From “Bottleneck”

To “Go To Organization”:

An EQ Based Team Building StoryDana C. Ackley, Ph.D.

President, EQ Leader, Inc.

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

Who are you?Consultants and coaches?

Leaders of work teams?

Others?

Background: The Company

• Fortune 500 company – @16,000 employees

• Heavy reliance on IT services• 2500+ IT employees

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

Request from My Client

“We need to become a high performance leadership team!”

Key Issue

• IT wants to “do it right”

• Business “needs it” yesterday

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

Overview: Team Building Process

•Introductory meeting•EQ assessment•Team assessment•Team retreat•Continued to coach

leader

Introductory Meeting

Goal : Begin relationships/create trust to achieve buy-in

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

Culture Problem*

What worked yesterday may not work today

Digital Equipment Corporation → Compaq → Hewlett Packard

Business Team: Definition*

A small number of people (2 – 25)With complimentary skillsWho 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)

Introductory Meeting Content

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

Introductory Meeting :High Performance Teams

TrustConflictCommitmentAccountabilityTeam results(Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni)

Introductory Meeting :High Performance Teams

TrustConflictCommitmentAccountabilityTeam results

Just like their “Best Teams”

Assessment Options*

Team as a whole

Team as a sum of its partsTeam skills require members to

have certain EQ skills

EQ Agenda*

What EQ is DefinitionsBackground

Research on EQ and Corporate profitabilityLeadership effectiveness

How EQ serves high team performanceHow to assess EQ skills

TeamBehavior

Critical EQ Skills

Trust Self Regard Empathy

Conflict AssertivenessIndependence

EmpathyStress ToleranceProblem Solving

Commitment Social ResponsibilityOptimism

Interpersonal RelationshipsFlexibility

Accountability AssertivenessSelf Regard

Social ResponsibilityStress ToleranceImpulse Control

Attention to Results Problem SolvingStress ToleranceReality Testing

EQ Leader Program Manual (pp 79-82)

EQ Assessment Ground Rules*

VoluntaryTest and EQ interview data are

private, i.e., not shared with boss or company by Dana

Group averages will be shared

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

Team Agreed to Assessment

• EQ-I (not EQ 360)

• Two hour interview– Team issues– EQ assessment interview (a la EQ

Leader Program)

Sample Team Interview Questions

What is the mission of this team?

What makes the mission important?

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?

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?

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?

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

Sample EQ Assessment Questions

Career goals

What do you want from this assessment?

See EQ Leader Program Manual (Ackley, 2006)

Sample EQ Assessment Questions

What Leadership skills are you good at?

What leadership skills would you like to improve?

Sample EQ Assessment Questions

Tell me about your current family.

Tell me about the family you grew up in.

Sample EQ Assessment Questions

Behavioral re: EQ skills

Tell me about a conflict you had with someone. (Assertiveness/Empathy)

EQ Assessment Feedback

1) Personalized report• @ 15 pages• Integrate test data with interview

data• Discuss how EQ strengths and

weaknesses impact career development and behavior with team

2) Debrief

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.”

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.”

Goal

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

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

Team Feedback - 2

• Met with leader to review report

• Balance of team received report two days prior to retreat

Group Average scores of Note

High

Flexibility 109Stress Tolerance 104

Low

Reality Testing 93Self-Actualization 94

RetreatResort 50 miles away

Dinner the night beforeGoal settingTrust building

DinnerGoal Setting

What do you want to get out of this retreat?

What will make it worth your time?

DinnerTrust 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

RetreatIce breakerTraining in Skillful Discussion*Discuss Team ReportReview Group EQ reportFacilitated discussion of team issuesAction planning

*See The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

Results• Better understanding/acceptance of

new leader• Trust/communication improved• Vision for team established• Significant progress on conflicts

– IT/business–Relationships on team

Results• Disaffected member got on board• Lines of business called this a “Go to

organization.”• Followers gave much improved

feedback

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