Tag Archives: teams

Team Emotional and Social Intelligence

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There are many measurable skills that contribute to individual high performance.  Furthermore, there are essential soft skills that make possible the delivery of that performance to an organization.

A majority of these soft skills pertain to interpersonal relationships, and so are only visible in team settings.  Working as part of a team is much more difficult than working on one’s own – it means having to rely on others, committing to a common set of objectives, and modifying one’s own behaviors to accommodate those of others and move everyone toward shared goals.

Team EMotional and Social Intelligence

There are, however, simple choices that can improve overall team function, and allow individuals to contribute their individual best – unhindered by team discord.  These choices amount to team emotional and social intelligence, which, in turn, enables sustainable productivity.  Intelligence, here, s used in a non-traditional way – meaning something closer to awareness than ability.  For everyone is able to choose “emotionally intelligent” behaviors, but we to be cognizant of their value and how to put them to use.

To develop this awareness, self-assessment couldn’t be more valuable in providing insight into current behaviors and tendencies as juxtaposed with statistically sound, effective behaviors.  The Team Emotional and Social Intelligence (TESI) soft-skills training program is the perfect way to develop a practical picture of an entire team’s effectiveness.

Team Emotional and Social IntelligenceRevealing a 360 degree evaluation of a team’s “Collaboration Skills,” the TESI shows common strengths and weaknesses in seven areas of teamwork.  Stressing the idea that each member of a team needs a personal association with their team (a reason they have to continue working toward team goals), this program shows participants that it is possible for every team to possess excellent collaboration skills, achieve high performance, and feel emotionally and socially well while acting as part of their team.

An experiential learning program, the TESI will not only allow participants to learn from their self-assessments, but to participate in activities and action planning that will apply directly to their own experience – learning that can take effect immediately, and that will resonate with teams as they work together.

Try TESI today!

Free Webinar! How to Build Emotional Intelligence for Individuals and Teams: The Top 7 Skills

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FREE WEBINAR
Hosted by HRDQ
Presented by Marcia Hughes and James Bradford Terrell
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
2:00pm – 3:00pm eastern time

If your organization’s teams are lacking direction, control, or the desire to achieve, underdeveloped emotional intelligence could be the cause. A prerequisite for success, research shows that emotional intelligence is a key driver in team and interpersonal dynamics.

Join presenters Marcia Hughes and James Terrell for an informative free webinar that will help trainers, consultants, team leaders, and OD professionals navigate the road of emotional and social intelligence. They’ll explore the seven emotional competencies and discuss how each relates to team performance. Marcia and James will also present the Collaborative Growth Model, a practical framework that maps the route to emotional and social effectiveness at individual and team levels.

James Bradford Terrell and Marcia Hughes are co-authors of Team Emotional & Social Intelligence, which offers a unique set of tools for determining and developing a team’s emotional effectiveness in seven dimensions that are a prerequisite for high performance.

What You Will Learn

  • The biggest challenge to productive teamwork
  • How to identify and develop the seven core behaviors of emotional effectiveness
  • Techniques to spark candid team conversations about what does or doesn’t work
  • How to use emotional intelligence skills to integrate individual goals into team goals
  • Creating buy-in with team members

Who Should Attend

  • Trainers
  • Consultants
  • Team Leaders
  • Team Members
  • OD professionals

About the Presenters

The president of Collaborative Growth, LLC, Marcia Hughes serves as a strategic communications partner for teams and their leaders. She presents her expertise in emotional intelligence through her consulting, keynote sessions, and program facilitation. She is co-author of the Team Emotional & Social Intelligence, which includes the TESI® Short, A Coach’s Guide to Emotional Intelligence, The Emotionally Intelligent Team, and Emotional Intelligence in Action as well as the Team Emotional & Social Intelligence Survey™ (TESI®). Marcia is also the author of Life’s 2% Solution. She is a certified trainer in the Bar-On EQ-i ® and EQ 360® and provides train-the-trainer facilitation and coaching in powerful EQ delivery.

As the Vice President of Collaborative Growth, LLC, James Bradford Terrell applies his expertise in interpersonal communication to help a variety of public and private sector clients anticipate change and respond to it resiliently. He is co-author of the Team Emotional & Social Intelligence Facilitator Guide Package, which includes the TESI® Short, A Coach’s Guide to Emotional Intelligence, The Emotionally Intelligent Team, and Emotional Intelligence in Action. James also coaches leaders, teams in transition, and senior management using the Bar-On EQi®, EQ 360®, and other assessments. Terrell is co-creator of the Team Emotional and Social Intelligence Survey™ (TESI®), and he provides train-the-trainer workshops on how to develop the insightful interpretation and application of EQ results.

