Developing Emotional Intelligence _{(MGG 620)}

Instructors:

Courtney Walsh, Assistant Dean

108 Jacobs Management Center

State University of New York

Buffalo, New York 14260

Phone: (716) 645 ‑ 3200

Email: cjwalsh@buffalo.edu

Web: http://www.mgt.buffalo.edu/ced

Frank Krzystofiak Ph.D.

271 Jacobs Management Center

State University of New York

Buffalo, New York 14260

Phone: (716) 645 ‑ 3230

Email: fk@buffalo.edu

Web: http://www.krzystofiak.com

Orientation and Objective:

Developing Emotional Intelligence: Success in today’s organizations depends on your ability to learn and adapt quickly to new and changing situations. The objective of Developing Emotional Intelligence is therefore to prepare you to be life-long adapters. This course is unique in the sense that its primary focus is on you. In other words, you are the subject of this course.

In this course you will get to know yourself better by completing assessments and making sense of them, having group discussions, presenting to a group, experiencing a coaching session, working with a team, and expanding your knowledge of managerial skills and abilities. From mastery of this basic process comes the ability to lead others effectively. In order to pursue this goal you will:

· Reflect on feedback you have received from those around you, in order to form an opinion about your strengths and weaknesses.

· Generate data through a variety of assessment methods designed to reveal your true interests, abilities, values, and knowledge related to managerial effectiveness;

· Learn how to interpret these data, compare them to your initial opinions and use them to design developmental activities during the MBA program;

· Become an effective member of a learning group through your regular participation with your EMBA Group.

Structure of the course

The course will run for the entire 4-semester duration of the program (carrying 4 credits). The first year of the course we will guide you through a series of reflective exercises, assessments, the 360º ECI and, developing your learning plan. The second year of the course, you will direct your own learning based on your interests. Overall, the course is intended:

· To develop a coherent statement of your Ideal Self

· To have you identify personal Strengths and Limitations

· To identify the gaps that you are interested in changing

· To establish an individualized Developmental Plan

· To enhance the ability of Executive MBA students to participate in a non-hierarchical team environment

· To improve the leadership skills of executive MBA students throughout the 22 months of the program

· To provide a forum for interaction between EMBA students and senior executives from the business community

We believe . . .

· You learn best when you are in control of your own learning process, and can choose developmental activities best suited to your personal situation.

· You learn best when you build on a current capability.

· Feedback is necessary as a basis for growth and development.

· You are here because you want to grow in your abilities and knowledge related to the management role.

· An interactive and participative classroom creates an effective learning environment.

Readings & Workbook:

Prior to start of program

· Book: The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz, Free Press 2002

Fall 2005

· Workbook: Visioning of Your Ideal Self

· Article: Unleashing the Power of Self-Directed Learning, Richard E. Boyatzis, PhD, in Changing the Way We Manage Change: The Consultants Speak. Ron Sims (ed.) (2002) NY: Quorum Books

Between Fall 2005 and Spring 2006

· Book: Working with Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, Bantam Books, 1998

Spring 2006

· Article: Primal Leadership: The hidden driver of great performance, by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Harvard Business Review, Product Number: 8296.

· Article: Training for emotional intelligence, by Cherniss, C, and Goleman, D. (2001), In Cary Cherniss and Daniel, Goleman (Eds.), The emotionally intelligent workplace: How to select for, measure, and improve emotional intelligence in individuals, groups, and organizations, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 209-233.

Summer 2006

· Article: Reawakening your passion for work, by R. Boyatzis, A. McKee, and D. Goleman, (2002), Harvard Business Review, April, 2002, 86-94, reprint #R0204G

Requirements and Grading

In addition to the readings, course assignments will involve writing papers, completing assessment instruments prior to class, and giving selected presentations in class. Minimal Requirements:

1. Complete all exercises, assessment instruments and assignments on time

2. Participate in class discussions and activities

3. Complete assigned readings

4. Attend class sessions

5. Complete all written assignments, including a “satisfactory” Learning Plan

6. Demonstrate improvement in competencies you’ve chosen to work on

Grading Standards: grading is not based on the content of your values, or on the specific level of your abilities or knowledge. Rather, you will be graded according to . . .

