5 Ways Managers Can Use Emotional Intelligence to Help Employees Feel Safe and Secure
By Tim Butler (ACC certified, MA in Organizational Management)
Last year, a friend gave me a Cyclamen for my birthday. It was a very healthy plant with dark green leaves and bright red flowers. After a few months, however, the leaves and flowers thinned out, stretched out, and became quite pale. Having grown up with grandparents who were florists, my first thought was, “I must have watered it too much.” So, I tried letting it dry out fully before watering again. Nothing changed. After a little research, I discovered that the problem was environmental; the plant needed full and direct sunlight, while I had placed it on a table that got neither. Within a month of meeting the plant’s basic needs, it returned to health.
Creating Emotional Safety
Like plants, employees have needs that must be met in order to flourish at work. Feeling safe and secure is fundamental, and managers have the primary responsibility for creating healthy work environments. So, how can managers ensure that employees feel safe and secure at work, especially amidst the continuing challenges posed by COVID-19? Using Emotional Intelligence is an indispensable means.
Emotional Intelligence is defined as a set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information in effective and meaningful ways. It can make the difference between a good leader and a great one. EI/EQ, as it is often referred to, is a vital consideration in the workplace for many reasons, but there are two that really stand out:
- It is linked to higher job satisfaction – both for those with high EI/EQ as well as employees who work with or are managed by them.
- It is strongly associated with better job performance.
Measuring Emotional Intelligence
Fortunately, there are many valid, reliable tools to measure EI/EQ. Some are even geared for teams and workplaces. There are five areas that emotional intelligence assessments evaluate. Each can have a direct or indirect impact on employee safety and security:
- Self-perception: Effective management begins with knowing yourself. Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses is the beginning of self-knowledge. Emotional self-awareness includes identifying your emotions, their causes, and the impact these emotions have on one’s thoughts and actions, and on others. Managers and employees who lack emotional self-awareness are rarely trusted, and trust is essential in working relationships.
- Self-expression: Self-knowledge is not adequate in itself. It does not necessarily lead to affirmative action or behavioral change, when needed. Expressing your feelings appropriately and constructively, in both verbal and non-verbal communication, demonstrates courageous authenticity. Being assertive in ways that are direct, clear, socially acceptable, non-offensive, and non-destructive demonstrates personal integrity. Ensuring your behavior is aligned with your values and those of the company requires deliberateness and effort. Healthy self-expression contributes directly to creating emotionally safe work environments.
- Interpersonal relationships: Good managers can develop and maintain mutually healthy relationships with employees. Genuine self-knowledge and appropriate self-expression are demonstrated in behaviors and tactics leaders use to interact with others effectively. While the skills needed here range from communication and listening to attitude and deportment, of particular importance is empathy. Recognizing, understanding, and appreciating how others feel, as well as being able to articulate your knowledge of someone else’s perspective, are behaviors commonly shown by emotionally aware managers. Empathic leaders increase the emotional safety and security of their employees.
- Decision-making: All thoughtful decisions require the capacity to gather appropriate information, assess its accuracy, and remain as objective as possible in choosing among options. In particular, problem-solving requires the ability to find solutions in situations where emotions are involved and recognize when personal biases or feelings can cause you to be less objective. Taking the time and acting with due consideration results not only in better decisions, but also in greater employee satisfaction.
- Stress management: Effective managers are tolerant, flexible, and optimistic as they cope with inevitable challenges. They guide difficult situations in positive ways and adapt their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and ambiguous circumstances. By demonstrating a genuinely positive attitude and outlook on work and life, they remain resilient despite occasional setbacks. While being realistic, managers with high EI/EQ, contribute positively to employee safety and security by managing stress well.
As plants require the right environments in which to thrive and flourish, so do employees. Managers who are self-aware and able to use their emotional intelligence skills aptly contribute directly or indirectly to employee safety and security. EQ assessment are powerful tools for developing insight into areas for self-improvement and creating environments where workers feel safe and can thrive.
ClearRock’s Leading with Empathy & Compassion coaching program can help leaders unlock self-awareness and emotional intelligence through the EQ-i 2.0 assessment and six sessions with an executive coach.
