Ma te huru huru, Ka rere te manu
With feathers, a bird can fly
Daniel Goleman’s 1995 seminal work ‘Emotional Intelligence’ introduced the concept of EQ (emotional quotient) as opposed to IQ (intelligence quotient) to analyse employee performance. EQ is a measure of the ability to recognise, understand and manage our own emotions and those of others. Goleman suggested there is far more to being successful than high levels of cognitive intelligence and that ‘emotional intelligence’, is twice as important as cognitive intelligence for predicting career success. He suggested high levels of emotional intelligence improve working relationships, help people to develop problem solving skills, increase efficiency and effectiveness and catalyse the development of new strategies. Rather than influencing exam scores or report writing, emotional intelligence influences how we control our own emotions and deal with relationships.
The 5 elements of EQ are:
- Self-awareness People are comfortable with their own thoughts and emotions and understand how they impact on others. Understanding and accepting the way you feel can be the first step to overcoming it.
- Self-regulation Control and manage your impulses and emotions. Acting rashly or can lead to mistakes being made which can damage relationships with staff, parents or students.
- Internal Motivation Being driven by passion for educating young people, rather than just earning money. This leads to sustained motivation and clear decision making.
- Empathy Not only must you understand your own emotions, but understanding and reacting to the emotions of others is also important. Identifying a certain mood or emotion from a teacher or student and reacting to it can go a long way in developing your relationship.
- Social Skill This is more than just being friendly. Goleman it as “friendliness with a purpose”, meaning everyone is treated politely and with respect. Healthy relationships lead to positive school culture.
Goleman argues that individuals that adopt these characteristics give themselves a far greater chance of being successful than individuals that do not. However, individuals are not simply born with these skills and they can be learned.
Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bbLWsvDW5o Daniel Goleman on the importance of EQ (2mins) – where he talks about business and customers. Think curriculum and students!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gpn_06NT9w The 10 qualities of an emotionally intelligent person
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auXNnTmhHsk&list=RDLVauXNnTmhHsk&start_radio=1&rv=auXNnTmhHsk&t=6 Travis Bradbury – The power of emotional intelligence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZjqpTsnc3I 4 things emotionally intelligent people don’t do.
Task: Due 28th March 9am
Pick one of the elements of EQ that is a strength and another which is a weakness.
Share your reflections with a colleague and ask them for their advice – What practices could you adopt to grow the weakness into a strength? What impact would this have on your leadership?
On the forum – post what your biggest ‘takeaway’ from this discussion was.
17 Responses
When discussing my strengths and weaknesses with my collegue we both agreed on my strength some new programs to mainof Internal Motivation. I am lucky enough in the last couple of years that my experience and passion particulary for literacy has been encouraged and especially with some of the students I have had going into classes with kaiako who had them as yr 1s they can really see the difference. I have had the literacy unit for the last couple of years and this year I am really able to get consistency across our kura. When it came to feeding back on my weakness which I felt was Empathy our discussion was more around my lack of patience with myslef and, they others for not being consistent and organised. I know that I am hard on myself when I am not organised and consistent so I will now look at this as an opportunity to put some systems in place to support myself, my students and the teacher in my team.
It’s interesting that you and your colleague agree on your strengths so I think you can conclude that that is an accurate summation. With regard to your weakness, it is highly likely that this comes more from your own high expectations of yourself than reality. Either way, you are a professional who sets high standards for herself!
When we discussed, we recognised that we as a team have strengths in different aspects, and interestingly it seems these wax and wane over time. I myself have strengths in self-regulation. One of the biggest learnings I made was to pause before responding to others, and lessen use of email when having challenging conversations. An area of development for me is reading others’ emotions. I often miss emotion cues that others pick up on. People ask me “is so-and-so ok they seem stressed” but I haven’t seen that, even though have been alongside them all day. I have learned that recognising others’ strengths, especially after challenging times, helps refocus them to a positive mindset.
It’s really good that your team has had the chance to have this discussion whereby you can look at your differing approaches. Now that you have found a area for development that is something for you to really get your teeth into as EQ can be learnt aswetalked about today.
One of the biggest things that came out of my discussion was the need to pause before responding—especially when something doesn’t feel important to me but is important to someone else. Just because I don’t see the issue the same way doesn’t mean it’s not valid. I need to take a moment to think about how my response could affect them.
Another key point was “you don’t know what you don’t know until you’ve been through it.” My mentor pointed out that it’s easier to self-regulate when you’ve had similar experiences yourself. Since I don’t have children, I don’t always see things from a parent’s perspective, and that’s okay—but I need to allow some grace for that and not assume I fully understand their concerns.