· Participation: being involved and helping your colleagues in the class and your Team

Participation, Enthusiasm, Effort, and Reliability (PEER): A course like this requires your willingness to make it a learning experience for yourself and those around you. Given the mixed format, developmental nature of the course, and the reduced reliance on standard lecture/evaluation formats found in other courses, learning will be highly dependent on the quantity and quality of your participation.

· In written assignments:

→ Thoroughness, thoughtfulness, and integration of the concepts, information, and activities of the course in your written assignments

→ Discussing information from assessment exercises

→ Explanation of apparent inconsistencies

→ Explanation of relevance to future jobs and career, or a prioritization of possibilities for those students who have yet to identify a specific career

→ Degree of personalizing learning goals, and actions to achieve them

→ Discussing the fit between learning goals, values, learning style, etc.

· What is good? The following presents a rough guide regarding how we will normally react to your written assignments. Think of it as a hierarchy regarding the type and level of interest, effort, and thought we like to see. If what you hand-in is toward the higher end, we are likely to see it as “excellent”. If your product is toward the lower end, we are likely to see it as “unsatisfactory”.

→ Level 1, Unsatisfactory: You hand in something that is too brief or vague to give us a sense that you actually read and digested the material. Conveys poor interest, effort, and thought

→ Level 2: You summarize or abstract key points; it is obvious to me that you actually read the material and digested the contents. Conveys minimal interest, effort, and thought.

→ Level 3: You also express your opinion or attitude regarding what the author has to say (agree/disagree, like/dislike), and why. Conveys more interest, effort, and thought.

→ Level 4: You also go beyond expressing your evaluation by discussing
how the readings, exercises and concepts relate to your own experiences and/or aspirations. Conveys good interest, effort, and thought.

→ Level 5: Excellent, You also express an ability to derive benefit from and see the value of the readings, exercises & concepts. Conveys very high interest, effort, and thought.

→ Note: In addition, we also respond to articulate, organized, and interesting writing.

Grades

You will be continuously enrolled in this course during the 4 semesters of the EMBA program. At the end of the program, you will receive a grade for this 4-credit course that will be included in your GPA. In order to help you measure your progress during the program, we will base the resulting grade on your efforts during each semester.

· 1^st semester (25% of total grade)

The first semester will include a group of exercises and self-reflection assignments. Each assignment should be saved in your learning portfolio. This portfolio will be part of your final assignment and should be used by you to continue your leadership development, once the program is over. The majority of assignments in the first semester will come from the workbook noted above.

· 2^nd semester (25% of total grade)

The primary assignment during this semester is preparation for and satisfactory completion of your ECI. The requirements will be discussed in greater detail at the beginning of your second semester. This will include completing “critical incidents” and securing a broad range of individuals to provide feedback for your assessment.

· Summer and 3rd semester (25% of total grade)

The third semester will be devoted to development of a personal development plan and taking action on the activities you choose to include in your plan.

· 4th semester (25% of total grade)

The final semester will require you to complete your learning activities, finalize your learning portfolio and prepare an in depth report on your development to date.

Policy on late assignments: The structure of the course makes it difficult to process homework and papers completed after the due dates, because the components of the course are designed to build upon one another. Completing assigned work after the due date thus delays your feedback, which is important for subsequent assignments and activities. If you are having difficulty completing any work on time, please talk with your facilitator or instructor in advance. Papers turned in late without prior agreement will negatively affect your grade.

Assignments

The workbook on Ideal Self will be assigned in sections throughout the first semester. In addition, assignments not included in the workbook are outlined below. Please note that other activities will be added during each semester. However, you can use this as a general guideline for planning purposes.

Critical Incidents

Write a brief description of five recent situations the give evidence of the way you do your job (two positive, two negative, one of your own choosing). These Critical Incidents should portray different real life experiences representative of the way you operate in an employment / work setting. They would include any work related situations that reflect extraordinary performance and/or events that led to extraordinary or undesirable outcomes.

To write the descriptions (100 to 250 words) you need only answer a series of questions:

· Critical Incident the situation: What was happening? What led up to this situation?

· The Characters: Who was involved? Briefly describe relevant elements of their character and function.

