BSBLDR501

Develop and use emotional intelligence

Assessment Task 1: Reflect on your emotional intelligence

Question 1

Identify own emotional strengths and weaknesses?

My emotional strengths are:

1. I am trustworthy as I like to build the trust factor in order to strengthen the working
relationship.
2. I used to listen each and every matter of my subordinates and team mates before
taking any decision.
3. I used to manage all the misunderstandings by breaking down the issue and
separate the personal interest for an effective solution.

My emotional Weakness are :

1. When my ideas or opinions are neglected  by my immediate senior, I used to get

frustrated.
2. During frustration, sometimes I lost my mental control and behave negatively with
the subordinates.

Question 2

Identify personal stressors and own emotional states related to the workplace?

Personal stressors are the situation in the workplace which maximize the stress and
that affect the level of productivity in the organization.

Personal stressors related to the workplace are as follows:

1. I lack in devoting time to the work activities which hamper the daily work process
2. Handling excess projects back to back
3. The work responsibilities are excessive

Question 3

Develop awareness of own emotional triggers and use this awareness to enable

control of emotional responses?

Emotional states are the signs which are emotionally attached due to the personal
stressors.

The emotional states due to the personal stressors are as follows:

1. Lack in the self-confidence due to the mismanagement of the activities

2. Creating disappointment and depression which maximizes the negative thoughts
3. Sometimes motivation  fails due to the excessive work pressure
4. Behavioural changes are also included which is nervousness, improper diet and
increase in the frequency of smoking.

Question 4

Model workplace behaviours that demonstrate management of emotions?

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the capability to address the personal emotions and also
of the team mates in order to manage and organise the work process effectively. The
identified emotional intelligence shown below:

Self Awareness: It is the consciousness of the people to control their emotions and
move normally for achieving the target. People having high self awareness can
control their emotion and respond positively to the situation

Self regulation: It is the process to regulate the emotion by behaving in a different

way. People with high self regulation used to seat in a comfort zone due to the
effective regulations of their emotional outburst like anger, jealousness etc

Motivation: Self motivation is very much important to remain encouraged and

positive all the time. Highly motivated people can accomplish the task effectively at
any diverse situation
 Empathy: Empathy is to understand the opinions or feedbacks of other individuals
associated in the same work process and as a result misunderstandings get reduced.

Social Skills: The people having the skills to work in a team, open minded can
manage the disputes and build strong relationships.

The actions that can be taken to improve my Emotional Intelligence are as follows:

1. I need to observe my behaviour towards other individual and need to evaluate all
the factors before judging any situations.
2. Self evaluation is necessary where I can identify my strength and weakness.
Accordingly I can take measures to improve the weakness
3. I need to face the extreme stressful situation in the workplace in order to understand
my reaction.
4. I need to undertake responsibility for any actions I have taken. Apologizing or
complimenting other can  be done in order to maintain a positive relationships

Question 5

Use self-reflection and feedback from others to improve development of own

emotional intelligence?

I have taken feedback from my (1) team member (2) immediate senior (3) subordinate
in my workplace.

The questions asked and comments received are as follows:

In the diverse situation or during the time of excessive pressure what is my

reaction?

1: Sometimes I unorganized the task which creates blunder in the group

2: During the excessive pressure I seem to be stressed and mentally frustrated which
creates impact in the work quality

3: I used to behave negatively sometimes which hurts them

How I used to manage the task during extreme pressure?

1: Delegating the task effectively among the members

2: By coordinating and delegating the task effectively

3: Dividing the duties as per the specialization

How I used to behave in the workplace during group task (only to team
members)

1: I used to hear all the opinions from the members and then initiate the task by
involving all the members which creates appositive working relationship in our team

Do I prefer the opinions from the subordinates? (only to subordinates)

1: I used to conduct meeting and asked all the subordinates to share their views for
any decisions which motivate them highly.

Assessment Task 2: Respond to emotional intelligence case study

Question 1

Respond to the emotional states of co-workers and assess emotional cues?

1. Read emotional cues and signals.

Keep the emotions and feelings of the staff in mind. Emotional cues are everywhere
in the business, so my co-workers needs to pay close attention to them as they are
valuable data to their organization. Cues can be overt or less obvious, such as body
language, facial expressions, types of words used, and tone. These signals will help
my co-workers in understanding what employee is feeling.

