Library Worklife

Volume 2, No. 9 • September 2005

HR Practice

Using Emotional Intelligence to Improve Working Relationships

By Paula M. Singer, PhD and Laura L. Francisco, PHR

Emotional Intelligence – a new buzzword in human resources - is the ability to recognize and understand your own and others’ emotions and make use of them in socially adaptable ways. Emotional intelligence, therefore, can be an effective measure of “street smarts” or “social radar.” We all see things differently, depending upon our mindset and individual perspective; but the ability to read social cues and respond to them in a way that demonstrates an understanding of others’ perspectives is what emotional intelligence is about.¹ Finely tuned emotional intelligence is very useful in informing successful recruiting, customer service, sales, and management skills. Libraries can benefit by understanding and utilizing emotional intelligence to improve these and other skills.

For the most part, managers think that decisions should be based on facts and data, not on emotions or “soft skills.” Since the emergence of emotional intelligence as a measurable skill, managers and organizations are now looking more closely at its importance and impact. Your library may be full of managers with myriad technical skills and extensive educations, but can they relate to those they manage, their colleagues, and, of course, their customers? Can they motivate their employees to do the best job? Even if a manager is highly intelligent and extremely knowledgeable about their job requirements, they are still missing their full job potential if they cannot relate effectively to their employees and patrons. With the many generational differences that face employers today, we must have some idea of how to relate to the baby boomers vs. generation X and now, generation Y. Each generation values different things: The baby boomers are thinking about and preparing for retirement, while generation X is trying to balance work and family life, and generation Y is loaded with high-tech gadgets and trying to successfully make their way into the workforce.

Recruiting is another skill area for which emotional intelligence will be beneficial to the interviewer in hiring successful new employees. The five factors that have been found to be the most predictive of recruitment success were assertiveness, empathy, happiness, emotional self-awareness and problem-solving skills.² Choosing the candidate with the most experience or the highest number of college degrees is not the only way to choose a new employee. Considerations must be made as to how this individual will work together with existing employees and be perceived by customers. Even when the interviewee responds with the answers you want to hear, what unspoken information is the person giving you with non-verbal cues and other mannerisms? A manager with strong emotional intelligence skills will use more than education and experience information to make a hiring decision. This manager will be able to make a better decision because they will take into account how the applicant’s personality will fit into and benefit the team of the library.

Successful customer service skills are critical to any library. Customers need all types of assistance and information - how the customer perceives the level of customer service will predict return visits to the library. The role of empathy must be considered in the development of customer service skills. Empathy is the understanding of and sensitivity to the emotions and social cues of others; but how and why does this translate to greater success in providing excellent customer service? Successful people quickly get a “read” on co-workers and customers and can then spend time where it counts. For example, if a college student needs assistance finding information for a research project, the reference assistant should realize that they would prefer to use different methods of research than a retiree, who may not be as technologically advanced and prefer conducting research using books instead of the internet, etc. Even though this may be the case most of the time, if the research assistant is “emotionally intelligent” they could recognize by listening or watching a retiree who would prefer to use computer technology for research by picking up on cues from them that they are computer savvy. (Example: by observing how proficient they are at using the computer system within the library or listening for details of their past career). The ability to read people on the spot and adjust interactions quickly means not wasting time on ineffective communications with others.³ An example of an ineffective method of communication could be gauging the wrong amount of time that a patron has to spend in discussions with the reference assistant. If a mother with small children is in the library and has a question, she needs the question to be answered as quickly as possible so she can utilize her time wisely. On the other hand, if an older individual is alone and has a question, they would probably appreciate and enjoy a more lengthy conversation concerning their question. Following are some steps to consider in building empathy within the customer service skill set.

