From “Bottleneck” To “Go To Organization”: An EQ Based Team Building Story

1. From “Bottleneck” To “Go To Organization”:An EQ Based Team Building Story Dana C. Ackley, Ph.D. President, EQ Leader, Inc.

2. Goal: Giveyou a practical model for EQ based team building you can use.

3. Who are you? • Consultants and coaches? • Leaders of work teams? • Others?

4. Background: The Company • Fortune 500 company – @16,000 employees • Heavy reliance on IT services • 2500+ IT employees

5. Background: The Team • Senior IT leadership team (n = 8) for 750 employees • Underperforming organization - “Where business projects go to die.” • Previous leader fired • New leader – my coaching client

6. Request from My Client • “We need to become a high performance leadership team!”

7. Key Issue • IT wants to “do it right” • Business “needs it” yesterday

8. Leadership team in disarray • Survivor guilt • Loyalty to former leader • Conflicts with new leader • Raised expectations • Seen as prescriptive • Seen as “a business guy” • Dysfunctional alliances within team • One disaffected member

9. Overview: Team Building Process • Introductory meeting • EQ assessment • Team assessment • Team retreat • Continued to coach leader

10. Introductory Meeting • Goal : Begin relationships/create trust to achieve buy-in

11. Today’s Agenda* Culture change why it’s so hard how to make it work Characteristics of a high performance team Assessing this team’s starting point interviews emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence what is it? how does it support high team performance? do you want to include it in our assessment process? * = actual slide used

12. Culture Problem* • What worked yesterday may not work today • Digital Equipment Corporation → Compaq → Hewlett Packard

13. Business Team: Definition* • A small number of people (2 – 25) • With complimentary skills • Who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach to their work • For which they hold themselves mutually accountable • (The Wisdom of Teams by Katzenback and Smith)

14. Introductory Meeting Content • Best team exercise: “Tell us about the best team you were ever on. What made that team so good?”

15. Introductory Meeting :High Performance Teams • Trust • Conflict • Commitment • Accountability • Team results • (Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni)

16. Introductory Meeting :High Performance Teams • Trust • Conflict • Commitment • Accountability • Team results • Just like their • “Best Teams”

17. Assessment Options* • Team as a whole • Team as a sum of its parts • Team skills require members to have certain EQ skills

18. EQ Agenda* • What EQ is • Definitions • Background • Research on EQ and • Corporate profitability • Leadership effectiveness • How EQ serves high team performance • How to assess EQ skills

19. EQ Leader Program Manual (pp 79-82)

20. EQ Assessment Ground Rules* • Voluntary • Test and EQ interview data are private, i.e., not shared with boss or company by Dana • Group averages will be shared

21. Team Assessment Ground Rules • I am free to share with team anything I hear (that’s important) • Won’t say who said what. • Team leader gets report first

22. Team Agreed to Assessment • EQ-I (not EQ 360) • Two hour interview • Team issues • EQ assessment interview (a laEQ Leader Program)

23. Sample Team Interview Questions • What is the mission of this team? • What makes the mission important?

24. Sample Team Interview Questions • How successful has (the organization this team leads) been over the past two years? • Chief barriers to greater success? • Chief barriers to future success?

25. Sample Team Interview Questions • Rate trust on this team 0 to 10. Tell me a story to illustrate • What are the major conflicts on this team?

26. Sample Team Interview Questions • Rate team commitment to vision, values etc. 0 to 10 • Rate team accountability 0 to 10 • How does this team measure results?

27. Assessment Goals - EQ • Build my relationship with each person • Individual development • Identify how their current EQ development impacts the team • Recommendations regarding • Improved team involvement • Leadership success

28. Sample EQ Assessment Questions • Career goals • What do you want from this assessment? • See EQ Leader Program Manual (Ackley, 2006)

29. Sample EQ Assessment Questions • What Leadership skills are you good at? • What leadership skills would you like to improve?

30. Sample EQ Assessment Questions • Tell me about your current family. • Tell me about the family you grew up in.

31. Sample EQ Assessment Questions • Behavioral re: EQ skills • Tell me about a conflict you had with someone. (Assertiveness/Empathy)

32. EQ Assessment Feedback • Personalized report • @ 15 pages • Integrate test data with interview data • Discuss how EQ strengths and weaknesses impact career development and behavior with team • Debrief

33. Personalized Report: Link to Individual Development • Re: low Self Actualization score: • “Another answer might be to rediscover meaning in what you are doing now. Again, one step in that process might be to look for another way to understand your demotion.”

34. Personalized Report: Link to Team Functioning • “For you, problems in Reality Testing may interfere with your ability to allow what others say and do to overcome your emotional biases about them. If you have already made up your mind beyond changing, you are unlikely to be able to develop adequate levels of trust no matter what they do.”

35. Goal • Help each team member take personal responsibility for his or her part of the team difficulty.

36. Team Feedback – slide 1 • Written report • Integrate interview findings • Frame results as solvable problems (instill hope) • Provide a model of • Accountability • Thoughtfulness • Tactful candor • Transparency

37. Team Feedback - 2 • Met with leader to review report • Balance of team received report two days prior to retreat

38. High Flexibility 109 Stress Tolerance 104 Low Reality Testing 93 Self-Actualization 94 Group Average scores of Note

39. Retreat • Resort 50 miles away • Dinner the night before • Goal setting • Trust building

40. Dinner • Goal Setting • What do you want to get out of this retreat? • What will make it worth your time?

41. Dinner • Trust Building Topics • Tell about the family you grew up in • Some event in your life that has meaning for you • What kinds of jobs you had as a teenager • Who do you turn to for comfort and support. • A job interview that went awful

42. Retreat • Ice breaker • Training in Skillful Discussion* • Discuss Team Report • Review Group EQ report • Facilitated discussion of team issues • Action planning • *See The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

43. Results • Better understanding/acceptance of new leader • Trust/communication improved • Vision for team established • Significant progress on conflicts • IT/business • Relationships on team

44. Results • Disaffected member got on board • Lines of business called this a “Go to organization.” • Followers gave much improved feedback

45. Subsequent Employee Survey • 88% feel optimistic about the upcoming changes to the organization • 89% have confidence in the abilities of SLT • 86% feel appreciated for the work they do • 85% agree that the morale of associates is good