Today’s high stake, rapidly changing fast-paced landscape can be characterized as Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA). The demands in organizational life are in a near constant state of change. The day to day experiences and leadership challenges of an organization operating in a VUCA context can include variations and changes from outside forces that will disrupt plans and operations. Some of these fluctuations are not disruptive, but, other changes can appear to be complex and or chaotic, which can create anxiety as organizational leaders struggle to maintain control. In this type of environment, the interpersonal processes and functions of member exchanges on work teams have become increasingly important as organizations compete at an accelerating rate.
As more work in organizational life becomes interdisciplinary and team or project-based, the importance of team performance has become increasingly critical, specifically in the ability of a workgroup or team to learn, adapt and rapidly innovate which requires team members have social and emotional skills to interact effectively. Emotional Intelligence has never been more important.
The various educational programs supplying the workforce with workers focus on the technical skills needed for the job, such as data analytics, software development, and technical writing. The non-technical emotional intelligence skills needed to effectively interact with others in the workplace, especially on teams. For example, engineers are a technically skilled profession that is in high demand. Engineering education does not focus on non-technical skill development, such as emotional intelligence. It is not just engineers, higher-education, in general is not designed to develop these skills in the future workforce, so it falls on organizations to invest in the development of their people through leadership, organizational coaching, and other professional development programs.
Emotional Intelligence skills are needed for interdisciplinary teams to work together to find solutions for their technical problems. If we view the workplace as a classroom, then every interaction, we have with another employee is a lesson in social-emotional learning as we experience, self-perception, self-expression, and managing interpersonal relationships.
Investing in the development of employee emotional intelligence skills develops a more emotionally agile workforce. Emotional intelligence helps people manage self and others and create effective teams. Emotions guide our interactions and are contagious. Therefore, managers and supervisors are wise to become more aware of how to shape the emotional environment at work as they can create feelings of security through their interactions with their direct reports. Leaders effective in developing an emotional connection and forming strong bonds within their teams and organizations can easily identify the emotional triggers that lead to negative emotional patterns. They understand how to reach out when members of the team are feeling disconnected, and they know how to reconnect them. These leader actions create a secure environment needed for collaboration and engagement among team members.
Managers and supervisors are the face of organizational culture and set the emotional tone for the work climate in a VUCA environment. As leaders, they establish emotional bonds within their workgroups and teams. How these respective leaders gain awareness of and manage their emotions, the status of their relationships, and how they monitor the quality of the interactions of their employees contribute to the organizational work climate and culture, which impacts financial results. Emotional intelligence can be measured through the emotional connections developed in the workplace. Teams and groups without secure emotional bonds are not as connected and cohesive as those that do. These secure bonds amongst coworkers and supervisors can determine the environment for all other employees. Seeing the work environment as a dynamic system of relationships acknowledges that emotion drives behavior in organizations, and the workplace is an active system of continuous interaction and emotional connection between managers, supervisors, and their people. In a VUCA environment, how do you, as a leader, provide emotionally intelligent support to your individuals and team members to succeed?
Thriving Teams Institute cofounder Jonathan Silk, Ph.D., has expertise in leadership and team development. His diverse experience leading teams and multi-team systems brings valuable insights into improving team functioning during uncertainty and chaos. At Thriving Teams Institute, he combines his experience and passion for developing teams and organizations to be their best by applying his research and knowledge to improve a team or organization’s overall level of performance.
