The Emotionally Intelligent Team

"Finally, a resource....guide...roadmap....to help team members and team leaders alike understand what it takes to function as a high performing team, how doing so can personally enrich your life, and why it's critical for organizations to function only in this way. The Emotionally Intelligent Team connects the dots between the task at hand, achieving and making a difference, and personal happiness. Imagine where humankind would be if every entity on the planet operated within a series of high performing teams. Marcia Hughes and James Terrell show us that it's possible!"
—Suzanne Kirk, SVP, Branch Service Center, Bank of the West

"We value teams at Medtronic so we know that this book will be a powerful tool in understanding and developing successful team behaviors!"
—Michael Mihalczo, District Manager, Walter Cooper, District Manager, Medtronic CRDM

"Marcia Hughes' and James Terrell's latest book, The Emotionally Intelligent Team, is a 'must read' for every school district, business and organization that wants to ensure high functioning and productive teams. Based on solid research, this easy-to-read book describes the seven social emotional skills necessary for effective teams, and includes practical strategies any team leader can use to develop and maintain an emotionally intelligent team. Marcia's and James' book has been of tremendous value to the work of the senior administrative team in our school district!"
—Linda Fabi, Director of Education, Waterloo Region District School Board

"Marcia and James provide a good lens for the way people view others in a team environment. This insight, when combined with measuring one’s own EQ through a test such as the Emotional Quotient inventory (EQ-i ®), provides a powerful lever for improving team performance."
—Steven J. Stein, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of MHS, Co-author of the best seller The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success and author of Make Your Workplace Great: The 7 Keys to an Emotionally Intelligent Organization

"Discovering ways to strengthen teams in an organization can lead to impressive improvement in morale, engagement, productivity, and results. The Emotionally Intelligent Team will help any team take practical steps toward greater collaboration and effectiveness."
—Brian Twillman, EPA Training Officer & Organization Development Specialist, Lead Author EPA's Team Leader Resource Guide US EPA - Office of Executive Services, Office of the Administrator

"The most important issue in our networked world is teamwork across levels and boundaries. This masterful work offers a completely new perspective, bringing the power of emotional and social intelligence through engaging insights, exercises and stories to high performance teamwork - creating the opportunity for potentially extraordinary results that are seamless, dynamic, and productive."
—Eileen Rogers, Global Director, Leadership Excellence Programs, Deloitte

In this compelling book, authors Marcia Hughes and James Terrell offer practical information and a guide for businesses that want to draw on the power of the emotional competencies of their teams. They reveal how individuals, team members, and leaders can take the steps to become more emotionally intelligent team (ESI) members and show how to put in place the practices and exercises that will help any team grow in emotional intelligence. The book outlines the seven emotional competencies of teams.

Introduction 1

Part One: the Value of Emotional and Social Intelligence for Your Team 9

1 Why Emotional Intelligence Is So Valuable for Teams 11

2 The Business Case for Team Emotional Intelligence 26

Part Two: The Seven Skills of a Team’s Emotional and Social Intelligence 35

3 The First Skill: Team Identity 37

4 The Second Skill: Motivation 55

5 The Third Skill: Emotional Awareness 69

6 The Fourth Skill: Communication 88

7 The Fifth Skill: Stress Tolerance 106

8 The Sixth Skill: Conflict Resolution 121

9 The Seventh Skill: Positive Mood 139

Part Three: Results Gained by Emotionally and Socially Intelligent Teams 155

10 The Emotionally Intelligent Team Player 157

11 Leading the Emotionally Intelligent Team 169

12 Values and Ethics 182

13 Results 190

14 Conclusion 202

References 204

Acknowledgments 209

About the Authors 211

Index 213

"... relevant and, above all, inspiring and engaging." (Edge, May 2008)

The Authors

MARCIA HUGHES is president of Collaborative Growth, L.L.C.,a firms pecializing in emotional intelligence, leadership and team development, and conflict resolution, through keynotes, training, executive coaching, and strategic design.

JAMES TERRELL, her partner, develops EI applications and coaches individuals, teams in transition, and senior management in anticipating change and responding to it resiliently.

The Emotionally Intelligent Team

AS THE FIELDS OF NEUROLOGY and organizational development continue to evolve, there is a growing body of evidence that clearly demonstrates that particular emotional and social intelligent behaviors have a direct correlation with organizational success.

In this compelling book, authors Marcia Hughes and James Terrell offer practical information and a guide for businesses that want to draw on the power of the emotional competencies of their teams. They reveal how individuals, team members, and leaders can take the steps to become more emotionally intelligent team members and show how to put in place the practices and exercises that will help any team grow in emotional intelligence. The book outlines the seven emotional competencies of teams including

• TEAM IDENTITY
• MOTIVATION
• EMOTIONAL AWARENESS
• COMMUNICATION
• STRESS TOLERANCE
• CONFLICT RESOLUTION
• POSITIVE MOOD

Going beyond theory and instructions, the authors have completed the triangle of best practices by developing an assessment—the TESI™, available through cgrowth.com—that enables team members to measure their team's performances in each of the seven competencies.

The Emotionally Intelligent Team draws on a wealth of research and is filled with illustrative examples that represent a rich spectrum of teams from business, government, and nonprofits. Using the strategies outlined in this book, teams will be better able to tap into their shared memory and individual capacities, which will maximize their knowledge, problem-solving capabilities, and resilience. They will have the ability to respond with ease to the constantly changing emotional and social contexts of the team and the organizational dynamics.

This important book offers teams—no matter what their mission or how large or small—tactics for becoming a highly functioning team that will improve productivity, increase profits, lower turnover, reduce errors, inspire innovation, and enhance efficiency.