Emotional Intelligence--Introduction

“Curmudge, you’re reading Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (1)?  That’s psychology!  When did you stop being a chemist?”

“Eight years ago Julie, when they stopped paying me.”

“Well if pay is a measure of value, you must not be worth very much.”

“There’s an element of truth there, Julie.  Our society tends to feel that senior citizens are useless.  Not only would it be impossible for me to find a paying job at my age, it’s also difficult to find something that I can do for free.”

“Then why should you study anything, especially psychology?”

“It’s interesting and potentially of value.  Let’s look at the book together.  The principal topics are self-awareness and self-management strategies and social awareness and relationship management strategies.  Basically, it’s about getting along with yourself and with other people.”

“Great!  That’s just what a curmudgeon needs.”

“Oh, it’s not for me.  If I were to practice what the book preaches, I would lose my curmudgeon’s license.  It’s for everyone else, and especially for managers serving as coaches.  After they acquire all of the other skills we’ve been talking about, this should be the frosting on their cake.”

“I can’t wait to learn more, Curmudge.  May I start with a question?  Several months ago we mentioned a typical physician’s paradigm, or window through which he views the world.  Does one’s paradigm relate to his or her emotional intelligence?”

“It appears that way, Julie.  Here’s another definition of paradigm, ’the models our minds use to filter information.’  Emotional intelligence goes a bit farther; it pertains to what our minds do with the information that comes in through that ‘window on the world.’ “

“I hope your ‘window’ is not turning into frosted glass, Old Man.”

“Contrary to popular belief, it is not.  Now let’s more properly introduce our topic with some definitions quoted from Bradberry and Greaves’ book.  ‘Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships.’ “

“Gosh, Curmudge.  That sounds as if it impacts most everything we do and say every day.”

“To continue, we’ll quote the authors’ definitions of the four components of emotional intelligence that we mentioned at the start of our discussion:

‘Self-awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your own emotions at the moment and understand your tendencies across situations.’

‘Self-management is what happens when you react—or do not react.’

‘Social awareness is your ability to a accurately pick up on emotions of other people and understand what is really going on with them.’

‘Relationship management is your ability to use your awareness of your own emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully.’ “

“Wow, Curmudge.  Are you sure this isn’t the textbook for Mind-Reading 101?  Does it come with a crystal ball and tea leaves?”

“It sounds that way, Julie.  But I’m sure you’ll agree that having these talents would be a great help in a leader’s efforts to establish rapport with her team in gemba.”

“You’ve got that right, Curmudge, and I’ll bet that we’ll say more about this topic in our next discussion.”

Kaizen Curmudgeon     

(1) Bradberry, T. and Greaves, J.  Emotional Intelligence 2.0  (2009, available from Amazon) 

Leader-Manager-Teacher-Coach 2

"Curmudge, don’t you think we should bring our readers up to date on where we’re ‘at’ in advising the folks at Generic General Hospital on winning a Shingo Prize?”

“Fictional characters can’t advise, Julie.  We can only speculate on what they might do.  Real people have to be accountable.  Although you and I must practice good manners, spelling, and punctuation, our actions end when we click on ‘Publish’ in Blogger.”

“Nevertheless, readers should know that we described the Shingo Prize on 9/30/12 and 10/08/12, and on 10/21/12 we discussed some of the rigorous Shingo Prize requirements.   Meeting those Shingo criteria will be a real bear, Curmudge.”

“Thanks for using ‘bear,’ Julie, instead of a more earthy expression.  And recall that in our most recent posting we discussed middle managers’ need to practice servant leadership and Goldsmith’s ‘good manners.’  Now, as promised last time, we must tackle teaching and coaching.  ‘Teaching,’ sometimes known as ‘death by PowerPoint,’ can occur anywhere but is usually envisioned as happening in a classroom.  Regrettably, only 5% on the material presented in a lecture is retained (1).  In contrast, retention is 90% when the material is presented in one-to-one teaching, i.e., coaching.”

“Although coaching can also occur anywhere, it is most often done in gemba.  I recall your telling me about Mrs. Curmudgeon’s spending a month in Paris being coached by a world-class organist.  In that case, gemba was very large churches with very large pipe organs.  Nothing could have been further from the venue most associated with coaching, an athletic playing field.”

“Here is a pretty good definition of coaching: ‘The art of inspiring, energizing, and facilitating performance, learning, and development of the person being coached.’  Coaching does not usually start at square one.  The person being coached already knows the task, and the purpose of coaching is to help him or her become better at it.  And in addition to the task itself, for Shingo the ‘associate’ must add proficiency in continuous improvement, metrics, and compliance with Shingo Principles.”

“So, Curmudge, let’s consider some characteristics of coaching, especially when middle managers are the coaches and gemba is any department of a hospital, clinic, and any of their back office or business functions.  Remember, all must be included when an organization is contending for a Shingo Prize.”

