"Self-reverance, self-knowledge, self-control. These three alone lead life to sovereign power" (Lord Tennyson- circa 1870). "Know Thyself" (Thales of Miletus- 624 - 546 BCE, estimate). Rooted throughout antiquity, the portrayal of self-knowledge as being a primary stepping-stone to enlightened thought is both hollow hyperbole and practical proverb. That is, this is a concept that is easily understood intellectually but is more difficult to practically apply. As a consultant charged with engaging thousands of people on this workplace topic annually, my recommendation is that the entire workforce become practically familiar with the current workplace research around knowing thyself, known as Emotional Intelligence (EI).
In my last blog post I defined emotional intelligence, per Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, as “the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions.” As with any other endeavor that combines learning with the emotional sciences (psychology, counseling, etc.), self-development in the EI sense can be challenging and time-consuming. Coaching, self-assessment, and meta-cognitive thought development are practices that can certainly help. In this blog post I'll discuss using self-assessments for the purpose of increasing emotional intelligence.
In 1955, cognitive psychologists within the United States developed a tool commonly known today within the fields of I/O psychology and OD consulting as the "Johari Window." This somewhat simplistic tool improves individuals' interpersonal relationships through the process of both receiving and disclosing previously hidden characterizations of their personality. Through the ongoing process of genuine feedback and disclosure, the subject becomes aware of blind spots not previously known to him or herself while allowing others to know him or her at a deeper level. This process, quite common in today's workplace, is partially responsible for the increased organizational use of multi-rater and psychometric assessments.
Multi-rater assessments, such as CCL's Assessment Suite®, are designed to collect qualitative feedback from one's peers, superiors, and subordinates concerning one's performance against a number of performance categories commonly referred to as competencies or characteristics. More sophisticated methods seek feedback from beyond the immediate workplace to include suppliers and customers as well as family and friends. When facilitated properly, this process allows for the candidate receiving the feedback to broaden their understanding of their performance in targeted areas (such as leadership skill and effective communication) while increasing their awareness of the interpersonal affects they have on those around them. Through this process, the candidate receiving the feedback normally achieves heightened awareness of their interpersonal and performance effectiveness, consequently increasing their emotional intelligence over time.
Psychometric assessments, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)®, offer similar methods for increasing self-awareness and empathy. Instead of obtaining performance and interpersonal feedback from individuals who work closely with you, these assessments provide a validated description of your personality tendencies, preferred behaviors, etc. based on psychometric research. These assessments normally split the testing population between four and sixteen categories of preferences depending on the test, landing each test taker into a category they are then asked to become familiar with. When using assessments with higher than average measures of validity and reliability, this process can be as, if not more, enlightening than multi-rater assessment feedback as it provides the test-taker with an understanding of the motivations, preferences, and tendencies that drive their behavior and decision making. This information becomes even more useful when combined with the other categories of preferences as it increases empathy and deepens one's understanding for interpersonal dynamics.
As assessments have been found to develop emotional intelligence over time, other tools compound these results even further. In my next blog post I will discuss some of these other tools and techniques.
Comments