How emotional intelligence makes a difference during performance reviews

How emotional intelligence makes a difference during performance reviews

Emotional intelligence and performance reviews

Does the level of emotional intelligence of the manager or the subordinate make any difference to the outcome of performance reviews?

 

employee emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence 

Previous studies have found that higher levels of emotional intelligence correlate closely with higher levels of job satisfaction and a general sense of control over one’s life.

 

employee emotional intelligence

 

Further, it has been found that emergent leaders or the people small groups of people tend to turn to choose to be their leaders or managers, tend to have higher levels of emotional intelligence compared to those not chosen.

 

Job satisfaction
Higher levels of emotional intelligence correlate closely with higher levels of job satisfaction and a general sense of control

 

The study

Many previous studies, however, have used self-report methods to ascertain the level of an individual’s emotional intelligence. The problem with such studies is such methods suffer from social desirability bias. Because many people believe it is better to have a higher level of emotional intelligence (EI) they tend to answer questionnaires and other self-reporting methodologies in a way that enhances the likelihood they will gain ‘better’ scores.

 

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This study new however used blind 360-degree feedback (where the subject doesn’t choose those that will provide the feedback) to corroborate the EI scales used.

 

emotional intelligence of the employee

The researchers also recorded the managers’ and subordinates’ emotional facial expressions during the performance reviews. Further a group of managers and subordinates conducted a review whilst connected to an electroencephalography (EEG) machine to record the responses in the brain.

 

Managers
Managers with higher levels of emotional intelligence predicts higher levels of job satisfaction – even in situations where the employee has lower levels of emotional intelligence…

 

Findings

The study found that:

  1. The higher the level of emotional intelligence of both parties during a review meeting, the more successful and positive the review tends to be deemed to be.
  2. Higher levels of employee emotional intelligence tend to be connected to higher levels of job satisfaction and better job performance.
  3. Managers with higher levels of EI are predictive of higher levels of employee job satisfaction, including where the employee has lower levels of EI.
  4. Employees with lower levels of EI benefit from managers with higher levels of EI, in that the managers tend to help the employees manage and regulate their own emotions.
  5. People (both managers and employees) with higher levels of emotional intelligence tend to be more emotionally expressive in positive situations and less emotionally expressive in negative emotional situations. The opposite was true of individuals with lower levels of EI who tend to be less expressive in positive situations and more emotionally expressive in negative emotional situations.
  6. The exhibition of positive emotions by managers is strongly linked to increased motivation, performance, cooperation and creativity.
  7. Positive emotional expression has a strong positive effect on social interactions in organisations generally.
  8. Positive emotional expression builds trust and helps motivation.
  9. Regulating or controlling negative emotions is also a necessary skill in organisational contexts, however the expression of negative emotions, like anger, can act as a motivator and catalyst for action.

 

Manager's positive emotions
The exhibition of positive emotions by managers is strongly linked to increased motivation, performance, cooperation and creativity

 

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David Wilkinson

David Wilkinson is the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Review. He is also acknowledged to be one of the world's leading experts in dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty and developing emotional resilience. David teaches and conducts research at a number of universities including the University of Oxford, Medical Sciences Division, Cardiff University, Oxford Brookes University School of Business and many more. He has worked with many organisations as a consultant and executive coach including Schroders, where he coaches and runs their leadership and management programmes, Royal Mail, Aimia, Hyundai, The RAF, The Pentagon, the governments of the UK, US, Saudi, Oman and the Yemen for example. In 2010 he developed the world's first and only model and programme for developing emotional resilience across entire populations and organisations which has since become known as the Fear to Flow model which is the subject of his next book. In 2012 he drove a 1973 VW across six countries in Southern Africa whilst collecting money for charity and conducting on the ground charity work including developing emotional literature in children and orphans in Africa and a number of other activities. He is the author of The Ambiguity Advanatage: What great leaders are great at, published by Palgrave Macmillian. See more: About: About David Wikipedia: David's Wikipedia Page

  • Bogdan says:

    English is not my first language, so please, can anyone explain what does this mean; “Further, it has been found that emergent leaders or the people small groups of people tend to turn to choose to be their leaders or managers, tend to have higher levels of emotional intelligence compared to those not chosen.”?

    • Hi Bogdan,
      Ah yes that is a bit of a hard sentence!
      Okay. Emergent leaders are either the people that others turn to, to lead them. They tend to be chosen because people believe in them. They emerge as leaders rather than being promoted to leadership by the hierarchy.
      It has been found that such emergent leaders usually display higher levels of emotional intelligence than people who are aren’t chosen as a leader. In effect, it is saying that along with other attributes, people are more likely to choose a leader who has a relatively high level of emotional intelligence.
      I hope this helps.

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