Register Here!

Don’t Kiss Me, I’m Systematic

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On St, Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish.  It’s not really about ethnicity or religion – it’s about finding things that are special and unique in us and in others, and celebrating them.  It’s about being aware and appreciative of differences.

Personality StyleBut more than that, it’s an acknowledgement that behavior is a choice.  We can shape our interactions and interpersonal relationships by choosing certain behaviors.

On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone incorporates the good, fun parts of the signifier “Irish” into their own behavior.  In the same regard, we can all flex our personality style to incorporate positive aspects of other styles into our behavior in situations that call for them.

Teams and organizations are made up of personalities.  Successful teams and organizations are conscious of the different strengths and weaknesses of these personalities, and understand that behavior is a choice.

Personality Styles

By helping your team understand their own behavioral tendencies, you’ll encourage them to recognize and develop their special, unique strengths while appreciating the strengths of others.

The HRDQ Style Model is based on the understanding that everyone has inherent tendencies – a personality style – and that no style is fundamentally better or worse than any other.  Measuring the expressiveness (desire to share thoughts and feelings with others) and assertiveness (desire to influence others) of individuals, HRDQ Style Assessments reveal a personality style based on individuals’ response to statements regarding interpersonal behavior.

Offering eight different assessments targeted towards varying soft skill sets, the HRDQ Style Series is your tool for building healthy and productive workplace relationships.  On their own, or as part of broader training on related topics, HRDQ Style Assessments are an effective foundation for a variety of soft-skills training topics, including communication, leadership, team building, and supervisory skills.

Get Started with the HRDQ Style Series Today!

Celebrate your style with a blinky button!

Celebrate your style with a blinky button!

I used to think the sum of one and one was two…

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There’s a reason we work in teams.  We’re not that lonely, we don’t really need to make others feel included, and we’re not not-good-enough on our own.  But we can be better.  When individuals face a common problem (or opportunity!), they can produce results that reflect the combined strengths of everyone involved.  Broadening not just the potential for production, but the set of benefactors of success.  More goodness from more people for more people – synergy.

But, if you’re working as a team, and the results you’re coming up with are not better than could be achieved by your single most capable team member, something is broken.  You’re not achieving synergy.

Synergy?

There are many reasons why this may not be happening for your team – but the result of all teamwork comes first from team decision making.  If there are problems with your decision-making process, your implementation will suffer.  Every decision has consequences – choosing to embark down the wrong path can effect each decision that follows, and setbacks can amass exponentially.

In training, it’s important to acknowledge that group decision making can be much more difficult than individual decision making – especially when the decision at hand needs to be made under pressure.  Circumstances that require high-pressure decision making are times of uncertainty, in which people tend to reach for the familiar.  They may rely on comfortable ideas and not consider all available possibilities.  They may be too eager to agree with other group members to preserve relationships, rather than fully sharing their own perspective – unintentionally denying the group their own individual expertise.

Black BearKeeping your group decision-making process at its best is no easy task, especially if there is no opportunity to objectively assess the solution while it’s in progress.  Simulations can provide a non-threatening environment for experiential learning and decision-making assessment.

HRDQ’s Black Bear (part of the Team Adventure Series) highlights a variety of soft skills required by teams, and focuses on consensus decision making under pressure.  Providing a detailed and exciting scenario, Black Bear transports participants into a life-or-death situation in which their individual and group decision-making skills are put to the test.  Specific to teams working under pressure, Black Bear sets out a model for consensus decision making that touches on all aspects of teamwork and improves results and relationships for participants.

Help your team add up to more with Black Bear!

Molding Consensus – Leading Across Differences

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“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.”

This past Monday, we celebrated one of our country’s greatest leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As one of many enduring gifts, Dr. King showed us the necessity for and effectiveness of direct recognition and action when faced with social conflict.  This type of conflict can shed light on overarching structural issues, and incite positive change.  Decisions may be coming from a perspective that seeks to retain power and control, regardless of the detriment that may be to an entire system (in the case of civil rights, certainly, but also on a smaller scale within a group or organization).

While we don’t all manage conflict on such a grand scale, we do experience the challenge of working with others whose goals do not match ours on a daily basis.  Diversity makes for a well-balanced, strong team.  But with a wide range of perspectives comes conflict.  And conflicts rooted in social identity differences can be emotionally charged and difficult to understand.