One thing I can do to work on this is asking more questions to clarify what people actually mean instead of taking things at face value. For example, saying, “Just so I get this right, is this what you mean?” can help avoid misunderstandings and make sure I’m responding in a way that’s helpful, not dismissive.
Yes Kayleigh you are so right. Checking for understanding , clarifying and rephrasing are such great skills and they also buy you a little more time to formulate your answer. We are all learning all the time aren’t we.
I am lucky to work in a department in our school where I have found the overall EQ of the staff members to be be very high. I have worked in other departments in our school that have felt different. It has been really invigorating to make the change in the last 2 years into a conscious, accountable work environment. When EQ is high people seem to work in a high level way with all the good stuff as well.
My biggest take away after conversations with colleagues is that boundaries are important with people who have a lot of empathy. In regard to leadership – my colleague and I discussed clear expectations and sticking to boundaries and how they are so important to maintaining leadership roles.
My biggest takeaway is that others don’t see all the faults I think I have, and that I carry some baggage from my previous academic career about thinking I don’t have very good emotional intelligence because I must be at least a bit like the stereotype. It was reassuring and confidence building to have this conversation with a trusted colleague. Before this exercise I was skeptical that emotional intelligence can grow, but I can now recognise its growth in me, both with my teaching career and having kids of my own.
I think you might have to acknowledge that you have been somewhat self critical Richard. Other staff will value the huge knowledge you bring and value you for it. What a good place to arrive at when you are able to acknowledge that clichés are just that. There are Maths teachers with high EQ and you are shaping up to be one.
Acknowledging that what we personally think of as weaknesses can be seen as areas of strength by others was an interesting part of our discussion. Maybe that is because we feel comfortable in that space so feel like we can always be doing more?
Remembering to revisit these conversations and support each other to continue to grow in all aspects of EQ will be important moving forward.
All aspects are important, however, it feels like self regulation is incredibly important in our job. Managing yourself so you can manage/support others and maintain an environment for learning (adults and tamariki) with increasingly diverse communities is critical to maintain positive relationships.
That must have been a very interesting discussion Anna. You are right about the constant self regulation and I like the idea of supporting each other to develop more enhanced EQ is great. Studying with those you work with has many advantages doesn’t it.
An interesting part of our discussion was that that what I perceived were my strengths and weaknesses were not quite the same as how I was perceived by my peer. This was similar for my peer.
We ended up spending some time on talking about the video that explained the 10 qualities of an emotionally intelligent person. We liked the way these were unpacked, saw them as really desirable qualities, and felt that some of these areas were ones we wanted to focus on. We also felt that we could keep each other accountable. That was probably our biggest take away – building time to support each other in an area we want to develop further to improve our relationships with others.
Again a worthwhile exercise Kim. You are benefiting from studying with colleagues who know you very well. I admire the way you listen to your colleagues perceptions as well. A well developed EQ is such an asset in every sphere of life – not just teaching don’t you think?
This exercise was incredibly valuable for me! I have the opportunity to work alongside someone in my every day classroom that has extensive experience in the education sector. When I first learned that I would be teaching with her this year, I felt intimidated and anxious about how she might perceive me and my teaching abilities. However, through our discussions, particularly while reflecting on the points above, I gained a new perspective on my contributions to the school. I realised that I often underestimate myself, despite achieving far more than I give myself credit for. This experience has helped me recognise my own strengths and grow in confidence as an educator and leader.
It is so good that having the more experienced educator has made you increase in confidence rather than lose confidence which was your first inclination. She obviously thinks you have much to offer the teaching profession so enjoy picking up those ‘pearls of wisdom’ which will enhance e your teaching practice.
This exercise made me realise that I am closer to some of my colleagues than I thought and that our working relationship is that of one which means we are on the same page. This year I have a new team leader who is amazing to work with and has allowed me regain my passion not only for teaching but also my leadership journey. Discussing my strengths and weakness’ with and discovering that we both have the same thought process gives me even more strength to keep learning. The past 2 years I was in a tough class with a team leader who felt I was just a teacher and did not need to further my career. This put a massive halt to wanting to learn and grow not only as a teacher but also through leadership. Going into this year fresh and already building positive relationships has allowed me to find my passions again, I have also found that I have gone back to previous colleagues that have always supported me and they have mentioned how happier and more “like me” I seem to be this year. Teaching in general takes a toll no matter what setting we are in, but what I didn’t realise until now is how not having positive supports around you can take a bigger toll.
I am also really enjoying the youtube clips from The Art of Improvement they are easy to watch but capture the knowledge plus visual learner side for me.
I am so pleased that you have rediscovered your passion Jade. How de -energising it must have been to work with someone who didn’t see your worth. Further through your career you will have new teachers in your care.I suspect you have learnt a valuable lesson in how to treat them. Negative experiences early in one’s career can have a very damaging effect can’t they.