“A ‘must-have’ quality of a coach is presence.  He or she must be there in gemba.  Here’s an extreme historical example. Lou Boudreau was the shortstop and player-manager of the Cleveland Indians baseball team in the 1940’s.  Cleveland Stadium was gemba, and Boudreau was there on the field. He also exemplified another coaching essential—proficiency in the process.  Boudreau was an excellent shortstop and the American League MVP in 1948.”

“Not only must the coach be present and proficient, he/she must be there in sufficient numbers to guide the workers, called ‘associates’ in Shingo-speak.  At Toyota there is one leader/coach on the assembly line for every five workers.  Achieving that ratio with fully-trained coaches in a hospital won’t be easy.”

“Right as usual, Julie.  And in addition, the leader/coach must be a good communicator—both sending and receiving.  A coach is an intent, active listener and suggests with verbal ‘nudges’ and Socratic questions.  Queries like ‘What metric can we use to show that this is an improvement?’ or ‘What do you think about…?’.  That approach will help develop a good rapport with the associate and lead her to solving her problems and improving the process.”

“As you have taught me, Curmudge, ‘rapport (silent t)’ is one of those words of foreign origin that says it all.  ‘A relationship in which people understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.’  It’s a word we don’t use enough, and it represents a condition that we don’t achieve often enough.  So, Old Guy, how does coaching fit into the big Shingo picture?”

“In Generic General’s quest for a Shingo Prize, coaching is an essential part of the educational cascade from top leadership through middle management to the associates.  At each level there will need to be training/coaching on the overall Shingo Prize program, the elements of continuous process improvement, e.g., Lean, and the development of meaningful metrics to demonstrate improvements.”

“You know, Curmudge, earlier in our conversation I described meeting the requirements for a Shingo Prize as being as tough as a bear.  I was too gentle.  It will be as tough as a mother grizzly bear with cubs.”

Kaizen Curmudgeon     

(1) Some of the material on coaching was presented by Cindy Jimmerson in May 2007.        

Leader-Manager-Teacher-Coach

“Julie, can you envision one thousand people all doing something perfectly at the same time?”

“Well Curmudge, if the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had 1,000 members, they would approach perfection with every song they sang.”

“No Julie, I don’t mean 1,000 people doing the same thing.  I mean 1,000 people in an organization each doing his or her job almost perfectly with a little room for continuous improvement.”

“It sounds to me as if they would be a strong contender for a Shingo Prize.  Of course, as we discussed in recent postings, they would also have to do a lot of other things extremely well.  And if the organization were a hospital, achieving Shingo-level perfection would be the ultimate challenge.  Let’s face it Curmudge, a hospital is vastly different from a manufacturer with a five-step process for making little widgets.”

“Bear with me, Skeptical Suzie, while we return to our fictional Generic General Hospital and consider how they might tackle at least one aspect of their quest for a Shingo Prize.  Our focus will be the middle levels of management and the qualities they must possess to bring about this modern medical miracle.  We’ll assume that they are experts at the technical aspects of their job and are well acquainted with all appropriate Lean tools.”

“Have at it, Magical Merlin.  Where do we start?”

“Let’s start with the obvious stuff.  At least it’s obvious to me, but others don’t always agree.  There has been an abundance of info on leadership in this blog, so we’ll just mention some of the high points of those earlier postings.”

“Good idea, Curmudge.  Even those people who read the original postings could use some reinforcement.  Our postings on Servant Leadership would be a good place to start.  Servant Leadership is based on character, one’s moral maturity and commitment to doing the right thing regardless of personal costs.  And respect for people is the leader’s character in action.  As stated by Hunter (1), ‘people will not care what you know until they know that you care, and they won’t believe the message until they believe the messenger.’ “ 

“Goldsmith (2) describes these concepts even more simply.  ‘Good manners is good management.’  Here are a few examples of good manners that are often overlooked:

·      Recognize and utilize the gifts and talents of other team members.

·      Give and receive honest and constructive feedback.

·      Include all team members when making a decision.

·      Base your actions on facts, not assumptions.

·      Respond to email and voicemail in a timely fashion.

·      Assure that people can express concerns without fear of reprisal.

·      Promptly communicate your concerns with necessary individuals and groups."

“Golly Curmudge, if a middle manager isn’t already using Servant Leadership and the other concepts that we’ve discussed, he or she had better get on the stick.   I trust that there is more that we want to share with the people at Generic General?”

“There is, Julie.  Let’s tackle coaching next—something that we don’t know much about.”

“We’ll learn as we write.  Been there; done that.  At least it should be easier for us to tackle coaching than to coach tackling.”

Kaizen Curmudgeon

(1)  Hunter, James C. The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle (Crown Business, 2004)

(2)  Goldsmith, Marshall. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. (2007, available from Amazon)