EQ in Action - Deeper Insights

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James leads a group of highly confident project managers. They are responsible for delivering a system for managing a lending process. Ignoring the cautions of less confident colleagues, they estimate that it will take 9 months to finish the project. Instead, it is finished after 2 years. Clearly, in the eyes of the sponsor, stakeholders, steering committee, it was labelled a disaster. The worst part was that every time James and his team reported a status they asked only for one more month deadline extension, presenting, in their view, a realistic plan to finalize the scope! James and his team fell into the same trap time and again and the net result was a huge escalation of costs and destroyed credibility.

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Phiwe is a sales and marketing manager and has a great idea for raising the profile of the company she works for. She proposes doing this through a comprehensive social media marketing campaign. This has the potential to double the company's market exposure and increase sales significantly through the promotion of on - line orders. While there are some risks, they are far outweighed by the benefits. No - one in her company has thought of this approach before. Phiwe considers putting this proposal on the table when she next meets one - on - one with the National Sales Manager. She begins preparing a presentation. Whilst preparing, she succumbs to negative self - talk. What if something goes wrong? This must be a dumb idea. Why has no - one else thought of it? What if the National Sales Manager does not like my idea and thinks that I am irresponsible. Even if he buys into it, if it doesn't work out, I'll be blamed.After listening to her inner critic, Phiwe discards her idea.

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Digital Equipment Corporation, also known as DEC was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960's to the 1990's. It was a leading vendor of computer systems, including computers, software, and peripherals, and its PDP and successor VAX products were the most successful of all minicomputers in terms of sales. By 1990, DEC was riding high, ranked only behind IBM in the computer industry. But under the leadership of Ken Olsen, DEC went from $14 billion in sales and ranked among the most profitable companies in the US in the late 1980's to a reported $2.8 billion in losses for its fiscal year 1992. Eventually it was bought out by Compaq in 1998.The reason? Ken Olsen's complacency. He famously derided the emerging personal computer, saying:

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home and the personal computer will fall flat on its face in business".

As a result of Olsen's complacency, DEC's fortunes declined after missing out on some critical market shifts, particularly toward the personal computer. The board forced Olsen to resign as president in July 1992.

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Rosemary Howard, executive director of AGSM executive programs at the Australian School of Business relates the following: "Typically bad leaders have a lack of self-knowledge", she says. "One chief executive", she recalls, "used war language. He talked about collateral damage and staff being soldiers. When burnt out, they were called casualties of war." Perhaps he misguidedly thought this toxic environment would toughen people up – but instead they became very negative and distracted from working productively.

Rafferty, with Restubog and Nerina Jimmieson, psychology researchers, explored how the rot can start from the top with bosses who are hostile verbally and non-verbally to supervisors below them. Their study into the dynamics of abusive supervision, Losing Sleep: Examining the Cascading Effects of Supervisors' Experience of Injustice on Subordinates' Psychological Health, shows how the resulting distress prompts supervisors to go on to mistreat their subordinates. The researchers looked at what starts the process and how negative interpersonal relationships at the top of an organisation link to stress that flows down to manifest itself as employee abuse. Subsequently, it may cause insomnia, which has long-term health implications.

Illustration 1

Abigail is a sales manager for a pharmaceutical company. She has secured a verbal commitment from a large retailer to purchase consignments of a new line of analgesics. This is potentially worth millions. A lot of paper work and proposals however have to be completed before the retailer actually signs the deal. Strict deadlines for the paper work to be completed are in place, as a competitor is bidding for the same deal. Abigail delegates the paper work and proposals to two of her senior subordinates. She assumes that they are up to the job. She forwards the completed paper work and proposal to the retailer without checking it. It is rejected because it is incomplete and full of mistakes.