2. Understand the triggers.

There's always something underlying the emotional response. Dig into what is
triggering an employee's emotional behavior. What issue or situation is causing them
to respond in this way? Refrain from pre-judging why the employee is responding in
the way that they are. Instead, listen to the employee and their concerns. Allow the
employee to feel heard and respected. This will help me to help them.
3. Transform the problem.
Once I understand the problem, transform it into an opportunity for positive change.
Emotional situations present opportunities for turning around a problem as employees
often become emotional when they don't know how to solve problems on their own.
During these moments, managers can counsel employees, assist them in searching for
solutions, help resolve conflicts, and refer them to help that they need - like employee
assistance programs, coaching, and conflict skills/communication training.

4. Give them space.

Sometimes providing space for employees to deal with what's going on is effective in
helping employees move beyond the situation in a constructive way, especially when
extreme emotions or distress are in play. Maybe that space is a break in the work day,
a day off, or loosening workload for a short period. Time heals most issues.

5. Keep their dignity.

Emotional employees, especially in cases of crying in the workplace, should have
their dignity kept intact. Never make an employee feel bad about crying and discipline
or punish them for it. Most employees are very embarrassed when they become
emotional and as a manager, I should allow them to keep their self-respect.
It should be noted that there are situations when employees' emotions escalate to
unmanageable levels, adversely affect other employees, and need a different approach
- sometimes involving formal counseling, conflict resolution or mediation, and
disciplinary action (in the case of excessive anger or harmful/abusive behavior).

In addition to managing emotional employees, here are some strategies to help

prevent negative emotions in the workplace in the first place.

Question 2

Identify the varying cultural expressions of emotions are utilise to respond to

emotional cues in a diverse workforce?

The culture in which we live provides structure, guidelines, expectations, and rules to

help us understand, interpret, and express various emotions. A "cultural display rule"
is a culturally specific standard that governs the types and frequencies of emotional
displays considered acceptable by a given culture. Cultural scripts dictate how
positive and negative emotions should be experienced and displayed; they may also
guide how people choose to regulate their emotions, ultimately influencing an
individual's emotional experience. Cultural contexts also act as cues when people are
trying to interpret facial expressions. This means that different cultures may interpret
the same social context in very different ways. Despite different emotional display
rules, our ability to recognize and produce basic facial expressions of emotion appears
to be universal. In fact, research has discovered seven basic types of emotions
expressed in human faces: sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise, anger, contempt, and
fear. Complex emotions such as jealousy, love, and pride are different from basic
emotions and are more likely to be dependent on cultural influences than are more
basic emotions.

Question 3

Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in dealing with others?

Determine whether a specific behavior or attribute is a requirement of the job.

There are some cultural differences with your employees that you just have to accept
and not try to change if you want your employees to perform well. However, there
also are some cultural issues that are relevant to your business and to which
employees of a different culture will have to adapt to if they are going to succeed in
the work culture.

Identify whether or not you can reasonably accommodate the cultural difference.
Some cultural differences - such as an employee's willingness to confront her boss -
can be accommodated by slightly altering the expectation or changing the
circumstances of the situation. For example, some cultures are not responsive to stern
feedback, but they are receptive to less direct insinuations regarding their
performance. If you ask your employees, they will tell you how best to communicate
with them without violating their cultural norms.

Determine how best to accommodate the cultural difference.

Some cultures are group-centric rather than individually focused. In such cases
praising an individual for their effort, rather than recognizing the entire group, can
create contention among the group and embarrassment for the individual, thereby
decreasing the employee's performance instead of enhancing it. Likewise, giving
someone negative feedback in public, even if it is not severe, can have a detrimental
effect on employees of certain cultures. Being sensitive to and aware of the unique
cultural differences of your employees will help you determine where you need to
alter your management style or practices.

Question 4

Take into account the emotions of others when making decisions?

When making a decision, you can then take into account what is in their heart and in

their head. Developing Skills With self-awareness and observation, it becomes easier
to interpret your own emotions and other people's. To improve in this respect, pay
attention to the following points.

Decreased Performance
Bad attitudes spread, which is why you must address the issue quickly. A single
person's bad attitude can have a huge effect on the operation of your business. For
example, if one employee begins complaining, his discontent might spread to other
workers. Bad attitudes also can trickle downward. A cranky manager can ruin the
workplace atmosphere for everyone he supervises. Pervasively negative attitudes can
have a detrimental effect on performance, causing employees to become apathetic and
despondent. Mistakes might occur more often, and output will likely slow

Unhappy Customers
If the customers encounter bad attitudes from the employees, they won't come back.
Customers don't want to deal with snippy or rude representatives, and employee
apathy leads to blown project deadlines and incomplete fulfillment of orders.
Monitoring the performance of employees who deal directly with customers might
head off some trouble, but a more effective approach is to deal with the underlying
causes of the discontent to raise the morale of the entire workplace.
 Appendix 2: Questions

For the following case-study-based questions, put yourself in the position of the new
general operations manager and answer the questions accordingly.

