious beliefs.  The Ten Commandments listed in the Old Testament are a good start when building a moral foundation.  The Ten Commandments for those who are not familiar are (and these are abbreviated): To worship only God, Swearing (Lord’s name in vain), Keep the Sabbath, Honor thy Mother and thy Father, Do not Kill, Do not commit Adultery, Do not Steal, Do not Lie (bear false witness against thy neighbor), Do not covet thy Neighbor’s Wife, Do not covet thy Neighbor’s Goods.  I grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition.  The Catholic Church expands the list of the 10 commandments to include the 7 deadly sins.  The seven deadly sins are gluttony, fornication, greed, pride, wrath, vainglory, and sloth.  They also teach introspection and an examination of one’s conscience.  This is practiced as the sacrament of confession.  All of these things teach young people to develop their moral compass.  The examination of one’s conscience, teaches introspection.  Why is this important?  I believe it is important in today’s world where everyone tends to blame others or circumstances for everything that happens in their life.  It carries over into the workplace.  Have you ever known a supervisor or a leader with whom nothing is EVER their fault?  The list of their excuses is impressively long.

My introspection and truthfulness has been strong throughout my life.  It has even harmed me in ways when I was too truthful or open about things for my own good.  For example, I admitted to some bad behavior when I was about 18 years of age, and it cost me a chance to get hired by General Motors.  Should I have disclosed what I had done?  I don’t know.  I do know that my career path took a much different direction as a result of my “confession”.  During that period of time, I don’t believe that the information could have been discovered.  However, I like to use the phrase “Do the right thing, even when no one is looking”.  I did and it cost me.  Although in my later years I retain the introspection and truthfulness necessary to round out my moral compass, I am much more guarded about information that I disclose about myself.  This has coincided with the development of my emotional intelligence and my skills as a leader.

Dimension 2: Self-Management.

In the military, we talk about self-starters as a bullet point on an evaluation report.  I think that Dr. Goleman is going beyond motivated individuals who don’t need a lot of supervision.  I believe that he is talking about managing emotions.  In the paragraph above, I reflected on the morality of managing information about one’s self.  Self-Management implies balancing emotions in the extreme.  Don’t get too high and don’t get too low.  Don’t let success go to your head and hinder future performance.  Don’t let challenges that cause one’s emotions to drop keep you there very long.  Have resiliency against the negative.  Emphasize the positive.  If one can marshal the positive emotions out of situations, there is a better chance that they will be resolved.  Furthermore, it will draw people unto you as they see real leadership in someone who can withstand failures or less than optimal conditions in a given situation. 

I failed in that aspect temporarily when confronted with an extremely toxic supervisor a couple of years ago.  However, now I am grateful for having experienced that situation.  It has given me insight into leadership, emotional intelligence, and the art of connecting with people within an organization.  I have grown stronger and more resilient as a leader due to that bad experience.  It also awakened within me the need to search out that something that transcended power or job skills.  That something is emotional intelligence.

Dimension 3:  Empathy & Compassion.

Having empathy will increase the likelihood that one will be able to connect with others in their professional career.  Of course having empathy and compassion will help in our personal lives, but the focus here is on how it translates into an organization.  I feel that I have great empathy for others around me in the workplace.  It helps me connect with their needs.  It helps me to actively listen to them when they are describing a process that appears to be broken.

I loved the examples that Dr. Goleman gave in his second TED video.  He talked about the Good Samaritan.  He talked about the speed dating test.  Finally, he talked about the complete lack of correlation between IQ and emotional intelligence.  I thought of lots of examples in my own life when I failed the compassion test, but also thought of some when I passed (I hope!).  As word gets around that many people who hold up signs on the road begging for money, food, or work are actually well-off and do that for a living, then people have a tendency to say, “I won’t help any of them then”!  How are we to judge who is actually in need and who is simply a scam artist?  Maybe it is one’s intuition or sixth sense if you will.  I had read somewhere that what Dr. Goleman was saying was correct.  There are many mentally ill people on the streets and we need to help them and not pass by them.  Are we in too much of a hurry?  I remember many years ago I was working in Detroit as a U.S. Customs Inspector.  I had a good job, but didn’t have much money.  I drove 81 miles one way to get to work.  One day, as I was leaving work and getting ready to drive back to my home in Flint, MI, two straggly looking men approached me as I was about to get into my car.  They asked for money because they were hungry and needed something to eat.  It was cold outside and was just beginning to snow.  Something inside of me told me to help them out.  I told them that I only had $5.00 in my pocket (and that was a lot of money to me at the time!) and that if they really needed food, I would give it to them.  They promised me that they would not buy booze, but would go get something to eat.  I gave them my last $5.00 and they were happy!  I don’t know if they really went to buy food or went to the liquor store, but that was not up to me to decide.  That was up to God to judge the recipients.  That I may not be judged as harshly, I will admit that there have been too many times that I have failed to be the Good Samaritan and help people. 

