How Emotional Intelligence Shifts a Multi-Gen Environment

The first thing that needs to happen with an MGT (Multi-Generational Team) is you must show them the value of being together. An MGT understands how much value they have because of their diverse age ranges. As one can imagine, that can be a challenge. When there are interpersonal challenges, lifestyle challenges, differences in ways of working and thinking, and more, it’s difficult to see the value of the other if it isn’t obvious. The value must start internally. This is where Emotional Intelligence (EI) starts according to EI pioneer Dr. Daniel Goleman. It’s personal competence then social competence; it’s knowing your own EI then understanding the EI of others. The way EI can affect a multi-generational environment is when the team is able to connect the EI of others and themselves. But the game really starts to change when the MGT environment is fueled by EI. 

There is another level past the social competence that Goleman writes about. Researchers Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steven B. Wolff completed extensive work concerning this, and you can read about it here. The EI of a group, the way they are emotionally intelligent as a team or a unit marks and defines the environment they are in. Environment is crucial for an MGT because it’s the gap between immediately feeling like you belong and matter versus feeling like you are a square peg in a round hole. EI is about knowing yourself and knowing others, and the EI of a group fills the atmosphere with those notions of being known and belonging. There is no greater foundational dynamic to stand on than belonging to something or someone. Specifically, studies show that “teams with greater average emotional intelligence have higher team functioning than [did] groups with lower emotional intelligence.” This makes sense because other studies state that belonging was linked to a 56% increase in job performance and a 50% drop in turnover risk. The sense of belonging due to the effect of EI creates a better environment for a team to flourish. 

Practically speaking, according to Druskat and Wolff, trust, identity, and efficacy lead to greater participation, cooperation, and collaboration. In our MGT Workshop, we discuss in depth the unmistakable link between trust and collaboration as the lifeblood of an MGT high-development culture. Druskat and Wolff’s model of team effectiveness leads to better decisions, more creative solutions, and higher productivity. Some of the challenges with an MGT is decision making and creativity and Druskat and Wolff’s findings suggest that applying group EI to an MGT environment will bridge the divide, close the gap, and make a difference.

Below are a few ideas to help shift the EI atmosphere of your MGT to strengthen and solidify the team. 

Succeed and fail as a team: Bearing the burden of mistakes together as well as celebrating wins collectively heightens EI on the team. Also, it will aid the team in seeing how success and failure affect others personally and socially.

Encourage cross-task learning: Encourage others to learn portions of one another’s job. This will put your EI skills to practice. You will also see how much your team will gel interpersonally as well as increase job knowledge.

Foster curiosity: For more on MGT curiosity, see this article on our site. A previously linked study also uncovered “the ability to understand one another’s emotional expressions explained 40% of the variance in team performance.” The more curious your team is about one another, the higher your performance becomes. 

Lean into perspective taking: Instead of going with the majority, investigate every perspective. Create advocacy by developing agency. If a person disagrees, ask why then ask if others feel similarly. It makes decisions more about the people on the team than the decision and creates a trusting team.

Remove emotional blinders: Face potential conversations head-on. First internally on the team, then understand the EI of other teams around yours and learn from them.