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James is a consultant and is asked to submit a proposal to collaborate on a project with Alan, the owner of a recruitment agency. He is highly motivated because this could be a lucrative project. James burns the midnight oil putting in an excellent proposal to Alan. Weeks go by, and James hears nothing from Alan. He follows up with Alan to find out what the outcome of his proposal is, only to find out that Alan has already partnered with a different consultant. Sometime later James is asked by Zeb, the HR Director of one of his major clients, if he has had any experience with Alan's recruitment agency. Zeb is considering a proposal by Alan to be his preferred provider in exchange for a discounted rate. James relays his experience of Alan to the Zeb. Unwilling to commit to someone who appears to be expedient, Zeb declines Alan's proposal.

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Zola is a talented and bright engineer who was recently promoted into a junior production manager position. He was rapidly promoted into this role after working for a year as continuous improvement specialist. Despite his obvious talent, he is not doing too well in his new role. Devon, his manager, is frustrated with him. Zola takes forever to complete the tasks that Devon delegates to him. Zola never seems to be satisfied with his own work and re - works it repeatedly. This is creating bottlenecks, as is his reluctance to delegate tasks to his reports. He has been heard complaining that their work is not up to his standard. Output on his line has reduced by 8% since he has taken over.

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Vijay is works as a logistics controller for a large logistics organisation. He is responsible for co - ordinating exports to South East Asia. He has to network with various role players such as carriers, customs officials, and also with manufacturers and other role players. Phumzile, his manager, has had to deal with the same complaint from suppliers, customers and internal role players - Vijay has a tendency to "do his own thing" and play by his own rules and does not necessarily adhere to export protocols. These complaints seem to fall on deaf ears, and numerous attempts by Phumzile to get through to him are making no impact. Much of Phumzile's time is caught up managing fallout resulting from Vijay's behavior. Some clients are threatening to take their business elsewhere, because of Vijay's dismissive attitude and the resultant delays.

Eric is a team leader in the distribution department of a manufacturing concern, Advance. Eric has an external locus of control. He believes that he has little control over circumstances and situations. He tends to react, to lack initiative and to confine himself strictly to his job description.

He is responsible for sending out a large shipment to a client that assembles products made by Advance. The client's production comes to a halt without this shipment. Tonight Eric is on night shift. He notices that the quality department has not signed off on the shipment. Signing off on quality is not in his job description, but Eric also knows that shipments cannot be sent out without the quality departments' signature. Eric does not send out the shipment.

The shift changes over at 0600 the next day. Eric leaves, content that he has done his job as per his job description, and is replaced by the oncoming Team Leader, Ulric. Later that morning Ulric has to deal with a highly irate customer, wanting to know where his shipment is. It has not arrived and their production line has ground to a halt.

When Eric is confronted about this and asked why he did not notify anyone so that the omission could be corrected, he shrugs his shoulders and says he did his job properly and that he is not responsible for the quality department's mistakes.

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Babalwa is a newly appointed lead logistics manager for a manufacturing concern. She is a qualified industrial engineer with an MBA. Babalwa has an exceptionally high internal locus of control. As a result she has a very high need to shape outcomes and sees herself as the sole agent responsible for results. A swathe of poorly performing predecessors has left the department quite dysfunctional. There are system problems and staff lack the skills and capability to deliver on their KPA's. These issues are outside of her immediate control and can only be resolved by well designed interventions over the medium term. There are no quick fixes. As a result of these problems, a major stock-out of raw materials occurs, halting production. Babalwa views this as a personal failure. Stock-outs occur on a few more occasions. Babalwa becomes increasingly depressed and demotivated over her "failures". She is also defensive over the problems in her department and takes criticism personally. She becomes emotionally withdrawn and does not engage with the rest of the executive team. Her overall performance declines over time and eventually she decides to resign before she is pushed. Logistics is back to square one. Significant company resources will now be needed to find a replacement for her. It will be several months before her successor finds his/her feet and even longer before there is impact on the inherent structural problems in logistics.

My EQ

Journeys in Emotional Intelligence and Personal Mastery