Interdisciplinary Commerce Studies Course Reflection
Part 1
In this section, I learned that having emotional awareness is important for anybody regardless of their profession, their interests, or their lifestyle. One way to think about emotions according to Chris Delaney of Employment King is by how much heat they generate, the color they represent, or the part of the body that they effect. Delaney suggests that a counselor ask their clients to draw a human body and then use one of those three methods to describe the emotion (Delaney 11). So, some people may feel sorrow, for instance, as blue, cold or located in the heart, where others may see it as black, hot, and located in the eyes that shed tears when there is sorrow.
Understanding that other perceive and experience emotions differently than one’s self helps leaders in any industry sector to understand those who follow them. If they can understand how their followers may be experiencing emotions, that gives them some way to work with those they supervise. An understanding of another person’s emotions can lead to an understanding of what motivates a person. It can hel to understand what sort of work motivated them and what sort of work feels purposeful to them. Knowing how emotions affects another person also provides a greater understanding about what type of praise or rewards motivates a person. These are all useful tools for being a leader and being able to inspire followers.
Having an understanding of the emotions that others feel can provide insight into better ways to communicate with employees also. Knowing what affects employees helps to create an environment that is conducive to their happiness and well-being while in the workplace, which will make them loyal and willing to work hard for a boss who undetstands them. It also helps to generate a culture of cooperation and collaboration, which is important for successful teamwork.
Part 2
In this section I learned that having knowledge about how emotions affect others can be beneficial, but also knowing how they affect one’s own self is also important. For instance, understanding how one makes decisions and how emotions affect that process is important especially for leaders. The website, Psychology Compass, explains that the same part of the brain that is responsbile for expressing and experiencing emotions, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is also involved in the decision making process (Psychology Compass). Some think that decision making should be a rational, logic and objective activity, but emotions must enter into the process too. If a person were to always make decisions without considering his or her emotions, there would eventually be a negative impact and it would probably come sooner rather than later.
One part of making sound decisions and including one’s emotions to do it is knowing that there are two types of emotions. The first type are incidental emotions. They occur in the background and probably have no relation to the actual decision. A good example is the happiness a person feels when their dog greets them at the door after work. That emotion may fade into the background while the person makes a decision about whether to punish their child for not doing his homework. The other type of emotions are integral emotions. These emotions are those that are caused by the decision making itself such as anxiety over whether or not making the decision to punish the child is a good example of parenting.
Incidental emotions are constant and may have nothing to do with decision making. A leader should be aware of this and should not let it affect decision making if the emotion is not related to the decision. Being aware of how one’s mood affects the risk one perceives in making a decision is also important (Psychology Compass). Being aware of how one’s mood affects one’s outlook is important in leadership.
Part 3
In this section, the message was that being a leader means asking one’s followers to do things. Asking, according to Edgar Schein, who wrote Humble Inquiry “temporarily empowers the other person in the conversation” and temporarily makes the asker of the question vulnerable. Asking another person a question implies that they know something that the asker of the question needs to know. “It draws the other person into the situation and into the driver’s seat; it enables the other person to help or hurt [the asker] and, thereby, opens the door to building a relationship” (Schein 9). So being vulnerable and asking questions, even if one already knows the answer, is a good way to develop a line of communication.
Socrates used the teaching method of asking questions. Usually Socratic questions are in the form of a directive. When the responder asks a question in return, Socrates would respond himself with another question forcing the asker/responder to think more fully about the subject in question. This method forces a person to find the ultimate foundatioin for what he or she said or what he or she believes. A leader who uses this method should think of every thought as having the potential for deeper development and that the thoughts are all connected. Asking a question means that at some point in the past, another question was asked that led to the present one. The same is true with current thoughts building on prior thoughts. When asking questions using the Scoratic method, one should understand that the person of whom they are asking the question may respond with a question of their own. Leaders should encourage this type of thinking (asking) because it is better than having the follower proceed with what he or she thinks was meant and not fully grasping what was actually meant.
Part 4
In this section, I learned that improving ones emotional intelligences start with one’s own self-awareness. That then leads to better self-management. If a person is not in tune with his or her emotions, they cannot exercise self-management well. Encouraging self-management in employees is important for leaders too. I was also reminded that improving one’s emotional intelligence requires practice.
Getting employees to improve their emotional quotient has both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. According to Krista Brubaker of Biz Library, leaders should highlight the aspect of reasoning when trying to encourage employees to develop their emotional quotient (EQ) (Brubaker). If employees can be persuaded to develop their EQ, the extrinsic rewards will include an improved job performance and better income, bonuses and other perks for the employee. They will also be able to build stronger relationships and perform better quality work. They will also have intrinsic rewards such as finding meaning and purpose in their work, feeling more competent to perform the work, a greater sense of ownership in their work and performing higher quality work (Brubaker). This could lead to a better salary and promotions.
Several strategies to increase self-awareness exist and can improve self-management. For instance Louise Evans, a behavioral coach and author talks about picking one of five chairs. The chairs include: the attack chair where a person feels they are right and are ready to defend their position; the self-doubt chair where the person discourages themselves through fear, self-judgment and the victim mentality; the wait chair where a person pauses rather than moving forward; the detect chair where a person decides to become more self aware; and the connect chair where a person chooses compassion and empathy to develop relationships (Brubaker). Thinkign about self-management through picking one of those chairs is very useful.
Works Cited
Brubaker, Krista. "EQ at Work: Self-Management Strategies for Your Employees." 13 September 2018. Biz Library. Web. 18 October 2019. https://www.bizlibrary.com/art....
Delaney, Chris. 25 Free Coaching Tools and Techniques. Employment King, 2013. Web. 19 October 2019. https://wordpresstestblog2.fil....
Psychology Compass. "4 ways emotional control boosts your decision making skills." 2019. Psychology Compass. Web. 19 October 2019. https://psychologycompass.com/....
Schein, Edgar H. Schein, Edgar H. Humble Inquiry. San Francisco: Berrett Koehler Publishers, 2013. 1-20. E-book. 19 October 2019. https://www.bkconnection.com/s....