Question 1

Your Store Manager has had a stressful month. It is the end of the financial year and sales
revenue in the Timber and Plumbing & Electrical departments is down on targets, almost
certainly due to increased competition from smaller competitors for trade contractors’ business.
Just this week, the Store Manager held a meeting in which she yelled at all the department
managers and told you and them to work out a way to improve revenue. Obviously, the
outburst did not make much sense as the department managers, in such a large business, do not
have the capability to raise much revenue directly. Marketing and distribution innovations that
could have an effect are mainly a head office responsibility. The Wollongong store’s inability
to counter the threat from smaller, more nimble trade suppliers has been the main reason for the
revenue deficit.
Naturally, the atmosphere around the store and in the management team is subdued and a few
managers have discussed leaving the organisation; other managers have responded by pushing
unreasonable sales demands onto their sales staff.
You are now feeling pressure to do something: to act contrary to budget planning and cut costs
or to increase pressure on others to offset poor performance in other areas.
In your opinion, this leadership behaviour was disrespectful to all the managers, created
unnecessary concern about job security and undermined trust. There has been a clearly negative
flow-on effect down through the store, which is now affecting people at a lower level. You are
justifiably angry at the manager’s behaviour and blame her for making a bad situation worse
with poor leadership and poor emotional awareness.
In my written response to the above scenario:

1. Describe what you think is the best way to respond to the Store Manager’s
behaviour. Describe how you would model positive leadership behaviour.

 I think someone to talk to him and tell him this behavior is not allowed.

 He should go for some training on how to be a good role model.

 I would use a more calm and professional tone of voice.

 She has poor leadership skills and poor emotional awareness.

 I would also make sure my staff are happy and make treat them the same way I
like to be treated.

2. Describe the principles of emotional intelligence that the Store Manager did
not demonstrate.

 Self-awareness

 Self-regulation

 Empathy

 Social skill

3. Describe how the Store Manager should have acted and communicated.

 He should have been calm and talk to everyone in a meeting about this rather than
yelling at everyone.

 He could have also emailed all staff involved.

 He should have looked at things we could do to improve the store before having
the meeting.

4. Describe the connection between the Store Manager’s behaviour and store
morale. Describe what effect the Store Manager’s behaviour could have on store
 performance.

 The store manager wasn’t in a right frame of might to have the meeting and this
is why she was upset.

 She should have thought it through before having the meeting.

 This has made a big impact to the organization where other Managers are
planning on leaving due to her behavior.

 Negative flow-on effect down through the store, which is now affecting people at
a lower level.

 The store can be performing bad now as staff are not happy and this will show on
the customers.

Question 2

An employee has come to you with an issue involving a co-worker. In general, the sales team
is a pretty cohesive team, but now a relatively new member of the team is rubbing people the
wrong way.
She never participates in drinks or other social occasions outside work. She never involves
herself in normal, day-to-day conversations about family, popular movies or culture. The team
is beginning to form the opinion that she is too aloof and doesn’t like the other team members
and is quite upset about it. On the sales team, it’s really important to be able to feel a
connection with other team members. When you feel this connection, you know you’re able to
rely on them – to relieve you when you need some personal time, feed you information as you
need it and help you serve customers.
You happen to know that the sales staff member in question is a valuable staff member with
good customer skills and product knowledge; however, as a foreign-born, conservative,
religious woman, she is having trouble relating to the other team members. Many team-
bonding opportunities involve activities that she cannot participate in, such as out-of-hours
parties, alcohol or confusing cultural references. She is in a bind because she would like to be
accepted as a member of the team, but when all avenues to team-bonding are closed off, she
feels stigmatised and perceived by others as an unfriendly person.

In my written response to the above scenario:

1. Provide at least two examples of possible misinterpretations of expressions or
behaviour that may arise in the context of a diverse workforce.

 She is never going for drinks or social occasions outside work – this can be
because she cannot go due to religious reasons.

 She can just be a quiet person who keeps to herself and other team members are
taking this the wrong way.

2. Describe how you would explain to the employee who came to you with the
issue how cultural expressions may be misinterpreted – and have been in this
case.

 Tell the employee that she/he cannot make assumptions about other people’s
cultures as it is not acceptable in this workplace.

 Everyone is different and we need to accept them on how they are.

 Tell the employee she is a foreign-born and make may not like to be involved in
these things.

 Maybe in her culture she is not allowed to drink and go out at night and that is
why she doesn’t like to go to after work events.

3. Discuss how the team can raise their awareness of cultural expression and
promote effective communication to avoid misunderstandings in order to resolve
the differences.

