"An introduction to team building processes, characteristics of high-performance teams, group decision-making techniques, methods to enhance team effectiveness, and individual assessment of team style. Students develop a team-based organization, which is organized around their individual competencies."
--Siena Heights University
Leadership’s Role in Cultivating and Caring for the Emotional Intelligence of a Team
Charles Jacobson
Department of Organizational Leadership, Siena Heights University
LDR 636-OA: Teaming and Decision-Making
Dr. Robert Cote’
June 2, 2024
Leadership’s Role in Cultivating and Caring for the Emotional Intelligence of a Team
Being aware of and controlling one’s emotions, as well as the emotions of others, is the foundation of emotional intelligence (Filice & Weese, 2024). Emotional Intelligence is thought to have an 85% positive correlation to effective leadership (Filice & Weese, 2024). Emotional Intelligence can be learned (Filice & Weese, 2024), and if it can be learned, it can also be taught. Groups, can and do, build a set of behavioral norms that guide their emotional experience (Elizabeth & Wolff, 2008). This paper will discuss a leader’s best practices for cultivating and caring for the emotional intelligence of their team, with a case study of the City of Adrian Ethics Policy (ethics policy) and Adrian’s effort to produce effective team practices by cultivating and caring for the emotional intelligence of its city commission through a mutually agreed upon ethics policy that dictated behavior.
Definitions
Leader
Defining leadership can be a complicated task. Kellerman (2012) asserts that there are more than 1500 definitions of leadership and around 40 leadership theories. For the sake of convenience, in this paper, we will use the definition of leader presented by Northouse (2015), who defines a leader as a person who influences a group of individuals to accomplish a specific goal. Leadership can be formal and informal. Formal leadership is leadership defined by the structure of the organization, such as a manager and workers. Informal leadership can be defined as someone who takes the leadership role by influencing their teammates to reach their goals without having any formal, structured leadership designation (Wilson, 2023).
Team
A team can be defined as two or more people forming a group who stand up for and see themselves as a social unit that is committed to each other. Teams are engaged with each other, have common goals, and are closely connected (Schjoedt & Kraus, 2009).
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence can be thought of as the ability to monitor and control one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others. The quality of impact a leader has over others can be directly tied to their emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence allows them to understand other’s perspectives and improves their ability to interact more effectively (Filice & Weese, 2024).
Case Study
Introduction
The city of Adrian, Michigan on September 4, 2018, unanimously passed an ethics policy. Mayor Chuck Jacobson had asked the Human Relations Commission to develop the policy so that city representatives at all levels had a written document that detailed the behaviors and responsibilities expected of them.
The city, in the recent past, had experienced relational problems among the city commission, the city’s highest commission. There were also problems with public criticism, on social media, from members of lower commissions, most notably, the Downtown Development Authority, a volunteer board made up of mostly downtown business owners, building owners, and residents. While criticism of the government of all levels is nothing new, it carries extra weight when coming from within the city from members of its boards and can damage economic development.
The mayor decided that a document was needed to spell out the behaviors expected of members of city government whether those members were paid or volunteers. This document would help those new to government positions understand the responsibility they possessed to choose their words wisely as they now held more power. It also helped those with governmental experience see not only what was expected of them, but also what was expected of those they work with. The ethics policy was both a roadmap of expectations for those new to the city and a reminder and point of reference for those with experience. People were able to self-regulate themselves and regulate others by falling back to the words of the ethics policy. If things began to get out of hand and emotional, or commission members began to use tactics like becoming theatrical, or coming to meetings unprepared it became easy for the mayor to point out their failings with the ethics policy guidelines. The Ethics policy contained 11 expectations that were defined and shown as to what they looked like in practice. Those expectations include being ethical, professional, service-oriented, fiscally responsible, organized, communicative, collaborative, progressive, responsible use of social media, non-discriminatory, and respectful. Several of the expectations, relevant to cultivating emotional intelligence, will be analyzed to show their effect on the emotional intelligence of the commission.
Commissioner Expectations
Ethical
A commissioner is expected to be ethical, which includes traits such as being truthful, fair, respectful, and having integrity (City of Adrian, 2018). These traits are important when dealing with others and mediate emotions by treating others with the respect they deserve. Being ethical builds good relations with others and shows that you are aware of other’s feelings and act in a manner that affects their emotions in a positive way, which is a sign of emotional intelligence (Filice & Weese, 2024).
Professional
An Adrian city commissioner is expected to be professional which, in the ethics policy, includes using their skills and talents to further interpersonal relationships that are part of being a commissioner. These relationships should be approached with a positive attitude while exuding a confident, productive, consistent, and competent manner (City of Adrian, 2018). Creating positive interactions and building positive relationships results in affecting other’s emotions in a positive manner which shows a higher level of emotional intelligence (Filice & Weese, 2024).
Service-Oriented
Being service-oriented is an important role of being a commissioner as they are the face of the community. One of the aspects of being service-oriented set out in the ethics policy is the need to be aware of the needs and wants of city workers, citizens, and other public officials, this is accomplished by being engaged, interested, and responsive (City of Adrian, 2018).
