My good friend and mentor, Dr. Michael Frisina, author of the book “Influential Leadership – Change Your behavior, Change Your Organization, Change Health Care” (page 73), talks about emotional awareness and recognizes that emotionally aware leaders can acknowledge their gut reactions and prevent possible emotional meltdown. Emotionally aware leaders also are aware that negative responses are counterproductive to peak performance. He says,
“Four categories of behavioral styles are generally recognized. Note that each researcher assigns different names to the attributes ….
All of us have a dominant style, but we also have habits that fall into the other three categories. Each style has it strengths and weaknesses, and important consideration in team formation. ….
Identifying your own style and being keenly aware of others’ behavioral style contribute to your leadership success in several ways. First, this recognition improves your interaction and communication with others…
Second, it allows you to showcase or model (and thus teach) the combination of behavioral styles that works best. Third, it gives you an opportunity to play to your strength …”
Dr. Frisina stresses the need for leaders to be flexible. Your emotional awareness and awareness of the four categories of behaviour styles tells you when to flex and adapt your style to be more effective in response to different people and different situations. One style is not effective for all situations. A rigid style will get you into trouble; style flexibility will help you be more effective. Twenty-five percent of all situations are perfect for your own personal style….it is the other 75% of the time that you need an awareness of emotional behaviour in order to adjust your personal behavior style to move towards others and build trust.
Performance excellence is possible only when you are keenly aware of your own behaviour tendencies and habits (many of which exist at an unconscious level). There are three primary domains of workplace behavior – Self-awareness, Collaboration, and Connection – that comprise ten interdependent behavior principles common to each and every one of us. Behaviour training in the three domains of self-awareness (which is a fundamental behaviour competency), collaboration (which is a relational behaviour competency), and connection (which is an operational behaviour competency) is a systematic, programmatic methodology in real time on the job.
The more you understand your own and other people’s emotional behaviour, the more capable you will be to use your skill of Positive Presence to create positive emotional behaviour that will move you toward others to combine for a positive and energized synergy in the work environment around you.
