Emotional Intelligence
The patient in 4D had been admitted for multidrug-resistant pneumonia. Given her advanced age and a host of other medical problems, the outlook was dire. Over the weeks she and the night nurse had struck up something of a friendship. Other than that she had no visitors, not a soul listed to notify in case of death, and no known friends or relatives. As he dropped by on his night rounds, the nurse was her only visitor, and the visits were limited to the short conversations she could manage. Now her vital signs were failing, and the nurse recognized that the patient in 4D was near death. So he tried to spend every spare minute on his shift in her room, just being present. He was there to hold her hand during her last moments of life. How did his supervisor respond to this gesture of human kindness?
—Goleman, 2006, p. 252
How do aspects of emotional intelligence relate to leadership and management success? Does an effective leader-manager have to be emotionally sensitive and literate? Why or why not?
To prepare:
• Following the passage above, Goldman continues on to explain that the nurse supervisor reprimanded the nurse. Does this line up with what you were expecting? Why or why not?
• Based on the information in the Learning Resources, WRITE ONE recent experience in your organization and consider how a nursing administrator demonstrated or failed to demonstrate emotional intelligence. How did this impact the outcome of the situation?
• Reflect on your identified strengths and opportunities for growth related to emotional intelligence from the information in the Learning Resources. What surprises you about the concept of emotional intelligence? How would you rate your own emotional intelligence?
• Post a description of a situation in which a nursing administrator demonstrated or did not demonstrate emotional intelligence when managing a situation. Explain how this may have impacted the outcome of the situation. Describe how you would handle the situation differently based on your own identified emotional intelligence strengths.
References
Goleman, D. (2006). Social intelligence: The revolutionary new science of human relationships. New York, NY: Bantam Dell.
Trivella, P., Gerogiannis, V., & Svarna, S. (2013). Exploring Workplace Implications of Emotional Intelligence (WLEIS) in Hospitals: Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions. Procedia–Social and Behavioral Sciences 73(27). 701–709. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Van der Linden, D., Tsaousis, I., & Petrides, K. V. (2012). Overlap between General Factors of Personality in the Big Five, Giant Three, and trait emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(3), 175–179. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Institute for Health and Human Potential. (2015). Emotional Intelligence Quiz. Retrieved from http://www.ihhp.com/free–eq–quiz/
