- 04 Apr, 2021
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Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups
Working with Individuals’ Emotions
Jill Kasper, head of her company’s customer service department, is naturally tapped to join a new cross-functional team
focused on enhancing the customer experience: she has extensive experience in and a real passion for customer service.
But her teammates find she brings little more than a bad attitude to the table.At an early brainstorming session, Jill sits
silent, arms crossed, rolling her eyes.Whenever the team
starts to get energized about an idea, she launches into a detailed account of how a similar idea went nowhere in the
past.The group is confused: this is the customer service star
they’ve been hearing about? Little do they realize she feels insulted by the very formation of the team.To her, it implies she
hasn’t done her job well enough.
When a member is not on the same emotional wavelength as the rest, a team needs to be emotionally intelligent vis-à-vis that individual. In part, that simply means
being aware of the problem. Having a norm that encourages interpersonal understanding might facilitate an
awareness that Jill is acting out of defensiveness. And
picking up on this defensiveness is necessary if the team
82 harvard business review
Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups
Vanessa Urch Druskat is an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Steven B. Wolff is an assistant professor of management
at the School of Management at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York