Dimension 4:  Social Skills.

Social skills is defined by Dr. Goleman as the ability to put the other three dimensions into a framework that defines our social skills.  Ironically, I am a late bloomer, but prior to taking my MBAA courses through Embry-Riddle, I instinctively already had these competencies.  It is instructive and enlightening to learn about how other people have studied them and written about them.  One addition that I would like to add to Dr. Goleman’s viewpoint is what I call the “Multiplier Effect” (ME).  The ME means that by optimally combining the first three dimensions of emotional intelligence, then the sum total of the three becomes greater than the sum total of each individual attribute added up as a distinct and separate unit.  In street language, it means “Having your stuff together”.  I hope to continue my growth and travel on that path.  Although I am 33 years into a military career, I approach each day as if it was my first one.  I try to learn something new or something from someone at work every day.  I am better now than I ever was on a personal and leadership level, and I want to continue to improve.  I would like to be accused of “Having my stuff together”!

References:

Daniel Goleman Introduces Emotional Intelligence:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7m9eNoB3NU (Links to an external site.)

Daniel Goleman: Why aren't we more compassionate?

www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goleman_on_compassion (Links to an external site.)

 

Module 1 URL: http://hescottjohn.blogspot.com/2017/01/what-is-great-leadership.html

Module 2 URL: http://hescottjohn.blogspot.com/

Module 3 URL:

Am I A Resonant Leader?

January 20, 2017

I think that I can answer whether I am a resonant leader or not by simply saying that I believe that I am.  However, one must accept the possibility of being a resonant leader without actually being in a leadership position.  I am a “leader” who is not in a command authority position.

I feel as if I am a resonant leader.  I think I exemplified many of the basic qualities prior to pursuing my MBAA degree through Embry-Riddle.  That being said, the past few semesters have opened up new thought patterns about leadership that I have adopted.  For instance, although I thought of myself as a logical and analytical thinker, I learned a lot during my opening MSLD course.  I delved deep into what compromised a critical thinker.  How did one conduct an analysis that ran a circle logic that would provide an answer once one completed the exercise?  The tools used in critical thinking helped boost my value to my organization as I began to incorporate those things.  Technical expertise within an area is important when attempting to gain the trust of others.

I had always felt that I was able to connect with people and network various support groups within an organization.  However, I didn’t realize how important that was until I began the Masters of Science in Leadership (MSLD) 641 course.  I realized that connecting with people was part of having emotional intelligence.  Having emotional intelligence lead to becoming a resonant leader.  The fact that this course talked about these characteristics has helped me re-align my priorities when it comes to performing my job.  This can be exemplified by building trust and relationships.  One has to have the trust of others in to be effective.  That means having values and a moral compass.  Doing the right thing when no one is looking is one way of having values and morals.  The Army likes to say, "Choose the hard right versus the easy wrong".  

In the book, “Resonant Leadership”, Boyatzis and McKee talk about the importance of compassion and hope.  Retaining those qualities gives an individual a better chance at being a resilient or resonant leader.  I had also worked very hard in the previous year as I pursued a policy of adding value to my organization.  By the time the holidays rolled around in December, I was on the verge of burning out.  I sacrificed a lot for the organization, but felt that I was unable to do enough.  That was where compassion and hope came in.  Learning about those traits helped to guide me through a renewal process.  This helped me gain resilience in a stressful situation, but it also helped me realize that I had to be able to offer the other people in the organization hope.  Hope that things can and will get better if we all work towards a common goal.  It also demonstrated that I needed to be able to demonstrate that things can change, even when it appears that the weight of a large organization is resisting that change. 

How to differentiate between hard power and soft power?  In Nick Obolensky’s excellent book, “Complex Adaptive leadership 2^nd Edition”, Nick likens some of the leadership traits to the Yin and Yang.  On one side there is the hard power and on the other side is soft power.  Each of the Yin and Yang contain a small circle of the opposite color within their areas.  In this way, Obolensky was stating that a good leader had to have a mixture of both hard power and soft power, and no when to utilize which.  That requires being able to communicate with and read people and situations.  A superior leader does this seemingly without effort.

I do believe that given an opportunity to be in a position of authority, my life experiences will help to keep me emotionally grounded.  I believe that I have the communication skills and the emotional intelligence necessary to excel as a leader.

