Interpersonal Skills Including Communication Skills-2

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence refers to the ability to recognise, understand, manage and use emotions in oneself and in others to guide thinking and action. Since 1990, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer have been leading researchers on emotional intelligence. In their influential 1990 article titled "Emotional Intelligence", they defined it as "the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and action". Researchers differ on whether emotional intelligence is largely learnable and improvable through training or mainly an inborn characteristic; current evidence supports both - some components can be developed with practice.

Key Skills of Emotional Intelligence

• Selecting socially appropriate responses to situations and to others' emotions.
• Self-regulating one's own emotional state.
• Arousing or influencing the emotions of others.
• Using emotional knowledge to solve problems and make decisions.

Key Skills of Emotional Intelligence

Advantages of Emotional Intelligence

(i) Advantages to the individual

• Improved self-confidence: High emotional intelligence helps individuals trust their judgments and interact assertively.
• Willingness to express thoughts: Emotionally intelligent people communicate their opinions clearly and constructively.
• Advocacy for values: They can defend personal values and ethical positions calmly and persuasively.
• Enhanced resilience: Emotional intelligence supports coping with setbacks and adapting to change.

(ii) Advantages to organisations

• Increased confidence: Teams with emotionally intelligent members display steadier morale and confidence.
• Boosted motivation and commitment: Employees with EI tend to be more motivated and committed to organisational goals.
• Better application of skills: Emotional awareness enables employees to apply their skills more effectively under stress.
• Willingness to share ideas: A supportive emotional climate encourages sharing of creative and innovative ideas.
• Improved relationships: EI promotes healthier interactions among colleagues and better client relations.

Factors of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence can be understood through four interrelated abilities:

• Perceiving emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to perceive them accurately. In many cases, this might involve understanding non-verbal signals, such as body language and facial expressions.
• Reasoning with emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help to prioritise what we pay attention to and react to, we respond emotionally to the things that garner our attention.
• Understanding emotions: Interpreting the causes, progressions and meanings of emotions-for example, distinguishing whether someone's anger is due to dissatisfaction with a task or a personal issue.
• Managing emotions: Regulating one's own emotions and responding effectively to others' emotions to achieve constructive outcomes.

Example 1: One of your roommates has the habit of speaking loudly on the phone which disturbs you while studying. Despite your repeated requests, his habit seems to be getting worse. You
(a) start speaking loudly when your room-mate is studying to give him a lesson
(b) fight with your room-mate
(c) complain about your room-mate to the hostel warden
(d) Have an open discussion with your room-mate about your problem and try to solve it amicably

Ans: (d) Having an open discussion shows that you can remain calm and exercise control over your emotions while addressing an adverse situation. Option (c) shifts the problem to an authority instead of trying a direct resolution; option (b) escalates conflict. Option (d) is the peaceful and constructive solution, so it is the best answer.

Example 2: You have recently joined a project as a team manager. One of your team members is always criticising you. Once, he severely criticised your working style in front of other team members. What would you do?
(a) Leave the project as you cannot bear your insult
(b) Complete your project and then stop responding to that person
(c) Start criticising that fellow behind his back
(d) Agree to a short break before resuming the discussion

Ans: (d) Option (d) demonstrates the ability to perceive emotions, manage responses and handle social or emotional conflicts constructively. It allows time to cool down and then address the criticism calmly. Option (c) is retaliatory and unprofessional, option (b) avoids resolution, and option (a) is an extreme reaction that harms team credibility.

Stress Management

Stress is a state of psychological and/or physiological imbalance arising when situational demands exceed an individual's perceived ability or motivation to meet those demands.

Causes of Stress

• Long hours of work: Extended work periods can cause fatigue and burnout contributing to stress.
• Negative reactions to stressors: Unhelpful emotional responses can amplify stress.
• Problematic work relationships: Conflicts or poor interpersonal dynamics increase stress.
• Insufficient resources and poor communication: Lack of tools, information or clear communication hinders performance.
• Poor time management: Inability to plan and prioritise increases pressure.
• Limited involvement in decision-making: Feeling excluded from decisions that affect one's work creates helplessness.
• Workplace bullying: Harassment or bullying causes significant emotional distress.
• Unmanageable workload: Excessive responsibilities lead to overwhelm.
• Inability to prioritise tasks: Confusion about task importance raises stress.
• Personal life interfering with work: Family or personal problems can spill over into professional life.
• Excessive commuting time: Long travel times reduce personal rest and increase fatigue.

Types of Stress

• Distress (negative stress): Occurs when demands exceed coping ability and the individual feels overwhelmed and helpless. This type typically harms performance and well-being.
• Eustress (positive stress): Arises from demanding but manageable situations that motivate and energise, such as taking on a challenging but achievable assignment.

Types of Stress Management

Techniques to Manage Stress

1. Become aware of the signs of stress and take early steps to address them.
2. Learn active coping and relaxation skills (breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness).
3. Develop a lifestyle that builds resilience (adequate sleep, balanced diet, regular exercise).
4. Maintain good rapport with colleagues using problem-solving techniques.
5. Maximise chances of early success by setting achievable short-term goals.
6. Get work done through cooperation and negotiation to share load.
7. Engage in physical activities to reduce stress-related physiological arousal.
8. Improve time management to reduce last-minute pressure.

