Interpersonal skills – SoftCominVET

Name

As a person in charge you inform your team (composed of workers and students doing their work placement) that they need to go back and change a completed portion of their current project. How do you feel about how your team members are reacting to this news (e.g., frustrated, dejected, resistant?)

For you, workers and students are mere human resources destined to carry out defined and determined tasks automatically and even thoughtlessly. The worker is not there to think or feel, only to execute what is commanded and how it is commanded. You don't care what they feel.

You consider your team’s feeling and reactions, but you do not take them into account when organizing and readjusting the work to be done.

You believe in the idea that a good leader must not lose contact with the emotional currents that move the team, thus a leader will know how to detect the influence on their decisions -capture the unexpressed feelings and articulate them for the benefit of the team.

Ruth has been doing her internship for three months in the personnel department of a large company in the sector of the Graphic Arts. Her previous boss assured her that two months after the start of her internship she would take on other tasks that will motivate her more and respond to her expectations. In the last few weeks new workers have started and have been assigned the tasks she was waiting for. As a new manager, how do you act when Ruth comes to talk to you about the demotivated situation she is experiencing?

You consider that Ruth, as a student, has to carry out the tasks assigned to her, without taking into account the possible promises that her previous responsible made or her interest or motivation. She is just a student and you don't have to take into account what she says, feels or needs.

Although you consider that motivation depends on the job position offered to the employee, you are not taking into account the personal situation, aspirations and personal needs of Ruth, because she is a student.

You see Ruth as one of the team, with the same rights and obligations. Motivation and satisfaction in the worker are basic and drive them to develop more and better their skills and abilities.

At work you are in charge of a team of people and lately they deliver the tasks late and it is a long way from achieving the objectives that were set at the beginning of the year. How do you communicate your feelings to your team?

You believe that the best strategy to increase productivity and stick to the schedule is to confront your team about your feelings and find the people to blame for the delay. Self-regulation of impulses, as responsible, is not necessary.

You are able to high emotional control, what is generally good, but you keep feelings “bottled up”.

You are able to control your own negative feelings and decide to talk to your team in a calmed way. You know that emotions can overpower rational thinking leading to errors in judgment. So, you talk to your team from a calmed space and in a proactive manner too.

Emotional Intelligence

You are the tutor of different students from different cultures and backgrounds and you have to assign them different tasks and responsibilities. How do you do it?

You are sure that the cultural issues in the assignment process of tasks may lead to less mistakes and it is better for having a positive racial or cultural diversity in the workplace: stereotypes (positive or negative) inform about what student can do.

You assume that all students have had the same education, and thus can be judged by the same educational standards: only their studies are enough for knowing what they can do.

You analyze personal and professional background, motivation and personal interest, respecting different cultural, financial and social background: each student is a whole person and you need to know all their sides.

One of your students had an argument with another student without any reason. How do you solve this situation?

You admonish the two students without knowing the reasons for the confrontation. You have to impose yourself as a tutor, without hesitation.

You talk to each one, ask for explanations and try to understand them but do not provide solutions or ask for a change in attitude. You are only concerned with how they feel at that moment without going beyond the situation generated. You just want peace of mind to return to the team.

You talk to each one, ask for explanations and ask them for a change of attitude. You worry about how they feel at that moment and you connect with their feelings but you also want them to analyze what has happened and find a solution together.

One of your team members/student disagrees with your idea in a meeting. How do you feel? How do you act?

You interrupt them and do not let them express themselves. You feel angry and upset.

You ask him/her to explain why he/she feels that way but you get angry and get defensive.

You ask him/her to explain why he/she feels that way instead of getting defensive or shutting down.

Empathy