A641.4.3.RB - Tipping Points of Emotional Intelligence

The assigned article this week discussed the Tipping point of Emotional Intelligence.  

When was the last time you reached a ‘tipping point’ or had that ‘aha’ moment at work? A tipping point is “a point in time when an underlying pattern that has been going on for some time suddenly produces a large change." (Obolensky, 2014, p. 82).

When I was put in charge of managing the Sortie Support Section, I knew there was a lot to fix. We were responsible for the security, control, and accountability of equipment. However, the section was in a troubled state. The Quality Assurance pass rates were very low and morale was almost non-existent. Not to mention the fact that our customer service reputation was lacking. The support members would greet customers with irritability and slowly retrieve tools. Conflict between my members and our customers was a daily occurrence. I needed to fix it, but wasn't sure how. 

While reading a story in the book The Outward Mindset, I first got the idea to implement a new strategy in my section. The story in the book described how Bill Bartman built a debt collection company that figured out ways to help their clients make money. “They operate from the premise that their clients owe them money precisely because they don’t have enough money to pay them.” (The Arbinger Institute, p.61) This sparked an idea in me to find ways to help our customers and section.

I started with a dry-erase board and an outward mindset.  At the front counter where our customers stood to check out their tools, I hung a dry erase board and simply wrote “How can we make your job easier?”. I was fishing for ideas, changes, improvements that we could make. At first there was pessimism and hesitation. Finally, after a week of negative comments and complaints, real suggestions started to flow. We implemented the suggestions and our section began to improve as well as our relationship with our customers. Each time we completed a project, I would write it on the left with a check. Weeks went by and we received more and more suggestions and my team continued implementing them.

Boyatzis (2013) states the process of change is not a continuous one, it happens with these tipping points, around these moments of emergence. What moves us ahead in the intentional change process are tipping points that move us into the Positive Emotional Attractor or PEA.

We started to communicate. Not only, were the customers communicating their ideas with us, we were communicating with each other. Within a few months, we QA pass rates increased and the number of lost tools lessened. Our customers would come in with smiling faces and my Airmen would optimistically greet them while quickly retrieving whatever tools needed. The support Airmen also came up with a myriad of ideas to improve the section and benefit the customers. We shifted our organizational mindset from an inward one, to an outward mindset.

There was a tipping point in our workplace success.  " Emotional intelligence reflects one’s ability to manage the immediate situation successfully by applying available knowledge" (Prins et al., 2018, pp. 7).   I used the four components of Emotional Intelligence, namely self-awareness, self-management , social awareness skills, and relationship management to make a positive change in my section.  


References:
Boyatzis, R. E. (2006). Using tipping points of emotional intelligence and cognitive competencies to predict financial performance of leaders. Psicothema, Vol. 18, Suplem.1, 124-131. Retrieved from http://www.psicothema.com/psicothema.asp?id=3287
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex adaptive leadership: Embracing paradox and uncertainty. Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing Company.
Prins, A., Niekerk, V. E., & Weyers, A. (2018). Emotional Intelligence: Tipping Point in Workplace Excellence. KR Publishing.