When someone is talking to you, ask yourself what emotion is underlying his or her words. The patron’s emotional mindset could vary depending on, for instance, whether they are in the library for their own enjoyment or they are conducting required research for work or school.
Try to put yourself in the other person's shoes. Can you understand his/her point of view even if you don't agree with it?
Try to anticipate the emotional reaction of other people in a given situation.
Watch people's non-verbal reactions to you. What do you think they are feeling based on their body language or other cues?
When someone says something you disagree with, actively listen to his or her statement. Do so in a non-judgmental way. Notice the reaction that this causes.
When someone says something you agree with, stay silent about your views, drawing the other person out and prompting her/him to tell you more.
When listening to someone, ask that person to clarify the feelings behind his/her statement, not just the facts. For instance, you may ask the person if they need the materials for their own enjoyment, for a member of their family, or for a work or school project?
Watch a television program without the volume, recording it for later review. Try to read the emotions that the characters are portraying. Watch the show again with the sound to determine how accurate you were in your assessment.
List ten people you think are extremely empathetic. Observe their interactions with others and list the qualities, both verbal and non-verbal, that you observe.
List ten people who you do not think show sensitivity to others. Observe their interactions with others and list the characteristics, both verbal and non-verbal, that you observe.
Ask someone who you think is very empathetic to coach or mentor you.⁴

Sales skills are also needed in a library setting. Sales skills are needed to promote library materials, services and programs and to make people feel that they need or want what the library offers. It is not surprising that assertiveness, problem-solving skills, emotional self-awareness, and happiness are also related to sales success.⁵ When a library employee can relate to a patron quickly and easily then it will be easier to “sell” the services of the library. As a patron we would much rather buy goods or services from someone we feel we relate to than from someone we do not think understands our needs.

Managers with a great deal of emotional intelligence are more efficient in terms of time spent managing employees. They can determine the needs of their employees more quickly and find solutions to employee problems faster than a manager who does not understand the personalities of their employees. Employees also respond to this type of manager in a more positive way. Therefore successful managers are able to spend less time managing people problems and more time focusing on their contribution to the library. If you have managers who do not seem to understand the feelings of their employees or cannot motivate employees, their emotional intelligence can be improved through training and coaching. In order to find out more about how emotional intelligence skills can help your library; there are a variety of personality tests that can be performed by consultants to determine how managers score on emotional intelligence. Then, they can focus on how to improve their skill set to become stronger managers. One essential part of management is giving feedback to employees. If the manager poorly communicates that feedback with a low emotional intelligence, it can have a negative effect, causing demotivation and a drop in performance. Managers with a high level of emotional intelligence, on the other hand, can inspire employees to achieve results by communicating both praise and criticism appropriately. When an organization selects people with higher levels of emotional intelligence, and/or nurtures them toward those high levels, and then matches them closely to their job requirements, there is less need for control and follow-up.⁶

Emotional intelligence cannot guarantee success by itself. If emotional intelligence is used as a tool within the library, both employees and management should be able to be successful in their career and relationships with others and therefore provide a higher quality of customer service. There are many consulting firms that can perform emotional intelligence tests, training and coaching programs for libraries. Being aware of emotional intelligence and how these skills can benefit your organization is the first step in improving relationships between managers, employees, and patrons. If your library decides to conduct emotional intelligence tests and training to determine which areas management needs to improve, then the library can begin to benefit from improved recruiting, customer service, sales, and management skills.

References

Harmon, Patricia. Emotional Intelligence: Another Management Fad, or a Skill of Leverage?
Center for Quality of Management 9:1(2000): 43-51.
Harmon, Patricia. Emotional Intelligence: Another Management Fad, or a Skill of Leverage?
Center for Quality of Management 9:1(2000): 43-51.
Harmon, Patricia. Emotional Intelligence: Another Management Fad, or a Skill of Leverage?
Center for Quality of Management 9:1(2000): 43-51.
Lynn, Adele B. Improving Retail Through Emotional Intelligence. The Adele Lynn Leadership Group, Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania.
Harmon, Patricia. Emotional Intelligence: Another Management Fad, or a Skill of Leverage?
Center for Quality of Management 9:1(2000): 43-51.
Harmon, Patricia. Emotional Intelligence: Another Management Fad, or a Skill of Leverage?
Center for Quality of Management 9:1(2000): 43-51.

Additional Resources

Goleman, Daniel. Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam, 2000.
Goleman, Daniel, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee. Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Boston: Harvard Business School, 2002.

Dr. Singer and Ms. Francisco are with The Singer Group, Inc., a Human Resources/Organization Design and Development consulting firm. They can be reached at pmsinger@singergrp.com, lfrancisco@singergrp.com, or 410-561-7561. The Singer Group’s website is www.singergrp.com.

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