Certified Professional Facilitator

In leadership development, measuring and developing Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient, has been a common part of the Leadership Development but it has not been so well developed for team development. The following competencies have been researched as being the key elements of Team Emotional & Social Intelligence.

• Team Identity
• Motivation
• Emotional Awareness
• Communication
• Stress Tolerance
• Conflict Resolution
• Positive Mood

Team Identity

Team identity measures the level of pride each member feels for the team as a whole, and how much connection members feel to the team. It reflects the team’s inclusiveness for one another and how much differences on the team are valued. It assesses how well the team demonstrates belongingness, followership, and a sense of clarity around the role of each member. It brings with it a high level of loyalty if highly scored. To have a strong identity, a team must have a common sense of purpose. When team members have identified with the team, it becomes a problem-solving organism that is larger than the sum of its parts.

Motivation

Motivation is a competency that measures the team's internal resources for generating and sustaining the energy necessary to get the job done well and on time. It gives feedback on whether creative thinking is promoted and whether competition is working for or against the team. It creates the energy that gets the
team going; without it little would be done. Energy to accomplish the mission takes motivation, which is fueled by believing the team’s work makes a difference.

Emotional Awareness

Emotional awareness measures how well team members accept and value one another. Emotional awareness requires both sharing information and noticing and responding when it is shared. Does the team value and respect positive as well as negative feelings? Both have value. This scale measures the amount of attention the team pays to noticing, understanding, and respecting feelings of team members. It is a critical factor in motivation, productivity, and our ability to collaborate because it’s at the heart of building trust. Team members must have emotional and social information from one another in order to work effectively together.

Communication

This competency measures how well the team sends and receives emotional (and cognitive) information. It provides information on how well team members listen, encourage participation, share information and discuss sensitive matters. It measures whether team members acknowledge contributions and give feedback
to one another. Communication is central to every kind of team interaction. Team members improve the quality of their work together and their functionality within their organization by effective communication.

Stress Tolerance

This competency measures how well the team understands the types of stress factors and the intensity impacting its members and the team as a whole. It addresses whether team members feel safe with one another, and whether they will step in if someone on the team needs help. Stress tolerance measures how well the team keeps a sense of proportion to work and life demands, including how they manage workload expectations. This competency provides the closest connection with physical well-being.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution measures how willing the team is to engage in conflict openly and constructively without needing to get even. It gives the team a reflection of how well it is doing in managing the pressures of workload, time constraints, and the real needs for work-life balance. It measures the ability to be flexible and to respond to challenging situations without blaming one another. Conflict is natural, and will happen when any team is engaged in fulfilling its purpose. Conflict can be an opportunity for growth or it can destroy a team. The ESI team is strengthened by its response to conflict.

Positive Mood

This competency measures the positive attitude of the team in general as well as when it's under pressure. The scale of positive mood reports on the level of encouragement, sense of humor, and how successful the team expects to be. It is a major support for a team's flexibility and resilience. It gives feedback on how well the team deals with pressure, and whether the team has a can-do attitude. Teams with a high positive mood enjoy working together and know they grow from both easy and challenging situations.

Are you interested in developing your teams Emotional Intelligence and boosting team performance? Andi Roberts can work with your team in a range of ways:

1) Team Emotional & Social Intelligence 360 questionnaire (TESI 360) that a whole team can take and measure there current Emotional & Social Intelligence level.

2) An intact team training course that uses the 360 results and works through the competencies to build the team.

3) Team coaching that uses the TESI 360 as the back drop for the team coaching process to support their performance.

For  more information simply use the contact methods on the right hand side of the site:

The MBTI is the world’s most popular psychological instrument. It has been continually developed and updated for over 50 years. Currently over 50 million people have taken it and every year more than 3 million people complete the instrument in one of the several languages it is available in.

The instrument is based on the Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung’s theory of psychological type which very basically put states those differences in behaviour result from our natural tendency to use our mind in different ways and as we develop patterns of behaviour we further reinforce them. Through his study of people he developed the first three of the four dichotomies that are used today on the MBTI. Myers and Briggs added on the fourth after considerable stuffy of Jung’s works and their own observations.

MBTI Theory

The MBTI is about preferences along a dichotomy, when we take the instrument the result we receive shows not whether we are one or the other but only our preference for using one more than the other. In reality we have to use all everyday to get along with those around us and survive in the world. This is similar to writing with the hand we use least, unless your ambidextrous, you can write with your other hand but is uncomfortable and generally the results are not exactly the same and this is the same with the four scales, we can use all but we generally have clear preferences.

The four MBTI dichotomies

The two columns show either end of the dichotomy and the underlined letter is that which is used as the short form to describe that preference i.e. I am en ENTJ meaning I have a preference for Extraversion, Intuition, Thinking and Judging.

The first of the four is around how we prefer to receive and use our energy

The second of the four is around how we prefer to perceive or receive information

The third of the four is how we prefer to make and take our decisions

The  final dichotomoy focuses on how we prefer to deal with and manage our outer or real world.

These four preferences and the two ends of the continuum give a total of 16 combinations.

Some key things to remember about Type:

· The MBTI only helps us choose which is our preferred type this is also done with the support of a tutored session with a qualified administrator of the MBTI.

· There is no right or wrong, better or worse Type. All 16 types are needed in an effective organisation.

· Even though two people may be of the same Type this does not mean they will act or react the same as each individual is more complex than the 4 letter combination.

· Under the ethical guidelines the results of the MBTI are for the person that takes the instrument and remain confidential unless that person chooses to share them.

· The MBTI is not a selection tool but rather a personal and organisational development tool.

Taking Type further

Type dynamics is a slightly more complex way of looking at the same results. Type dynamics suggest that of the two centre letters, called the functions, one will significantly stronger in our personality and will be used in our dominant attitude i.e. as an ENTJ I am a dominant in thinking and I use this in an extraverted way. This dynamic also changes because as we mature we develop different dichotomies at different ages.

MBTI Step 2 is a more advanced indicator and divides the 4 dichotomies into a further 5 facets. An example of this is that Extraversion can be split down into the following facets; initiating, expressive, gregarious, active and enthusiastic.

Interested in using MBTI in your organisation?

Andi Roberts runs a series of MBTI workshops that can be done face to face or via webinar technology in English or Spanish on the following focus areas:

• MBTI in Sales Performance Improvement
• MBTI in Leadership Development
• MBTI in building High Performing Teams
  
• MBTI and the Effective Manager
  
• MBTI and the Effective Communicator

Andi Roberts also uses MBTI in his one on one and team coaching processes.

For more information use the contact details on the right hand side of this page.

For an overview of MBTI and it's use in business please visit MBTI in business.

Can the "Masks of Command" Coexist with Authentic Leadership? is a great article around what authentic leadership means from Harvard Business schools research portal "Working Knowledge".

This article is worth reading and so are the comments made by leaders and academics around the issue of leadership.

The article can be found HERE