It’s hardest to understand diversity conflict when we are personally involved.  It isn’t always an easy or instinctual thing to do, but we need to look at how our own social identity shapes our goals, preferences, and reactions.

Self-awareness is the first step toward healthy and efficient diversity-based conflict management – awareness that we have socially-based perceptions and goals.  And so does everyone else.  Once that’s established, we can identify what, exactly, is conflicting and how we can work together towards the best result.  How do each party’s goals relate to organizational goals, and how can we create strong, common goals to work towards in the future?

Leading Across DifferencesLeading Across Differences is a self-assessment and training program that allows leaders at any level the opportunity to improve their conflict management skills.  It specifically addresses the challenges of leading a diverse team – what to expect, and how to manage conflict.  Promote diversity and leadership and help your diverse team work together for a better future for everyone.  Get started today!

They’ll have theirs, and you’ll have yours, and I’ll have mine. And together we’ll be fine….

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Most of us need to collaborate or negotiate with at least someone every day.  In an ideal situation, everyone with whom we work will have the same goals that we do – but that is rarely the case.

When we interact with others, we have to give up at least some control of the situation’s outcome.  We will not always get our way, and we can’t predict or prescribe the actions of others.  Knowing this, the best thing we can do is choose behaviors that are most likely to lead to a positive outcome for everyone involved – stepping outside of our own needs and actively managing conflict.

Conflict Strategies

Developing an awareness of the ways people might react to conflict prepares us for any situation – we can modify our own behavior to encourage and contribute to the best possible resolution. But beyond that resolution, there are good things that come from conflict in process:

  • Underlying issues are brought to light – reducing the likelihood of recurring issues
  • Creative solutions (and the skills to arrive at them) are developed when trying to accommodate different needs
  • Heightened self-awareness and awareness of others better enables us to work on a team and understand the consequences of our actions
  • Good feelings are generated from having gotten through a tough time in a positive way

The first step toward embracing conflict is acknowledging these long-term benefits of conflict management – then figuring out how to adjust existing tendencies to maximize those benefits.

Conflict Strategies InventoryThe best thing for a team is to create an environment that welcomes conflict and expects all employees to seek out appropriate strategies.  To help your team find the appropriate strategy in any situation, HRDQ developed the Conflict Strategies Inventory – a self-assessment and workshop designed to explore the many possible ways to handle conflict, and how to recognize the best way.

By beginning with self-assessment, the Inventory shows each participant what their natural tendencies are when faced with conflict. With this knowledge, they can begin action planning for future conflict management and become better equipped to address the needs of everyone with whom they interact (including themselves)

Give the Conflict Strategies Inventory a try today, and help your team not only manage conflict, but turn it into a positive.

Communicating From Earth to Mars: Averting Communication Disasters

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In 1999 the Mars Climate Orbiter burned up as it entered the Martian atmosphere after $125 million spent in development and nine months of travel.

The cause? A lapse in communication.

It all came crashing down because the navigation team and the designers of the spacecraft weren’t communicating essential information in a common language; one used English measurements and the other used metric to relay vital data.

“It is very difficult for me to imagine how such a fundamental, basic discrepancy could have remained in the system for so long,” John Pike, Space Policy Director at the Federation of American Scientists, said about the incident in a Los Angeles Times article. While it may be hard to imagine, it happens all the time to organizations around the world and employees at every level. The good news is such an enormous, costly communication disaster can be easily averted.

It starts by making sure information is continuously and precisely conveyed to all involved in a project, both within and between teams. In a recent Harvard Business Review blog post, Georgia Everse reminds leaders that “there is no such thing as over-communication.” She urges them to avoid jargon, build a common language, and “be explicit about using terminology that resonates with everyone in the organization.”

In Personality Style at Work, Kate Ward suggests that in order to convey your message clearly and accurately one should avoid sweeping generalizations and check for understanding to make sure the message was understood in the way it was intended. Following such simple steps can keep the lines of communication open and prevent chaos in the future.

HRDQ’s What’s Your Communication Style can help identify communication problems and improve communication skills, BEFORE they result in the crash landing of a promising project.

Avert a communication disaster and see how HRDQ can help today!

Read more about Kate Ward’s advice!

Wear Your Personality on Your Sleeve (or Which Ninja Turtle Should You be for Halloween?)

