Teamwork and Leadership Skills: Importance of Emotional and Cultural Intelligence

This article discusses the importance of emotional and cultural intelligence in teamwork and leadership. The author shares their experience with a group-based activity that helped them analyze their strengths and weaknesses. The article also covers the use of psychometric tests and team building activities to improve leadership skills.

Running head: PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATION
People and r ani ationO g z s
ame o t dentN f s u :
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

2PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATION
Teamwork is one of the most important things that are needed in the modern day
scenario. Each and every team has to be formed by some of the members having some good and
some bad aspects. It is the duty of the team leader to look after these flaws and make sure that
they are being able to overcome the same. Emotional and cultural intelligence are also some of
the very important things that must be present within each and every team member. I think that
there are many different individuals coming from different socio-cultural backgrounds. It is for
this reason that the team members must know how to form a binding with each other and also
respect each other.
My facilitator has also assigned me to a group for some group-based activities. The major
motif of this activity is to find out and analyze the skills that would help us in the future for
becoming good leaders. I feel that this group activity has been very helpful in finding out the
flaws and the qualities of each of us will be very instrumental in the coming days. It is through
the different group based activities from which we have been able to see the weaknesses and
strengths that ate present within all of us. I think one of the most important things that we have
been doing as part of the group assignment is taken up the self-analytic the psychometric tests.
This has really been very beneficial in knowing our individual areas of strength and weakness.
Thus, we can take steps to work upon the areas of weaknesses for becoming ideal leaders in the
coming years.
In order to find out the strengths and the weaknesses that were there with the team
members, we took the EI or the emotional intelligence test. I think that this is one of the most
essential steps because emotional intelligence is one of the major things that need to be present
within any leader or any team member. We were also given many situations, where we had to
show the team working spirit that was present within us. The twp team building activities that we

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were given was the silver lining. Both these activities were very interesting and it greatly
resonated with the scores of the EI and the strength quest talents that we undertook.
The first activity that we took up was the silver lining. As per my perception, it is one of
the best team building activities. We were asked to recollect our memories or some past
experiences of working with other team colleagues. We were divided into two groups A and B.
A member from team A had to share some negative memories of working with a member of
team B. This was followed by the same member from team B sharing his experience over the
same incident but in a positive way that is the silver lining. I think that this is a very good chance
of knowing each other better and also finding out the weaknesses and the strengths that are
present within us. I saw that none of the team members from my group spoke any offensive
things about the culture or the religion of each other. So, this shows that they are having a high
cultural intelligence and they know how to talk to each other in a sensible manner.
I had to speak about my experiences with the arrival if my turn. I spoke about the
difficulty that I faced when there was a huge pressure of working overtime and complete several
assignments at the same time. I talked about working with one of my teammate who was not
very good at time management skills and I had a tough time in keeping a proper sync with him. I
talked about having this negative experience. However, when this team member had to share
about the positive experience or the silver lining of working with me, he said that I am much
aware of my own abilities and I never pretend t0 have some particular skills that I actually don’t
have. He also says that he was very happy to see this honesty within one team mate. He said I
was always very friendly and transparent regarding everything. I never complicated things and
dealt with everything in a straight forward and clear manner. He strongly emphasized on my
level of self-confidence and the way I encouraged him. He said that I was always there to listen

4PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATION
to his problems and was very empathetic towards him as well. So, I came to know that I have
high scores in the self-awareness and the social awareness parts. I am aware of my areas of
strengths and I never pretend any wrong things about my persona. I am also empathetic towards
other teammates and I know how to be concerned about their problems and their interests as
well.
Then I had to speak about the positive experiences that I had while working with some of
the teammates. I said that the communication between one of the teammates was very good. She
was always active in communicating all the important decisions that were being taken. She was
always very active in keeping a regular follow up with all the teammates. So, this is really a very
good aspect of my team member. The other good quality that I found in most of the team
members is accountability that was found in the strength quest taken the theme. I think that this
is one of the very good talents that were present in my teammates. The other quality that I found
was the focus. Most of the teammates were focused in all their endeavors but some of them lost
the focus during huge pressure.
The other teammates had to share negative comments about working with me. Many of
them said that I often lack the relationship management skill. In other words, though I try to stay
in proper contact and in close association with my teammates I often get much tensed when I
need to carry on multitasking. It is during this time that I cannot communicate properly.
I also got this feedback from my teammates that at times I have lost my cool and behaved with
them in a very rude manner. I have acted in a rude way with my colleagues and this has really
hampered the overall productivity of the team.

5PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATION
I get very restless and I often make mistakes in communicating the problems with my
seniors or my immediate colleagues. I do not return proper messages or responses to my
teammates and this creates a major problem. So, it is from this opinion of my teammates that I
have come to know about my communication gap during times of huge stress. I am of an
introvert nature and I really become much tensed when there is a huge pressure and the deadlines
are coming near. This also hampers me management at times.
I often become very restless and suffer from an unusual burst of anger. This prevents me
from focusing on a particular work and thus the achievement is lower at times. So, I will have to
take proper steps in order to overcome the shortcomings on my end. I will make sure to work on
my relationship skills by taking many people skill building classes. I will also take an admission
in some anger management sessions. I will have to learn the skill of controlling anger in times of
huge work pressure. Focus and achievement will be my prior objectives and it will be made sure
by me that I am never losing my focus. I will also take care of the shortcomings of my team
members. I will make sure that they are being able to manage the time properly and meet the
schedules deadlines. The last thing that I would make sure is to get the results of the EI tests and
the other psychometric test gets checked by the facilitator so that he can guide us for future.
This is because I believe that the EI tests or the other psychometric tests ate not
successful unless and until they are being checked any the facilitator. In order to be able leaders
in future I will try to groom myself and also all the other team mates who will be working with
me. I will try to open up with all m y team mates and take their opinions when there are many
hurdles coming in front of us. All these together will help me to attain the leadership skills and
become a good leader on a global scale. I will also take care that I am nurturing my strengths like
empathy. I will be empathetic towards all my team mates and try to understand their emotional

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and their social needs as well. I feel that as an ideal leader I must be able to provide my team
mates the profession al and the moral support that they need.