 What they can do is have a cultural event to make all staff aware of different
cultures.

 Have a cultural party where everyone brings different food and create
presentations to talk about their culture.

 Talk to my colleagues about their culture to get to know them better.

 Question 3

An employee that you manage really gets on your nerves.

It’s not that their performance is all that bad. For example, the employee always does what is
required of them in terms of professionalism, administration tasks and dressing appropriately.
They meet sales targets and their customer service ratings on their performance scorecards are
good.
On the other hand, the employee does not really respond to the team training and team-building
sessions that you have initiated and that have proven so effective in sustaining team morale and
driving others to success. Other team members seem to thrive on, and draw energy from, these
team sessions, while this employee, if anything, appears emotionally drained from interacting
with their peers. They say that they would rather work individually and that all the team stuff is
suffocating. You’ve really tried hard to build a culture of teamwork and this feels like a slap in
the face.

In my written response to the above scenario:

1. Describe how you would set aside your own emotions to focus on and identify
how the employee (probably) feels. Refer to relevant principles of emotional
intelligence.

 Maybe we have to understand this employee doesn’t get to get involved in team-
building sessions.

 He is doing really well in the workplace and his performance on the scorecard is
good so this should not make a big difference if he doesn’t want to be part of the
team-bonding sessions.

 He might be a person who like to work alone so you need to understand this and
 accept this as the person who he is.

2. Describe how knowledge of, for example, learning styles, personality types or
communication styles, might be able to help you relate to and understand the
employee better and adapt your response.

 Communicating with team member to identify his actual needs and emotional
strengths.

 Modifying emphasis on team-building to balance group work with individual

work in recognition that there are important roles in teams for reflectors and
introverts.

 You have to understand everyone learns differently and there are different
learning styles:

 Visual

 Auditory

 Reading & Writing

 Kinesthetic

 Get to understand the person better to see his personality, this will make it better
to understand him

3. Describe how you could use your awareness of your own feelings and those of
the employee to adapt your response so that the following needs are satisfied:

○ your needs (emotional needs, need for team cohesiveness, need to meet
performance standards)

○ employee’s needs (emotional needs, need to develop and perform within a

team environment).

 I would become more aware of other staff members by getting to know them
better to see how they work.

 Having a meeting with each team member to find out more about them.
  I would become more self-aware of myself and others in the workplace.

 Question 4

It is the end of the financial year and sales revenue at the Wollongong store in the Timber
and Plumbing & Electrical departments is down on targets. This issue is almost certainly due
to increased competition from smaller competitors for trade contractors’ business;
nevertheless some action should be taken by management to mitigate the effect of this issue
on the store overall.
As a result of managerial discussions, it has been decided that some employee performance
targets will be increased where capacity exists and some programs, such as training, will be
delayed. These measures will have the effect of potentially increasing revenue and reducing
costs to compensate for overall poorer-than-expected performance in the Wollongong store.
Each manager will have responsibility for implementing this group decision in their
particular area of responsibility. It will be important to consider the emotional impact on staff
and any consequential impact on health, safety and wellbeing as well as the impact on
performance and the achievement of organisational goals.

In my written response to the above scenario:

1. Describe the relationship between emotionally effective people and the

attainment of business objectives.

 Employees who are content are more productive, less prone to accidents,
influence others to be more productive and contribute to a positive overall climate
and work culture, which attracts and retains valuable people and skills.

 When people are more emotionally attached to the business they will attain a
better business objective.

2. Describe how considering the emotional impact of decision-making could lead

to better decision-making (with respect to business objectives).

 Considering emotional needs may be viewed as another way of enabling people

to meet realistic targets by removing emotional obstacles.
3. Describe what a possible process of decision-making that takes into account
emotional impact could look like. Decisions in this case include, for example,
setting particular performance targets, or selecting what programs can be
delayed.

 Collaborating with employees to set reasonable targets, inviting input and making
reasonable changes on the basis of input.

 Communicating business needs and process of decision-making.

 Communicating empathy, emphasising common goals and values, emphasising

organisational commitment to wellbeing of employees.

4. Identify policies, procedures, or legislation that will need to be adhered to in

order to satisfy internal and external requirements related to managing emotions
in the workplace.

 Performance management, grievance, privacy, policies and procedures.

 EEO.

 Anti-discrimination.

5. Describe how OHS/WHS legislation is relevant to how managers implement

business decisions.

