Emotional Intelligence
My emotional intelligence strengths have been in maintaining a collected attitude during times of high stress. I have been working on becoming more socially aware and understanding others’ emotions. Furthermore, I was able to perform effective relationship management and build positive relationships among team members. My team members evaluated me at the midpoint and end, saying I was “open-minded” and able to “listen to all ideas”.
My self-reflections that I made it my goal to have every week were very effective at allowing me to see how my emotions and actions affected those of the team. These reflections allowed me to curb negative emotions during the team meetings; however, they also helped me to empathize with other team members. I noticed when certain people were frustrated or irritated at the process and learning to reflect on my own feelings and how to manage them allowed me to curb some frustrations. I fostered communication in the team when I noticed frustration, which allowed them to discuss what aspects of the process were frustrating. I self-reflected often in my blog posts or sometimes directly after the meeting. My most self reflective blogs were from week 3 and week 4, where I either vented some of my frustrations or discussed my self-reflection post meeting.
I still have some weaknesses regarding emotional intelligence, and I plan to further work to improve on them. I still can get worked up during times of intense pressure. While writing and editing the proposal, I found myself raising my voice a little when it appeared that no one was listening to one another. In the future, I plan to take a little time to relax when the pressure gets too high; I will suggest a 5 minute timeout where people can relax from the pressure of the project. Furthermore, I lack skills in knowing when I become defensive. I spent a long time defending my ideas and solutions; however, I know it is best to listen to the criticism of others to better strengthen my ideas. I want to learn to accept criticism without feeling the need to defend my ideas in the future.
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