You don't need a new team
To create your dream team
Follow this 6 part series to learn how these simple concepts can change your whole team
PART 1
Emotional Intelligence
Terrence was the dud of the restaurant server staff: always late, always complaining, would fight you over everything. When the managers saw Terrence on the schedule with them, they'd silently curse the scheduler and wonder how they drew the short straw that night. They all felt the Terrence-vibe when he was working: he even had to be spread around the schedule so as not to overwhelm any one of the managers more than two or three shifts a week.
On the same staff, however, there was Gavin. A dependable, helpful hustler, Gavin had a great attitude, was consistently positive, and was always quick to flash a big smile at anyone who walked by. "If only I had a whole staff of Gavins," one of the managers told me, "coming to work would be so much easier".
Logically, of course, a whole staff of Gavins wasn't possible. And firing Terrence wasn't in the cards - there was a staffing shortage as it was, and they needed bodies. Besides, the majority of the staff leaned more toward the Terrence-side than the Gavin-side, so cutting off one head would just cause another one to grow. So they just white-knucked their way through the Terrence-type shifts, thinking their employee issues were impossible to change. Difficult? Yes. But impossible? Not at all.
Emotional intelligence (or EQ) is a simple concept that can change the entire culture of your staff. Simply put, emotional intelligence refers to someone's ability to both control and understand their emotions and their impact on others. It's a measure of 5 different components:
- self-awareness - the ability to see yourself, your emotions, and your flaws honestly and understand how they impact others
- self-management - being able to regulate and control your emotions as well as knowing the appropriate time and place to display them
- motivation - your inner drive to achieve
- empathy - truly being able to understand the thoughts and actions of others, even without having gone through the same experiences.
- relationship management - how you relate and interact with others
The Gavins of the world have a high EQ. The Terrences? Not so much. Those with a higher EQ almost always have more fulfilling relationships, better job opportunities, and overall just more success in life.
The great thing about EQ, though, is unlike IQ, EQ can actually be changed. Whatever your EQ is today, you can actually work to increase it if you know what to do.
And that's what we did - all of the management staff received a boot camp in emotional intelligence. They learned the concepts in-depth, assessed their own EQ and more importantly, learned tips and tricks on not only bettering themselves, but those on their staff as well.
Equipped with this, they were able to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each employee, and could now apply different approaches that actually worked, even on the toughest to crack. Additionally, they knew what to look out for and what questions to ask when interviewing potential candidates, and could weed out those that showed a proclivity towards a lower EQ.
With a little work, their staff become stronger, more reliable, and much more pleasant to be around. Sure, there were still duds, but overall they were much closer to designing a whole staff of Gavins. Connect with FocusFront and we can get you on the path to creating your Dream Team too.
