Children's Hospitals Today - Summer 2022 - 25

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE / FEATURE
Things begin to feel opaque. People hear
about a decision, but they have no insight
into who was at the table for that
decision or why it's happening. Crucial
details are missing that could aid in the
team's thinking and discussions. Team
members don't know anything about
the ideas because they aren't feeling
safe enough to share them. This all
stems from the lack of trust.
If teams lack trust and have poor
communication, what naturally results?
Lower performance-everything
from projects not being completed on
time to initiatives not launching as
planned. If a team doesn't have that
foundation of trust and communication,
then morale begins to wane. There
are lower levels of commitment to the
task at hand. Work becomes an enormous
chore, and people start to quit.
However, there are steps organizations
can take to build emotional intelligence
with teams. Benefits include:
Faster
decision-making. Building
trust and credibility clears a space
for quicker decisions
because
disagreements and lack of trust slow
things down.
Ability
to
quickly
pivot.
In the
absence of trust and empathy, people
have a hard time with change. But once
colleagues understand each other and
teams have established that common
north-star goal, it's easier for people to
mobilize and move.
Higher productivity and morale.
Emotional intelligence leads to fewer
people saying, " It's not worth it, I don't
have to deal with this pain, stress and
burnout. "
Cultivating emotionally
intelligent teams
When hiring someone, don't rely on
resumes. Although they provide a good
sense of whether the person can do
the job, they do not convey a person's
level of emotional intelligence. Use
behavioral questions during screenings.
Introduce complicated situations
that involve other people, partners or
stakeholders and ask, " What would
you do? " The answers to these questions
can be revelatory, and a good way
to suss out emotional intelligence.
Here's a sample question: You've been
told by leadership that you need to cut
several weeks out of your timeline to
launch the first version of a solution.
It's much earlier than planned. You
know that this will mean sacrificing
some really important early phases of
debate, assessment and research to get
critical feedback. Given the risk, how
might you approach your next steps?
In addition to assessing candidates
during the hiring process, emotional
intelligence must also be cultivated
within teams. One way to do this is to
model the behavior. Approach conversations
from a place of curiosity, which
displays humility, empathy and trust.
Training is also crucial. Consider using
an executive coach to lead an off-site
gathering. Leveraging a third party removes
pressure from team leaders and
provides expertise that can lend more
credibility to the process.
And don't forget to set expectations.
For example, Netflix circulates
a culture memo, which lays out operating
principles and core values. It
also makes clear what behavior will
not be tolerated. Often, incentivizing
employees means giving a raise or a
promotion. But incentives can also
come from who is let go, who does not
get promoted. That says very clearly
there's certain behavior that will not
be tolerated.
Measure and maintain
The best way to measure your progress
in emotional intelligence is through
an anonymous survey. Start with a
pre-measurement
survey. Transform
the traits of emotional intelligence
into questions: On a scale from one to
five, how well do you think our team is
performing in humility? How trustworthy
do you think your coworkers are?
Then send the same set of questions
months later for post-measurement.
If you were getting averages of, say,
50% agreement across all these dimensions,
meaningful improvement would
look like 75%.
After teams have gained the skills,
they'll require maintenance to keep
their emotional intelligence sharp.
Build processes inside the day-to-day
job that help people stay on track,
such as a team charter or working
agreement document. Add the charter
to the top of all meeting agendas, so
it stays front-and-center. During performance
reviews, evaluate people on
the " what " and the " how. " Were objectives
achieved? Base the " how " on the
dimensions the team decided were
important. In addition, talk with people
to ask how their peers are doing.
Someone could claim to be a wonderful
person at work, but then you talk to
peers and they say, " Well, actually this
person is a little dismissive or there's
constantly a condescending tone. "
At the center of everything
Across many industries, emotional intelligence
is not a celebrated skill, but
that is changing. It is even emerging as
a priority at organizations like Google.
It presents a huge opportunity, but it
requires leaders to put in the work to
help their teams develop and maintain
the skills they need. At the end of
the day, an exceptional team is made
of stars who understand, more than
anything else, how to work together
because they've put emotional intelligence
at the center of the field.
Nikkia Reveillac, MBA, is director of
Consumer Insights at Netflix. She
is a national speaker and expert on
building high-performing multidisciplinary
teams.
Send questions or comments to
magazine@childrenshospitals.org.
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Summer 2022
25
Children's Hospitals Today - Summer 2022

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