Understanding and being aware of the needs of others is taking care of them, which affects their emotions in a positive manner. Filice and Weese (2024) explain that affecting other’s emotions in a positive manner is a sign of higher levels of emotional intelligence.
Organized
Being organized and prepared to make decisions promptly, and not unnecessarily delaying the team’s progress shows respect for other’s time. The ethics policy includes basing decisions on information and facts, instead of feelings and emotions, keeping others informed throughout the process, keeping in mind short and long-term goals, and being efficient (City of Adrian, 2018).
Respecting other’s time, being efficient, and keeping others informed throughout the process are all effective ways to maintain goodwill and build positive emotional responses. Making decisions based on facts and information is an important action to focus on as politics can be a very emotional endeavor. Having a positive effect on other’s emotions, and mitigating emotions by focusing on facts is a sign of behavior associated with higher levels of emotional intelligence (Filice & Weese, 2024).
Communicative
Communication is an important part of being an elected official and maybe more so at the local level as there is more contact with constituents. The ethics policy addresses this by requiring commissioners to act appropriately during their communications with others. Commissioners must convey the City’s care for its constituents by listening, being open-minded, being willing to talk to citizens, responding to citizens in a manner that adds value to the conversation, and speaking to all citizens respectfully (City of Adrian, 2018).
Being open-minded, willing to engage, respectful, and responding in a manner that adds value to the conversation are all ways in which a person can show they have a higher level of emotional intelligence as they are positively affecting other's emotions (Filice & Weese, 2024).
Collaborative
Another important trait of an elected official is the ability and desire to collaborate. The ethics policy stresses that commissioners must work cooperatively with tolerance and understanding while gaining value from diverse opinions to build consensus. Commissioners are expected to know their role on the team, and how it pertains to the team overall (City of Adrian, 2018). Collaborating builds positive emotions by creating positive emotional responses and is a sign of higher emotional intelligence (Filice & Weese, 2024).
Responsible use of Social Media
Social Media is a great tool for communicating with large numbers of people, however it can be used negatively just as easily as positively. The ethics policy addresses the negative use of social media by requiring commissioners not to engage in or encourage negative behavior on social media (City of Adrian, 2018). Starting proxy wars on social media against other commissioners and their positions negatively affects the team by affecting the emotions of the other teammates which shows a lack of emotional intelligence on the offender's part as they are contributing to negatively affecting the emotions of another (Filice & Weese, 2024).
Respectful
Commissioners are expected to listen to other’s ideas, perspectives, and opinions. Listening to other’s views no matter how different they may be, shows a higher level of emotional intelligence, as the listener shows care for the other person, builds bonds, and contributes to positively affect the other person’s emotions (Filice & Weese, 2024).
Conclusion`
It is important as a leader, when dealing with teams, to build effective and efficient processes, identify and define personal and shared roles, set organizational behavioral norms, and cultivate interpersonal relationships within the team (Khan et al., 2023). A leader can approach all these tasks by simply creating guidelines such as an ethics policy that can be used as a playbook for mapping out the expected behaviors of the team. Addressing behaviors such as being respectful, ethical, professional, collaborative, communicative, organized, and having integrity effectively cultivates and cares for a team’s emotional intelligence.
Understanding the effect of lacking these traits (being respectful, ethical, having integrity, being professional, collaborative, communicative, and organized) on other’s emotions is part of the process of learning emotional intelligence. Having these actions codified is an effective way for a leader to build emotional intelligence in their team.
Using the policy as a tool to educate a team before they meet and being able to refer to it during meetings, when needed, is an effective way to train a team to be more emotionally intelligent. Team leader emotional intelligence is positively related to emotionally competent group norms resulting in more effective teams (Elizabeth & Wolff, 2008). Codifying expected team relational norms would have a similar effect to having an emotionally intelligent leader and can be assumed would lead to similar results if the norms are enforced.
The positive effect the City of Adrian Ethics Policy had on the commission's relations cannot be overstated. Behavioral norms were understood and followed. The team atmosphere played a role in commissioners behaving appropriately as none wanted to be seen stepping outside the team. Self-control was the norm even during some of the most trying interactions.
References
CITY OF ADRIAN. (2018). CITY COMMISSION MEETING June 18, 2018 PRE-MEETING AGENDA. In CITY COMMISSION MEETING. https://cms8.revize.com/revize/adrianmi/Document%20Center/Agendas%20and%20Minutes/2018/pdf_331.pdf
Elizabeth, S. K., & Wolff, S. B. (2008). Emotional intelligence competencies in the team and team leader: A multi-level examination of the impact of emotional intelligence on team performance. The Journal of Management Development, 27(1), 55-75. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710810840767
Filice, L., & Weese, W. J. (2024). Developing Emotional Intelligence. Encyclopedia, 4(1), 583. https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia4010037
Khan, N. U., Zhongyi, P., Han, H., & Ariza-Montes, A. (2023/12//). Linking public leadership and public project success: The mediating role of team building. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 286. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01791-y
Kellerman, B. (2012). The end of leadership. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB09302677
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership : Theory and practice. http://cds.cern.ch/record/1630817
Schjoedt, L., & Kraus, S. (2009). Entrepreneurial teams: Definition and performance factors: MRN. Management Research News, 32(6), 513-524. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170910962957
Wilson, D. C. (2023/03//). Defining leadership. Philosophy of Management, 22(1), 99-128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-022-00210-7
Teams face a great deal of pressure on their thought processes. Bias is a form of pressure teams face and can be due to false consensus, groupthink, group polarization, and group escalation of commitment. These biases have a strong connection to the decisions being made. Many of these biases come from the shared mental model (Jones & Roelofsma, 2000). The “team decision” that I am about to share held concerns about groupthink and group escalation of commitment. These two potential biases were concerning to all involved during the process.
