Reflection Journal

Session 1: Overview of Emotional Intelligence

In the beginning of the course, we were introduced about the overview of Emotional
Intelligence and at the same time discover our EQ strengths based on 4 competencies of
Emotional Intelligence. As we know, Emotional Intelligence has grown to become a
significant element in daily life and workplace, especially in leadership management.
Emotion Intelligence is defined as a set of skills that are thought to contribute to appraisal of
emotions in oneself and others. It can also help to contribute to the effective regulation of
emotions as well as feelings (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). In this lesson, we were acknowledged
about 4 quadrants of EI which are Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and
Relationship Management. Having taken EQ test under instruction of professor, my test result
appeared to be significantly different from my self-assessment. I believed myself have a
strong personality for self-management while the result turned out to be relatively low with 3
out of 10. Meanwhile, my relationship management is rather high with 8/10. From the test
results, I’m able to use the interpretation of the test for my personal growth in inspirational
leadership and organizational influence.
Session 2: Building Self-Awareness and Self-Esteem
According to the EQ test in the first session, I’m able to identify my ability in
emotional self-awareness is rather low with 4 out of 10 points. Therefore, building self-
awareness lesson can improve my ability to regulate my own emotions to practice good
communication and cooperation in the workplace. Self-awareness is essential as it allows us
to understand things from diversified perspectives as well as manage our own emotions to
align behavior with values. The Johari Window Model appeared to be a good tool for me to
understand and train self-awareness for my personal growth. The aim of this model is to
maximize the open area and minimize the hidden as well as unknown area thus gaining
information and knowledge to uncover the boundary in communication. To develop my open
area or “the arena”, I need to stay free from distractions, mistrust, confusion, and
misunderstanding. By a process known as “feedback solicitation” which is the way to expand
my open area from others’ feedback, I will be able to eliminate my blind and hidden area
about myself. I believe with the disclosure among group members, me and my team will have
the most productive and effective working environment.
Session 3: Emotional Regulation and Self-Motivation
Closely related to the previous lesson about self-awareness, emotional regulation is
the process that we control our own emotions instead of being controlled by them. Lack of
Emotional Regulation is the possible cause of emotional distress when we encounter with
contemporary emotional sufferings. A model of three circle of emotional regulation is a good
model of to help us rebalance our emotional state which includes drive, soothing and threat
system. Most of my time, I recognized myself in drive and threat system which led me to
periodic emotional sufferings. However, I realized these 3 hormone delivery systems should
be developed simultaneously to come fully functioning. Beside emotion regulation, self-
motivation is also necessary to keep pushing us forward. To increase self-motivation, I
believe that cultivating a positive mindset and building my resilience is a good start as the
power of intrinsic motivation is the very first step. Moreover, constantly seeking feedback to
figure way to improve so that I can deal with setbacks and continue to pursue my goals
despite obstacles.
Session 4: Social Awareness and Empathy
If the first 3 sessions, we learned about personal orientation with self-awareness and
self-management. From this session onward, I approached to a larger extent of emotional
intelligence which is social awareness and relationship management. Social awareness is
basically about others. In other word, it’s our ability to consider the perspectives of
individuals and groups or communities to effectively interact with them. From my personal
view, social awareness is fundamental part to gain relationships. This skill helps us to fit into
the community as well as get what we need from the community. In the working
environment, social awareness makes it easier to share information, communicate and
collaborate with colleagues and managers. Among components of social awareness, I believe
primal empathy is the first and foremost part we should practice to sense others’ feelings
through nonverbal signals. People usually mistake empathy with sympathy. While sympathy
is sharing feeling with others, empathy is about understanding their feelings. Empathy
requires attunement and open to discover commonalities. If we can develop our social
awareness with basic skills such as empathy, respect, and kindness, I believe we will be able
to create long-term relationship with people in daily life and workplace.
Session 5: Relationship Management and Influencing Others
In the workplace, beside individual talent contribution, the factor that helps to build
effective teams us relationship management. In short word, relationship management is using
your emotional awareness to manage mutual interactions. How to manage relationship is
important for organizations because a tight-knit team lead to improve retention and
motivation to succeed as a unit. In general, there are 10 concrete approaches that keep
workplace relationships healthy and thriving. Among them, I consider 3 methods which could
work well in my future career as a marketing consultant. Taking feedback well is a strategy to
resolve any miscommunication as well as enhance the common ground. On the other hand,
making my feedback direct and instructive will also help to handle my own emotions. Hence,
be aware of the situation and offer solutions for change. Lastly, continuously building trust
and using empathy well will be a tool for me to address any relationship problem in
workplace.
Session 6: Conflict Management and Dealing with Difficult People
In this session, we dig in one of the most frequent trouble in the workplace which is
conflict management. In office politics, it’s inevitable that we must cope with people whom
we could hardly get along with because of their socially inappropriate behavior such as lack
of cooperation, verbal abuse, disrespectfulness or controlling, etc. Learning how to deal with
these people quickly and confidently is called Dealing with Difficult People. A process for
conflict management according to AMA 2021, we need to define the root of the conflict, look
beyond the incidents and find solutions to reach agreement.
 While collaboration seems the obvious way to resolve a conflict. However, it’s easier
than done because most of us don’t know how to handle the conflict effectively. As such, we
were introduced the model of The Five Conflict Resolution Strategies by Thomas Kilmann
which consists of 5 different ways to deal with the conflict: Competing, Collaborating,
Compromising, Accommodating and Avoiding. Moreover, I’m able to know how to apply
the model of conflict resolution. Choosing the right method is important as I must consider
the importance of achieving goal versus relationship and in which way, I can draw the best
outcome with the chosen strategy. To do this, there are skills I can practice such as active
listening, effective communication, practicing empathy and having a positive attitude to deal
with the situation. In a nutshell, conflict is not necessarily bad. Instead, we can use it as a
catalyst for growth rather than a hindrance.
Session 7 & 8: Negotiation theories and strategies
In conflict management, one of the useful strategies for conflict resolution is
negotiation. As a BBA undergraduate, I realize good negotiations considerably contribute to
the success of organization as it brings satisfied outcomes for either party. Therefore, we can
build better relationship and getting ahead in the resolving conflicts in the workplace. The 4
Fundamentals of Principled Negotiations is the model introduced with us in this lesson,
which can apply to reach a negotiation. This model centers around 4 main elements: people,
interests, options, and criteria. Followed by this, we have 4 stages of negotiations which are
prepare the plan approach; discuss to exchange positions and issues; propose to specify what
you want; bargain or ask for what you need, modify if needed. Finally, negotiation is about
mutual benefit so we should always concede first to reduce tensions and get the outcome in a
harmony.
Session 9: Teamwork presentation
Although we only choose one topic in emotional intelligence to present, the
preparation for the presentation was definitely a wrap-up of all lessons. Coming together as a
group, we must accept that there’re different personalities and perspective toward the shared
goal. In my previous teamwork, I have experienced friendships splitting up because of
conflict during the work. My team members couldn’t resolve conflict because they were
insistent with their own opinion and lacked social awareness or relationship management to
understand others. In the end of this course, I believe this problem got better when my
teammates and myself were open to listen each other better, took the mutual benefit upon our
own benefit and resolve conflict effectively to turn any challenges into opportunities for
better performance. Finally, I feel more confident when I’m equipped well with a set skill of
self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Next time
when I step into the professionalism work, I believe I will be able to use these skills to come
up with solutions for workplace problems.