Team dynamics play a big role in your success and satisfaction at work
Photo by Ingrid Vasconcelos on Unsplash
Do you lead a team? Are you part of a team? Even if you run a business of one, you need to interact with others to successfully complete your work. Team dynamics impact every professional on some level, and understanding how emotional intelligence improves team relationships will help you move past everyday challenges.
How Your Emotional Intelligence Impacts Others
A large part of social and emotional intelligence (SEI) involves self-awareness and self-regulation, but the benefits of those self-driven skills don’t end with you. Let’s take a look at a few aspects of emotional intelligence to see how they work in a team environment:
Self-awareness. Keeping a pulse on your own thoughts, feelings and behaviors allows you to feel more in control of your own work and life. It allows you to focus on proactive solutions rather than giving into reactive, emotion-driven responses.
How it impacts others: It allows you to better understand the effect of your emotions and behaviors on the people around you. Read more about how to become more self-aware.
Emotional regulation. All humans must learn this important skill in early childhood, and life tends to test us on this skill throughout adulthood. In essence, it’s about learning to recognize strong emotions when they occur and to feel confident in your ability to cope and move through the feelings. Rather than letting the emotion overwhelm you, you have the skill to pause and allow your more rational mind take over before you act.
How it impacts others: At work and at home, how you manage your emotions will directly affect others’ perceptions and interactions with you. If you have a reputation as a loose cannon, others might avoid you or keep important information from you. If they can trust you to keep emotions in check, however, the lines of communication stay open. Honest communication allows for a better flow of information, ideas and problem-solving.
Intentionality. In your personal life and career, setting clear intentions allows you to move thoughtfully toward specific goals. It also helps you eliminate behaviors and activities that distract from those goals and detract from your personal values.
How it impacts others: In a team, clear intentions help build consensus and momentum. When people understand the overall purpose, they give more freely of their creative and collaborative energy. On the flip side, lack of focused intention can cause tremendous conflict and team breakdown.
The Role of Social Intelligence in Team Dynamics
The Institute for Social and Emotional Intelligence draws a distinction between emotional and social skills:
“Emotional Intelligence is the ability to be aware of our own emotions, in the moment, and to use that information to manage our behavior appropriately.
Social Intelligence is the ability to be aware of the emotions of others, in the moment, and to use that information to manage our relationships.”―Institute for Social + Emotional Intelligence (ISEI)®
Both sets of skills allow individuals to develop a greater sense of personal well-being while also improving the personal and professional relationships in their lives. These skills make us better romantic partners and parents, and better leaders and team players at work.
Some of the key social skills you need to increase your effectiveness at work, and in turn advance your career, include:
Trust-building. All relationships break down without trust. At work, you must invest time in cultivating trust within your team in order to encourage contributors to speak freely, offer ideas and work effectively without fear of retribution. People trust you when they feel valued and respected.
Inspirational leadership. Inspiring others begins with setting clear intentions, as mentioned earlier. Then you must build relationships and trust, and finally back up your intentions with a positive vision. When others can feel your confidence and enthusiasm, they are more likely to support your ideas and work with you toward goals.
Conflict management. Human interactions inevitably lead to conflict. No matter how well you and your team like and respect each other, you will not agree 100 percent of the time. However, you can maintain the integrity of a team with active conflict management. The best leaders do not shy away from disagreements, but use strong communication skills to foster listening, collaboration and compromise when people butt heads.
These skills are among the 13 social intelligence skills identified by the ISEI. Others include service ethic, communication, empathy, catalyzing change and more.
A Note About Remote Team Dynamics
In the past year or so, many of us have experienced a brand new set of interpersonal challenges as we navigate working on remote teams.
In a virtual environment, we lack many of the touchpoints that allow us to develop trusting relationships with colleagues. Many people tend to hold back and function in a more reserved way online, and many nonverbal cues go unnoticed. Throw in a few technical difficulties and the whole conversation can break down.
Savvy leaders will approach their remote teams with a strategic and focused plan rooted in social and emotional intelligence. Your plan should:
Respect people’s time. Don’t hold a virtual meeting unless necessary. Your people need time to work – not back-to-back video calls. Set an agenda for each meeting and end on time to build trust.
Allow for interaction and feedback. Consider small group or one-on-one sessions where people can connect and brainstorm. Ideas don’t flow as freely in large virtual meetings.
Include communication. Check in with people individually, and give them ways to communicate directly with you and with each other about challenges.
Consider individuality. Employees are far more than their titles or roles. Get to know your staff or colleagues on an individual level to better understand and tap into their strengths and work styles.
I will be writing more on remote teams in future posts.
Ready to improve your team’s social and emotional intelligence skills? I offer individual and group sessions with an emphasis on creating sustainable, long-term change within your organization. Schedule a complimentary strategy call to get started.