While I was in the process of running for mayor I had a lieutenant from the city fire department come to my work to meet with me to tell me of a situation he thought was important. There had been a joint report produced with self-reported numbers from the city of Adrian fire department, the Madison township fire department (basically a suburb of Adrian), and the Lenawee County ambulance service.
The lieutenant came to me because he thought the numbers self-reported by the Lenawee County Ambulance service were underreported. This was important because the city of Adrian was considering taking the ambulance service back and making it a part of the fire department. The lieutenant's concern was that the hospital delivery numbers were underreported by the Lenawee County Ambulance service so it would make it less likely that the city could break even by taking the ambulance service back.
I ended up being elected and made getting more information about taking the ambulance service back. We knew that we would send staff (paramedics and EMTs to the calls and would generally arrive there first then we would load the patient onto a cot and the ambulance would take the patient to the hospital and get paid while the fire department would not. Our theory was that we could do the same job and deliver the patient to the hospital which would net us the payment. The ambulance company, by understating the transfer numbers, could make it appear that it would not be financially feasible for us to undertake this decision.
Information
We had a combination of both formal and informal information. The formal information was contained in the document developed by the self-reporting of each organization. The informal information included the thoughts of our fire department in the knowledge that they were at almost every call and the ambulance service self-reported numbers showed that they only transported half of the calls they attended to the hospital; our fire department staff thought that number was extremely low.
Team Development
Once I was elected mayor I developed a team of the commission consisting of me, a commissioner who was a former city firefighter, and a commissioner who was on the outer fringe (hoping to bring him into the group). We met with a team built by the fire chief, to go over numbers and the reasoning for coming to their conclusion.
We had a meeting for a couple of hours and came to the consensus that we thought this could work. By including such a broad group I was hoping to avoid groupthink and any bullying that might be associated with only having a group of people from one workplace (Green & Ada, 2023). Adding commissioners, especially one with fire department experience added to the ability for the team to have an educated yet unattached component.
Team Interact
We met as a team and went over all the numbers as well as the reasons our fire-fighters thought they were not correct. As fate would have it, the fire chief of Madison Township was a customer of mine and he happened to stop in my store so I grabbed him to get his take. He agreed with my firefighters. This lent a great deal of legitimacy to the information we were formulating. After our meetings, we formulated a plan of action. We decided to take it to the commission for a vote. Our process was to have a pre-meeting to discuss our plans and why we supported our decision to take the ambulance service back two weeks before the final vote. This allowed the ambulance service to begin its public campaign against the idea. They received some newspaper coverage in which the newspaper neglected to get our side of the story, so the ambulance service was able to begin swaying public opinion before we were. In the mean time the old fire chief called me to tell me the ambulance service would go all out to try to keep the business, his quote was that they were going to say, “There will be babies dying in the street”.
Investigate
That just fired me up more. We had our pre-meeting, and afterward, the ambulance service requested a meeting with me. The commissioner who was a former firefighter and I met with the area director of the ambulance service as well as the regional manager in my office after hours. The ambulance service regional manager tried to sell us on the amount of service they provided the city. He gave a number for the amount of transfers they had made in the last year which was about 60% of what they self-reported in the study. The commissioner and I both caught that and looked at each other, at that moment I asked the regional director to give me those numbers for the last five years. He delivered those numbers the next day via email. At our next meeting, our calm-demeanor fire chief raised the newspaper article and refuted each of their points. Then he brought up the self-reported numbers in the study and compared them to the numbers I had received. At that point, the regional manager and area director left the meeting without a word being said. They emailed our fire chief the next day and told him that if we did not say anything bad about them they would not say anything bad about us.
Process Change
We voted to cancel our agreement with them but had to give six months’ notice. We had no problems working with them for six months and began our ambulance service. In our first year, we were able to buy a new ambulance, hire six paramedics, and put almost $400,000 into the bottom line.
References:
Green, C., & Ada Dimino Luong. (2023/10//). Bullied: Exploring the concepts of territorialism
and groupthink involvement in workplace bullying. Nursing Open, 10(10), 6777-6781.
https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1938
Jones, P. E., & Roelofsma, P. H. M. P. (2000/08//). The potential for social contextual and group
biases in team decision-making: Biases, conditions and psychological
mechanisms. Ergonomics, 43(8), 1129-1152.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130050084914