· (Your) Behavior & (System or other) Responses: What did you do or say (You may quote dialogue)? What was the response? Continue until the process or exchange comes to a logical conclusion.

· Your thoughts, emotions, desires: What did you think about, feel, want to do?

· Outcome & Effective: What happened? How do you evaluate this? Was it more or less effective that usual?

2. Critical Incidents Review: Summarize and give meaning to your incidents by:

· Identifying patterns of behavior and classifying the patterns as strengths or weaknesses

· Classify the behaviors based on the conceptual competency framework

· Identifying the strength competencies that you may leverage to assist in your development

· Identifying the weakness competencies that represent an area where you would benefit from development

Personal Balance Sheet

Developing a Personal Balance Sheet through diagnosis of your current competency Strengths and Gaps related to leadership. This assignment is the preparation for the 1-1 coaching session.
This analysis will follow receiving the results from the 360⁰ assessment or analyzing your other information. A crucial aspect of development is to collect observations about our behavior from others- what they see us doing and how it affects them.

To create your Personal Balance Sheet, this analysis should identify:

1. A list of your distinctive strengths, competencies others consistently see you as using. You can include behaviors and habits that are not on our list of competencies but important to you or your life/work (Strengths or Assets);

2. A list of the competencies which appear to be needed for effective leadership or are important for your life/work but there is consistent views from others that you are not using sufficiently (Gaps or Liabilities);

3. You should look for themes or patterns that explain the observed data across competencies- for Strengths as well as Gaps. For example, relatively lower Initiative, Influence, and Self-Confidence may suggest a weakness with assertiveness. The theme is more useful than merely separate competencies because it clarifies what the central issue is or appears to be; and

4. The role of scholarship and your intellectual agenda in your future life and career path.

5. If you have time and energy, go one step further. Asterisk or otherwise mark those competency gaps close to the tipping point for effectiveness or outstanding performance in your role (i.e., leader at work, partner at home, etc.).

6. Have a 1 to 1 coaching session with Courtney or Frank.

Desired Life/Work Scenario & Major Learning Goals

Draft your Desired Life/Work Scenario and Major Learning Goals
The final product from the course will be your individualized Learning Plan. The purpose of this Learning Plan is to maximize your use of the resources at SOM and to stimulate a process of self-directed learning.
The Learning Plan is meant to be a living document and guide. Just as organizations create and modify strategic business plans, you can think of this as your personal strategic learning plan. You are therefore encouraged to review and to modify your Learning Plan as you accomplish your personal and professional goals. These modifications could include changing plans, adding learning objectives not previously identified, deleting those learning objectives already accomplished, and so forth. This is a process of continuous learning which can reinforce your short- and long-term goal planning.
The paper should have two parts: (1) My Ideal Future Life/Work Scenario and (2) Major Learning Goals, which may include sub-goals, and action steps. The Learning Plan should address desired progress on your scholarship and intellectual agenda.
Identifying and constructing Learning Goals and Sub-Goals should not be a simple one-to-one correspondence to developmental needs or strengths. To be effective in our lives and work, a Learning Goal and/or Sub-Goal should reflect some “contextual” integration of strengths, developmental needs, and life/work benchmarks. We will discuss this process in class, but first it is important to be clear about the components of the plan.
The Learning Goals should be three or four desired end-states that build on your strengths and would result in achieving your desired scenario for the next era of your life. Each Learning Goal will probably have two to four Sub-Goals, sometimes called milestones or benchmarks.
Each Sub-Goal should have two to four Action Steps identified that will result in reaching or achieving the Sub-Goal. Review the Action Steps and address the following issues:
1. Do the goals and actions build on your strengths?
2. Will they lead you closer to your Ideal Self, life and work?
3. Are they consistent with your learning and planning style?
4. Do they fit into the structure of your life and work?
What will you say “no” to or stop doing to make time for it?
What are the potential obstacles to doing or fulfilling each action?
This should be written in outline form. If you want to provide text commentary or explanation (for yourself or us), please do.
Lastly, there should be an integrated Timeline. You should have a time chart on which you have placed all of the action steps to which you have committed. This Timeline is an important “reality Check” on the feasibility of your action plans.

Developing Emotional Intelligence (MGG 620)