MBA502 Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence and Diversity Essay 1 Sample

MBA502 Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence and Diversity. Ass 1

Management – Essay

Your Task

Using the first two of Daniel Goleman’s (2020) Emotional Intelligence (EI) domains of self- awareness and self-management, students are to write an EI Self-Reflective Essay. Students are to use a variety of EI development tools and strategies provided during classes (Weeks 1-4) to assist in their reflections.

Assessment Description

In Weeks 1-5, students studied Daniel Goleman’s (1985, 2020) four (4) components of Emotional Intelligence (EI): Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social-Awareness and Relationship Awareness. In this EI Self-Reflective Essay, students will demonstrate how, what they have learned in the first four weeks of the trimester, has improved their understanding of EI. In particular their levels of self-awareness and skills in self-management (Weeks 1-4). Students are to refer to the outcomes of the psychometric test (link below) and one other of the EI tools (you can choose from: mindfulness, journaling, gratitude, strength spotting or meditation app) to demonstrate their increased knowledge and understanding. Finally, students are to reflect on any implications of their increased EI in their future career as a professional.

The link to the psychometric test will be sent out in Week 2 via Announcements.

Assessment Instructions

Students should follow the essay format as identified below:

➢ Introduction (150 words)

➢ Evidence of the growth of Self-Awareness (400 words)

➢ Evidence of the growth of Self-Management (400 words)

➢ Implications for your future career (400 words)

➢ Conclusion (150 words)

➢ Reference List (using the Kaplan Harvard Referencing Style throughout your essay and the reference list at the end)

➢ References:

• Your Goleman references

• 2 or more academic references

• 1 or more business references, such as business articles, news items, and/or comparison websites.

Solution

Introduction 

Emotional intelligence has lately emerged as an essential skill for individuals working in a culturally diverse environment. It can be defined as the ability to track and regulate own feelings for guiding thoughts and actions with the help of five basic competencies (Collins & Cooper 2014, p.88). These include social skills, self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation and empathy. As per the MBA Assignment Expert Overview, It enables individuals in recognising their own feelings and emotions with the purpose of managing themselves, others and relationships with others. Here, Goleman provides four dimensions of emotional intelligence, which are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management (Goleman & Boyatzis 2017, p.2). I intend to use self-awareness and self-management dimensions for writing a reflective essay on emotional intelligence. For this purpose, I took the Global EI Test that required me to answer around 40 questions and provided scores on each of the four dimensions of Goleman’s model based on my answers (Appendix). These scores will help me to reflect on my EI in the following sections. 

Growth of Self-Awareness 

According to Goleman’s model, self-awareness is the first dimension of possessing emotional intelligence. It refers to the ability of understanding own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, motivations, drivers and needs (Krén & Séllei 2021, p.4). In this dimension, I have attained a high score based on the EI test results. Undertaking the learning modules on EI has enabled me to understand the three basic components of self-awareness, which have helped me to undertake the first step towards enhancing my emotional intelligence. Emotional self-awareness helps in better analysing and comprehending my own emotions and their significant impact on my work outcomes (Serrat & Serrat 2017, p.330). I now realise the links between my own feelings and thoughts and actions. This has enabled me to enhance my academic performance through control of such emotions. Furthermore, I am now aware about my strengths like communication and interpersonal skills and weaknesses like lack of time management and problem-solving abilities. I have also become more tolerant towards feedback, gaining new perspectives and focusing on my self-development. This shows my ability of accurately assessing myself by recognising skills and shortcomings. Besides, I have also been able to understand the presence of self-confidence in my personality, which is the third aspect of self-awareness (Serrat & Serrat 2017, p.330). Having this competence enables me to act with self-assurance and presence in social settings. I also tend to express my opinions despite the possibility of contradicting with others. Self-confidence further enables me to undertake effective decisions in uncertain situations. This implies that my strong sense of self-worth alongside ability of being self-reflective contributes towards my self-awareness. Thus, each of the three aspects of emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence have become evident for developing my self-awareness ability.

Based on the different self-awareness archetypes, I display the characteristics of an introspector. I am confident about myself, have my own opinions and values and clear about my needs or drivers. However, I often refrain from challenging my own views or perspectives with the fear of changing them (Eurich 2018, p.1). This makes it difficult for me to accept contradictory opinions from other when I feel those views are challenging mine. 

Journalling-Nevertheless, I have been using journalling method for writing down my feelings and emotions encountered in a situation. This enables me to keep track and understand my own feelings alongside reflecting on how such emotions have impacted my actions (Appendix 2). Thus, this has enhanced my self-awareness.

Growth of Self-Management 

Self-management is the second aspect of developing emotional intelligence based on Goleman’s model. I have score moderately on this dimension, which shows that I need to further improve self-management skills for developing more leadership ability. Self-management refers to the ability of thinking before undertaking any action, regulating own emotions and actions and redirecting various challenging thoughts or moods (Goleman, et al 2013, p.232). In my opinion, possessing this skill has enabled me to better track my feelings, though I need to improve my ability of redirecting negative thoughts. Under this dimension, there are several aspects of emotional self-control, transparency, optimism, adaptability, achievement orientation and initiative (Masrek, et al 2014, p.1107). I realised that I need to enhance my emotional self-control for better managing my disruptive emotions and impulses and developing others. However, I have adequate transparency by maintaining integrity and acting based on my values that helps me to showcase inspirational leadership. I also tend to pursue my goals despite uncertainties and challenges because of high optimism, thereby having a strong influence on others and persuading them. I think that I am driven by achievement orientation for meeting my own excellence standard and satisfaction level, which also helps me in managing conflicts in teams (Masrek, et al 2014, p.1107). I also tend to act readily for grabbing opportunities because of effective teamwork and collaboration skills. However, I need to work on my adaptability to changing situations and work despite them. Thus, this explains my moderate score on self-management aspect of emotional intelligence.

