Losing it, Emotionally

Overview

Think about a recent interpersonal situation where your emotions interfered with attaining the results or outcome you wanted. This should be a situation you are comfortable sharing with your instructor and one of your fellow learners.

Instructions

Part 1

1. Briefly describe the situation by answering the following questions:

   • Who else was involved and what is their relationship to you?
   • What transpired? Briefly describe the event, how it started, what was said, what was done.
   • What was your emotional state? To the extent possible, identify the emotions you were feeling, what you were thinking, and, if possible, the extent to which you think you were “out of control.”
   • What was the other person’s emotional state? To what extent would you say he or she was “out of control”?
   • How did the situation end?
   • In retrospect, what could you have done (or said) to achieve a better outcome?

2. Review your description, and respond to the following questions:

   • Did you find it difficult to recall a situation where your emotions did not serve you well? If so, why do you think that was the case?
   • Did you find it easy or difficult to identify (label) your emotional state? What about the other person’s emotional state?
   • Were you aware of your emotions at the time you were experiencing them?
   • Did you attempt to do anything to manage or regulate your emotions during the interaction?
   • What were your dominant emotions immediately after the interaction was over?
   • In rethinking the interaction, what insights have you gained about how to handle future similar interactions (or different interactions with the same person)?

Submit your situation and analysis for peer review by 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday.

Part 2

You will be assigned to review at least two of your classmates' submissions after Thursday. See How do I submit a peer review to an Assignment? for instructions.

Note: You do not need to review with a rubric.

EI Competency Assessment Report

Overview

Prepare a report to summarize your emotional competence and identify both strengths and areas you could focus on developing for the future.

Instructions

Part 1

Using the descriptions of the 25 competencies included in the Emotional Competence Framework, complete a self-assessment of your strengths and development needs. A good way to do this is to proceed through the competencies in the order presented and assess how you think you measure up on each competency.

Use whatever code is meaningful to you to separate the competencies into three categories:

• those you perceive as strengths,
• those you are uncertain about, and
• those you perceive as needing development.

Part 2

Independent of your self-assessment, share a copy of the framework with someone who knows you well:

1. Ask the person to do a similar review and assessment of your competencies (strengths, uncertainties, and development needs). This could be one of your outside stakeholders for the FeedForward activity, or someone else—ideally, it is someone with whom you have a work relationship.

   Be sure to do this early in the week so that you have ample time to review the results.

2. Compare your self-assessment with the other person's assessment to identify areas of agreement and disagreement.

3. Examine the response patterns.

   • Do your strengths fall mostly under the personal competence or social competence categories?
   • Is there clustering under any of the subcategories (e.g., self-awareness, self-assessment, etc.)?
   • What patterning is evident in the competencies you and the other person identified as needing development?

Deliverable

Prepare a summary report. The report should include

• the results of your original self-assessment: the competencies you saw as strengths, the ones you were uncertain about, and those needing development (Part 1);
• the areas of agreement and disagreement between your assessment and the other person's assessment, including your conclusions after doing the comparison (Part 2, Step 2);
• what you concluded after examining the pattern of your strengths and areas for development (Part 2, Step 3);
• one or two of the competencies you consider to be strengths, with specific situations or examples to support your assessment;
• one or two competencies that could be developed that aren't already strengths and how the development of those competencies will benefit you;
• your general sense of your current level of emotional competence (you may also include your reactions to any online emotional intelligence “quiz”); and
• how you think building emotional competence will improve your performance as a leader.

Additional Requirements

• To help visually present the results of your self-assessment and the results of the other person's assessment, you are required to include the table in the EI Competency Assessment Results Template in your report.
• The report is a course requirement. It should be at least one and no more than four pages long (doubled-spaced, 12-point font).

Lesson 3 Personal Reflection Action Plan

Overview

Each week, you will spend about 30 minutes reflecting on your readings and assignments. You will identify at least three areas of learning or insight and describe what was new or insightful to you. You will also be asked to identify one action item that you will do during the following week to reinforce the key learnings.

Donahue's Building Leadership Competence: A Competency-Based Approach to Building Leadership Ability (2018) provides a comprehensive framework to help you identify the competencies you need and give you the tools to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Instructions

Please spend some time reflecting on your key learnings from this week's lesson and update the Personal Reflection Action Plan you submitted in the previous lesson.

1. Describe your performance on the action item you chose last week.
2. Describe in detail at least three areas of learning or insight you gained from the readings and/or assignments in Lesson 2.
3. Identify one action item that you will do this week to reinforce your learning. This could be something you are going to start for the first time or something you may want to just do differently. Be explicit in your explanation.

Lesson 3 Reading Quiz

Overview

This is a multiple-choice comprehension quiz for Lesson 3 readings.