Example 3: You are on the doors to enter into security check. It's already late as you left home early, but got struck at in traffic, your flight is going to take off in 15 min, but the security personnels are doing their duty without any knowledge of your flight timings. You would
(a) shout on security guards to let you inside
(b) inform security people that you are late and about to miss the flight and ask them to let you go as soon as possible
(c) give a call to the police to help you
(d) Both 'b' and 'c'

Ans: (b) Shouting at security personnel is counterproductive and calling the police may unnecessarily complicate matters. Politely informing the security staff that you are at risk of missing your flight and requesting their assistance is the most effective immediate action.

Example 4: You are burdened by the workload given by your boss. This has led to sleepless nights and is also affecting adversely the quality of your work. You would
(a) search for a new job
(b) resign yourself from the job
(c) discuss the problem with the boss
(d) complain to the higher authorities against the boss

Ans: (c) The constructive first step is to discuss the workload issue with your boss so that responsibilities can be adjusted or support provided. This preserves the employment relationship and aims at a practical solution.

Leadership Styles

In the past several decades, management experts have gone quite unorthodox to define leadership and what their attitudes are towards it. They have shifted from a very classical autocratic approach to a very creative, participative approach. Somewhere along the line, it was determined that not everything old was bad and not everything new was good. Rather, different styles were needed for different situations and each leader needed to know when to exhibit a particular approach.

• Autocratic
• Bureaucratic
• Democratic (Participative)
• Laissez-faire

Good leaders may use aspects of all these styles, with one typically dominant; poor leaders may rigidly stick to a single style regardless of context.

Autocratic Leadership Style

The autocratic manager retains most decision-making authority, issues orders and expects obedience without employee input. Motivation is maintained through structured rewards and punishments. This style has been criticised for higher turnover and absenteeism in some organisations and is poorly received by many modern employees.

Bureaucratic Leadership Style

Bureaucratic leaders manage "by the book"; they follow procedures strictly and defer to higher levels when situations are not covered by rules. They focus on enforcement of rules rather than flexibility.

Democratic (Participative) Leadership Style

Democratic leaders involve employees in decision-making and keep them informed about matters affecting their work. The leader acts as a coach, gathers input from staff and retains final responsibility while valuing team contributions.

Laissez-faire Leadership Style

Laissez-faire leaders adopt a hands-off approach, giving employees freedom to set goals, make decisions and solve problems independently. This style can work well in research and development or with highly skilled, self-motivated teams.

Styles of Leadership

Example 5: When it comes to working with others, how does a good leader function?
(a) He manages to share the work around equally
(b) He likes to organise all the members of his team
(c) He end up doing most of the work
(d) He prefers to work on his own

Ans: (a) A good leader coordinates work and distributes tasks appropriately among team members, ensuring fairness and effective use of team capacity.

Example 6: You are the leader of a team. Maximum members of your team are educated and dynamic. Which one of the following leadership styles is best suited to get optimum level of output?
(a) Consultative
(b) Exploitative
(c) Benevolent
(d) Participative
(e) All of these

Ans: (d) For educated and dynamic team members, the participative leadership style is most effective. It encourages engagement and uses team expertise while the leader retains overall responsibility. Exploitative styles use fear and are counterproductive; consultative and benevolent styles have different trade-offs, but participative is generally best for highly capable teams.

Conflict Management

• Conflict is a struggle or contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values or goals.
• Conflict on teams is inevitable; outcomes depend on how the conflict is managed.
• Conflict can escalate into non-productive behaviour, or it can be resolved constructively to improve final outcomes.
• Learning how to manage conflict is integral to high team performance.
• Often conflict arises because of miscommunication about needs, ideas, goals or values.
• Conflict management recognises that not all conflicts can be fully eliminated but seeks to reduce destructive escalation.
• Conflict management involves developing skills in conflict resolution, self-awareness of one's conflict mode, communication skills and creating structures for addressing conflicts.
• Listening, clear oral communication, interpersonal skills and teamwork are among the top competencies employers seek.

• Learning to manage and resolve conflicts increases opportunities for successful team participation.
• If we learn to manage the many daily conflicts we encounter, we are less likely to engage in destructive behaviours that damage teams.
• Unresolved conflict can lead to aggression, whereas well-managed conflict can be constructive.
• Many people default to conflict behaviours they observed while growing up unless they have consciously changed their approach.
• Some people learned effective conflict management; others learned poor approaches.
• Most people have reasons to improve their conflict-management skills.
• People often fail to resolve conflicts because they lack appropriate skills or are unaware of organisational policies on conflict management.
• All team members should know their conflict styles, intervention methods and strategies to improve conflict skills.

Conflict Management 

Example 7: The two employees of a company have different ideas and belief which may lead to
(a) communication
(b) conflict
(c) Both 'a' and 'b'
(d) None of the above

Ans: (b) Different ideas and beliefs can lead to conflict when parties' views clash. Thus option (b) is correct.

Example 8: Conflict can be a constructive force, if it is
(a) resolved through various techniques
(b) presented with many solutions
(c) considered as an essential aspect of an organisation
(d) All of the above

Ans: (d) Conflict becomes constructive when it is managed effectively: resolved through appropriate techniques, explored with alternative solutions and recognised as a potentially useful organisational process. Therefore, all of the listed aspects contribute to constructive conflict management.