John Hescott

References:

Boyatzis, Richard. McKee, Annie. (2005) “Resonant Leadership” Boston: Harvard Business

            School Press

Obolensky, Nick. (2016) “Complex Adaptive Leadership 2^nd Edition”. New York: Taylor &

            Francis

Boyatzis, Richard. McKee, Annie. Johnston, Frances. (2008) “Becoming a Resonant Leader”.
             Boston: Harvard Business Press

What Is Great Leadership?

January 11, 2017

What is great leadership?  Everyone has some idea or an opinion on what sort of traits that comprise

great leadership.  I have had the opportunity in my long military career (33 years and counting) to work for two people that were polar opposites.  In this blog, I will first describe the great leader that I served under, and then contrast him with the poor leader that I served under.  Interestingly, they also fell on a timeline where I had the great leader first (2005-2007), and the poor leader second (2014-2015).  I have used only their initials to protect their privacy as well as my own.

In 2005, I was at a low point in my career.  I had been transferred to a brand-new unit within the 10^th Mountain Division.  I was to be the aviation tactical operations officer (TACOPS) for a Brigade Combat Team (BCT).  I knew very little about an infantry unit because most of my career had been spent in the aviation branch of the Army.  The one thing I did know was that I was not going to be flying, and was going to be a brand new TACOPS officer.  I had been an aviation safety officer (ASO) with nearly 2,000 flight hours.  Over 1,000 of those flight hours had been in the AH-1S/F Cobras, an Army gunship helicopter.  I accepted my fate and resignedly accepted my new assignment with the 3^rd BCT of 10^th Mountain in February 2005.  My section was called the Brigade Aviation Element (BAE) that was part of the S3 Operations Section.  I was immediately part of the Brigade Staff.  That was when I was introduced to the Brigade Commander, J.N.  An Army Brigade Commander is a full colonel (O-6). 

During the first brigade staff meeting, we were told that we would be deploying to Afghanistan in about a year.  Our task was to relieve the 82^nd Airborne Division and continue combat operations against the Taliban in North East Afghanistan.  Our battle space was known as Regional Combat East or simply RC East.  J.N. was impressive.  He was tall, confident, educated, well-spoken, and exuded a personal warmth not usually found in Army brigade commanders.  During that first meeting, he laid out everyone’s assignments and started questioning us all on our backgrounds.  When it came to my turn, I briefly introduced myself and described my aviation background and experience.  J.N. simply smiled and said, “Oh.  You are my aviator!”  I answered in the affirmative and he questioned me a bit more about my knowledge and how I felt to be part of a BCT.  I told him that I was just excited to be there and looked forward to the challenges that he had laid out.  That was my first inkling that J.N. had this “it”.  It was some sort of leadership trait that made people want to follow this man and be part of his team.  A week earlier, I had been despondent and now I was fired up about the new job!  It wasn’t all fun and games.  J.N. worked us harder than I had ever worked before in my military career.  Many weekends were totally shot as we performed exercise after exercise while we prepared for our looming combat deployment.  Speaking of exercise, the brigade staff officers worked out harder and longer than the enlisted did in the BCT, and longer and harder than in any other unit I had ever been in!  I had to toughen up and get better in several different areas.

J.N. not only made me and others excited about our jobs, but he made us feel important.  He made us feel as if we were part of something larger than ourselves.  He was an excellent communicator and motivator.  Early on, he quickly identified officers on the brigade staff that were disgruntled or would not subordinate themselves to our larger goals.  Those officers were replaced and without fail, the new-comers were always better than the outgoing officers.  That also taught me a lesson.  If J.N. was unable to get you excited about what you were doing, then he didn’t want you on his team.  The danger was that bad attitudes would spread like cancer.  At the end of 12 long months of grueling train-up, we were ready.  We trusted J.N.  We loved him.  Most of us would fall on a grenade and sacrifice ourselves to save him.  Why?  It is hard to point to any one example.  His leadership was one constant highlight reel of resiliency, resonant leadership, and smooth polished and cuss-free communication.  He didn’t have to yell or raise his voice to get things done.  For example, one day he called me to his tactical operations center (TOC) during one of our combat simulations.  He took out a map and said to me, “Chief, we have to pick up a medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) casualty by regulation within one hour”.  Our helicopters are stationed here, but what if we get a call to respond here?  I went to work on the problem with my team of aviators and we finally were able to figure out an optimal staging of our MEDEVAC assets to cover the entire RC-East.  Once we figure that out, he then threw another variable into the equation.  What if we were picking up a MEDEVAC casualty from that area, and we got another call for air-support for troops under fire in this area?  The area he was pointing to was at the opposite end of the RC.  We racked our brains for hours attempting to solve the dilemma.  RC-East was a very large area cover with only 1 BCT and two-thirds of an aviation brigade.  The exercise made us very aware of our limited resources, but it paid off once we arrived in Afghanistan and began our combat operations.  It was his insight that forced us to make worst-case scenario plans based upon limited resources available.  This insight was repeated countless times in all functional areas of our BCT.  He thought about logistics, maintenance, transportation, troop strength, air power, mountain tactics, air assaults, and local Afghan troops.  His mind was that of a genius working through various scenarios and plans.  All of it was based upon his goal of maximum efficiency, and maximum combat power directed in all the right places.