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Our Personality Style comes through every day, whether we are conscious of it or not.  Awareness allows us to take control of – and improve – our interpersonal relationships.  Developing an understanding of our Personality Style can be the first step in improvement.  This Halloween, you can start by choosing to celebrate your style.  Obviously, you were planning on being a Ninja Turtle.  I didn’t even have to ask.  But which one should you be?

Do you have a Direct style?

Raphael embodies the Direct style.  Never hesitating to take action, he’s always ready when the team encounters conflict and isn’t reluctant to dive in feet first.

Do you have a Spirited style?

Michaelangelo’s big personality always keeps the team engaged and communicating – on a personal level, and when it’s time to get down to business.

Do you have a Systematic style?

Donatello is a total Systematic.  As the team’s technical expert, he’s always thinking of new ways to improve strategy and resources to get things done more efficiently.

Do you have a Considerate style?

Leonardo pulls the team together with his Considerate style – reminding them of their purpose and the teachings of their leader, and keeping everyone working together, harmoniously, toward common goals.

One reason the Turtles are such a successful team is their variety of styles.  Each style has a different way of contributing to the group dynamic and taking on leadership.

Not sure exactly which Turtle you have the most in common with?  The What’s My Team Member Style?  Assessment can help you better understand the contribution you make to your team, and how to capitalize on your personal strengths to benefit your organization.

Try it now at the HRDQ Store!

One Simple Step to Increase Productivity in the Workplace

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Why should you care about your employees’ personalities? If they are fulfilling their job as outlined, and are generally following the organizational culture, you are doing pretty well, right? Although many leaders might agree with that statement, it sets the bar much lower than it needs to. There is likely untapped productivity within the personality of your employees – even the hopelessly under-performing or endlessly average ones.

According to Scott Keller, performance improvement expert and co-author of Beyond Performance (2011, Wiley), “…we’ve found that leaders can create and sustain stronger business results if they understand — and manage — how employees approach their work every day. When employees’ thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are aligned with their daily work, they do that work better.”

All communication is filtered through our personality style, which also holds the key to our motivations and typical behaviors. Human nature can be very complex, causing even the most stalwart leaders to cringe and avoid facing issues head on; the good news is that we are also quite predictable, and for the most part, we each follow patterns in our behavior.

Successful leaders are those who become keenly aware of their own personality type, and use that knowledge as a springboard for getting in touch with their peers and employees. This deeper understanding of self and others works as an asset in team and organizational management.

How is Greg motivated? What are Sandra’s career goals? How does Chris best handle stress? Once you can pinpoint personality style and dominant behavioral patterns, you can improve the productivity and effectiveness of every person who interacts with you in the workplace.

Click here to learn more about personality styles.

When show beats tell. The ‘a-ha’ moment.

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A Post by HRDQ President, Brad Glaser.

“Why can’t these people work together as a team?”

There’s no doubt in my mind you’ve heard that cry for help. If you’re a training professional, you’re well-aware that teamwork is vital to workplace success. After all, the once novel concept is now considered part of the modern organizational structure. This trend will only continue to grow in importance with the emergence of virtual, cross-functional, and multi-functional teams.

So why do some teams continue to struggle with the concept of teamwork? Believe it or not, the answer may be quite simple. They probably don’t have a clear vision of how a well-oiled team thinks, acts, or feels.

The Complete Jungle Escape Game Kit

You can stand in front of your audience and tell—even push—them to be better team members, but we have a better idea. Let them experience it. In other words, show them. Hands-on training games like Jungle Escape whisk teams away from the traditional classroom and places them in a learning adventure that’s fun, effective, and memorable. It’s been a perennial favorite among trainers since it was first introduced more than 30 years ago, and it continues to be a bestseller today. And for one reason: It works.

At HRDQ, we believe show beats tell. There isn’t a more powerful way for adults to learn a new skill than to experience it for themselves. It’s what makes the lightbulb go on—the proverbial ‘a-ha’ moment trainers strive to achieve with their audiences.

And that’s what you get with Jungle Escape.

Immersed in a survival scenario, teams are challenged to work together to build a makeshift helicopter with only toy parts, limited access to a model—and each other. Real learning is quickly absorbed through the discovery and practice of critical group-process skills such as planning, problem solving, and decision making. Before they know it, your audience has experienced firsthand the difference between a Cohesive team and one that’s either Fragmented or Divergent. Voila. The ‘a-ha’ moment.

Jungle Escape is an excellent way to introduce basic teambuilding, improve productivity between multiple work groups, or energize mature teams. Give it a whirl. We guarantee it will be an experience your teams won’t soon forget.