Journalling- I have been able to improve my self-management skill through the two methods of journalling and practising mindfulness (Goleman, et al 2013, p.234). I started noting down any negative feelings and pulses whenever I experience them through journalling every day. This has enabled me to keep track of my negative emotions, frequency of experiencing them and preventing myself from reacting on the same (Appendix 2). I have engaged in reflective thinking here for identifying situations that make me feel anxious, fearful and stressed. Besides, I have also started setting up some strategies for overcoming these negative situations whenever I experience similar situations. 

Mindfulness- I have started reading some books and watching videos on mindfulness. This has enabled me to grasp the concept and I have also started practising it. Now, I also regularly meditate for remaining calm and composed in stressful situations alongside being mindful about expressing any negative emotions (Appendix 2). Thus, I am now more capable of handling and managing these emotions that I was before undertaking the modules.
Implications for Future Career 

Both self-awareness and self-management skills are essential not only for enhancing my emotional intelligence but developing leadership abilities as well. From the test results, it can be seen that I scored high on self-awareness dimension, which can enable me to become an effective leader in the future. This high self-awareness helps me to recognise and control the effects of my own emotions on my behaviours, thoughts and actions. It can be beneficial in the future for developing stronger personal relationships with my subordinates and followers to work as an effective leader (Butler, et al 2014, p.88). In case of any unwanted situations, I will also be more capable of identifying my mistakes and rectifying them for meeting the organisation objectives. Furthermore, I can also emerge as a transformational leader in the future by demonstrating these behaviours of influencing subordinates, inspiring and motivating, stimulating their intellectual capabilities and considering their individual needs (Butler, et al 2014, p.89). Besides, high self-awareness enables me to reflect on my values, goals, emotions, identity, capabilities and knowledge. Such expression of personal values and conviction can further help me in better thinking, acting and feeling in an authentic manner (Steffens, et al 2021, p.2). Thus, I will also be able to develop authentic leadership abilities through this self-awareness aspect of emotional intelligence.

On the other hand, self-management will also help me to emerge as an effective leader in the future. I will become more capable of managing not only my own emotions but also better understanding feelings and perceptions of my peers for responding to them. In this regard, I will become better capable of managing stressful situations, motivating myself and subordinates, enhancing self-confidence, managing time and improving my organisation skills (Goleman 2019, p.184). Self-management will further enable me to enhance my emotional intelligence. In my opinion, this will benefit me for contributing towards high functioning and cohesiveness in the teams for achieving better organisational outcomes. Previously, I have identified lack of time management skills that hampers my personal development and can also affect professional development in the future. However, I am focusing on achieving high self-management in the near future as I scored less on this EI aspect. Such high skill will help me to managing time and goals, enhance my adaptability, reduce emotional judgements and controlling impulse (Goleman 2019, p.185). These will contribute towards my future leadership development, thereby making me more capable of managing myself and others.

Conclusion 

This essay aimed at reflecting on two dimensions namely self-awareness and self-management under emotional leadership model of Goleman. In this regard, I undertook a psychometric test and scored high in self-awareness but moderately in self-management skills. In this essay, I reflected on how I have been able to use these skills in my personal and professional life alongside understanding their importance. I demonstrated how the methods of journalling and mindfulness practice have helped me to improve these skills from the day I undertook the test. In addition, I portrayed the importance and relevance of these skills for enhancing my personal leadership development in the future.

Reference List

Butler, AM, Kwantes, CT & Boglarsky, CA 2014, ‘The effects of self-awareness on perceptions of leadership effectiveness in the hospitality industry: A cross cultural investigation’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, vol.40, pp.87-98, doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.12.007

Collins, CS & Cooper, JE 2014, ‘Emotional intelligence and the qualitative researcher’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, vol.13, no.1, pp.88-103, doi: 10.1177/160940691401300134 

Eurich, T 2018, ‘What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It)’, Harvard Business Review, January 4, p.1, retrieved 10 August 2023, < https://hbr.org/2018/01/what-self-awareness-really-is-and-how-to-cultivate-it > 

Goleman, D & Boyatzis, RE 2017, ‘Emotional Intelligence Has 12 Elements. Which Do You Need to Work On?’, Harvard Business Review, February 6, p.2, retrieved 10 August 2023, < https://www.proveritas.com.au/downloads/Emotional-Intelligence-12-Elements.PDF > 

Goleman, D 2019, The emotionally intelligent leader, Harvard Business Press.
Goleman, D, Boyatzis, RE & McKee, A 2013, ‘Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence’, Harvard Business Press.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-0983-9_37 

Krén, H & Séllei, B 2021, ‘The role of emotional intelligence in organizational performance’, Periodica Polytechnica Social and Management Sciences, vol.29, no.1, pp.1-9. doi: 10.3311/PPso.15879 

Masrek, M N, Osman, M A F, Khamis, Y & Paiman, MJ 2014, ‘The relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction: The case of Malaysian information technology professionals’, International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Research, vol.2, no.1, pp.1106-1111. http://ijmcr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Paper21106-1111.pdf 

Serrat, O & Serrat, O 2017, Understanding and developing emotional intelligence, Knowledge solutions: Tools, methods, and approaches to drive organizational performance, pp.329-339.

Steffens, NK, Wolyniec, N, Okimoto, TG, Mols, F, Haslam, S A & Kay, A A 2021, ‘Knowing me, knowing us: Personal and collective self-awareness enhances authentic leadership and leader endorsement’, The Leadership Quarterly, vol.32, no.6, pp.1-15, doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2021.101498