Employers have an obligation to provide a safe working environment and take all
reasonable steps to reduce health and safety risks; unreasonable performance
expectations can lead to stress and longer hours, which are associated with risks to
health and more frequent and severe workplace injuries.
Assessment Task 3: Coach emotional intelligence

Introduction of Coaching Session and Asking Pat for Feedback

Coaching is mainly essential for the purpose of enhancing the areas that are found
lacking in respect to the employees working within the organisation. In the given case
study, it is analysed that Pat’s performance has not been up to the standard despite he
has been an excellent performer in the organisation. This has been a cause of concern
to the managers, and as a result, an appropriate coaching is considered essential. In
this respect, it is analysed that there would be coaching essential to Pat in order to
identify his concerns so that improved level of performance could have been
accomplished on his part, and thereafter, better and enhanced organisational
performance could have become possible. This suggests that the coaching is occurring
mainly because the problem areas faced by Pat can be identified and they can be
rectified positively with a view to achieving enhanced level of organisational
performance.

Requirement of Pat Feedback:

A star performer is facing a decline in the performance levels across the organisation
and this is a cause of serious concern. Thus the Pat is required to report such
performance decline for which he is required to fill a questionnaire that comprises of
questions on various areas of dissatisfaction or subjective questions on problems
faced by him. This would give an idea of Pat’s concern and appropriate strategies
could have been considered aimed at addressing organisation’s performance. The
feelings held by Pat including the questions on job satisfaction levels are the major
ones that would be included in the questionnaire.

Emotional Intelligence:
It is essential to examine the emotions held by Pat, as there must be emotional issues
that could have been the reason for decline in the performance of Pat. As a result, it is
essential to analyse any such emotional issues facing PAT, and this will be examined
through the application of Myers and Briggs Foundation. This tool will allow for
assessing the emotions of Pat with respect to any major problems that he is facing and
thereby better resolution to the problem can be identified. This is a psychological
measure aimed at analysing the ways in which the person perceives and there will be
questions based on factors affecting the mental ability of Pat. This will give an idea of
the mental stress that he is undergoing.

Creating Pat Awareness of Emotional Intelligence:

The awareness concerning the strength would be created by way of providing a clear
indication of the past performance. The excellent performance as achieved by Pat in
the past could be utilised as a basis in creating adequate level of motivation within Pat
to continue looking towards accomplishing improvements. Pat could be told about his
strength factor such as he is the best performed in organisation, he has become role
model for others, and now, he is losing his image in front of his subordinates. This
particular information type could assist in the process of creating positive
understanding in the minds of Pat and this could therefore act as an efficient strategy
in addressing the problem.

Pat’s Goals and Performance Gaps:

A clear set of goals for Pat needs to be identified and there should also be clear
identification of performance gaps. Grow model is crucial in setting goals and thereby
in solving the problems efficiently. Application of this grow model in identifying
goals and performance gaps are:
 Goal: To achieve improvement over the performance level that has been
declining, by way of identifying the reasons leading to such lower
performance.

 Reality: Reality is that Pat has been an efficient performer but it is mainly
because of certain issues that his performance has been declining. Since he has
been an efficient performer, it could be possible to address the issues in a
positive way and improved level of performance can further be accomplished.

 Obstacles: The main obstacle to Pat is mainly in the form of declining level of
trust of his subordinates which could create extra level of issues to him in
achieving recovery.

 Way Forward: The focus of Pat should be on identifying the performance gaps
and looks towards accomplishing them so that he can ensure higher level of
 growth and success. As a result, it is essential that the focus of Pat should be
looking forward so that enhanced improvement over the performance levels
could have been possible.

Reasonable Options Available to Pat

Based on the Grow model as identified above, it is evaluated that there are issues
noted in respect to the performance of Pat’s performance. As a result, efficient
measures are essential to consider by Pat in order to achieve enhancement in its
performance. In this respect, the reasonable option available is that there should be
complete self-assessment that is required to be carried out by Pat so that the problems
within him can be identified. Secondly the immediate supervisor also has a major role
to play in this situation of Pat, as he needs to assess the situation and provide regular
feedback to Pat regarding the areas that need improvements. These are the major
options that are available to Pat to consider.

Establishing Pat’ Willingness to Perform

The Pat’s willingness to perform is highly dependent on his ability and emotional
feeling that he is undergoing. In this respect, there has been a sudden decline in the
performance being witnessed and there must be certain major emotional intelligence
issues that could have been the reason. As a result, it is essential that the actual
willingness of Pat could be established provided there is sufficient level of evidence
noted in respect to the reason that has resulted into decline in his morale. Once this is
identified, there can be the possibility of identifying the willingness of Pat in
performing efficiently across his role within the organisation. There must be a
supportive working environment that is essential for Pat so that he can cope up with
the challenges and can recover his enhanced performance level across the
organisation.