We encountered numerous challenges in our combat operations in RC-East.  We spent 16 months fighting the Taliban and were the last clearly successful unit to take the offensive and control the most territory within RC-East.  The examples of J.N.’s leadership are too numerous to list here, but he also placed trust in me as a Chief Warrant Officer 3^rd Class (CW3).  We planned to do an air assault into the Korengal Valley NE of Jalalabad.  A tactical decision needed to be made about our exfiltration route of our helicopters after our initial landing.  J.N. was going on the air assault, so the decision that I made could mean life or death for him.  I made a very tough call as to how we would accomplish the exfiltration and it worked out.  We did not lose a single aircraft and the air assault was wildly successful.  He trusted me!  Wow.  That felt good and it spurred me to get even better as a TACOPS officer.

What was J.N.?  He was a resonant leader.  He had emotional intelligence.  He had great communication skills.  He had great vision.  He was the ultimate personification of everything an Army Colonel should be……………and more!  He had that unique something that made him a natural leader and inspired people to follow him and want to be part of his team.  J.N. is now a three-star general.  I am honored that I got to serve with the finest Army Colonel during my career, and serve with the ultimate role model of a great leader.

The heights that I experienced with J.N. vanished to the darkest depths of despair while serving under N.T. in 2014-2015.  N.T. was an example of a person who interviewed well and got selected into his position, but was totally out of his league for the responsibilities that it entailed.  What made N.T. a bad leader?  People dis-trusted him.  He was totally self-serving.  He always took credit for anything good that was produced by his team, and NEVER took responsibility for any failures.  He was not a good communicator.  He was vindictive and dishonest.  He set people against each other.  He thought that was funny and he thrived in an atmosphere of animosity and distrust.

When I arrived at my unit where N.T. was in charge, I thought that the stories I had heard about him were either exaggerated or told by some disgruntled subordinates.  Boy, was I wrong!  N.T. had no vision.  He was not a team player for the larger organization.  N.T. was all about power and demonstrating that he had that power and the ear of the commanding general.  People actively tried to bypass N.T. because of his corrosive style of leadership and the inability to get anything done.  N.T. had a way of talking to the senior leadership to make it appear that he was running a great shop when the opposite was true.  Communication from the bottom up was non-existent.  Team relationships were constantly being damaged due to his meddling and micro-managing of all day to day affairs.  N.T. never respected anyone except for higher ranking individuals that he was vested in deceiving.

I clashed with N.T. on a regular basis.  His decisions were not optimal for the mission of United States combat power in the Middle East.  He personally berated me both in private and in front of others.  He tried to diminish me as a person.  I had completed 4 successful combat deployments prior to this one, but he spoke to me as if I was a private.  I was now promoted to CW5.  Other high ranking colonels tried to intervene to save our team from the abuse by N.T., but his political power was too strong.  They all failed in their attempts to reign him in.  As with J.N.’s successes as a resonant leader, N.T.’s failures and nasty traits are too numerous to list here. 

I did learn some things from N.T.  I learned that he had no communication skills, emotional intelligence, integrity, or ability to build an effective team.  No feedback loops were established so the commanding general was never made aware of the true dysfunction of that section or its leader, N.T.  I was personally threatened with career ending consequences if I went to the general on my own to let him know what was going on.  N.T. is a cancer that will remain with that organization until the day that he finally retires and that unit can start de-toxifying itself from his poisonous leadership.  N.T. never should have been put in charge of that section in such a large Army organization.  He is the perfect example of what not to do as a leader.

John Hescott

References:

Nosich, Gerald M., 2012, “Learning to Think Things Through” Salt Lake City: Pearson Education

Obolensky, Nick. (2016). “Complex Adaptive Leadership 2nd Edition”. New York: Routledge

McKee, Annie., Boyatzis, Richard., Johnston, Frances. (2008) “Becoming a Resonant Leader” Boston: Harvard Business Press