Question

Case study
Barbara is a trained counsellor and thoroughly enjoys the level of human interaction she encounters in the workplace. You are Barbara’s manager. You find Barbara personable, trustworthy and always available to listen to you and others when they have a work-related issue or grievance. As a result, Barbara has developed positive relationships with many of her colleagues, increasing her job satisfaction.
In a meeting, Barbara puts forward the idea of implementing a mentoring program in the organisation. Troy, another counsellor in your team, quickly dismisses Barbara’s suggestion due to a lack of time and resources to implement the program. Troy is dismissive of Barbara’s idea despite her having spent time putting a presentation together for the meeting.
After the meeting, Barbara sends Troy an email requesting that he take a look at her presentation. He ignores the email and doesn’t respond. Barbara takes Troy’s response personally and begins to feel unappreciated, unsupported and less confident in her abilities. She bottles up her emotions and begins to have trouble finding enjoyment in her work tasks.
You notice a change in Barbara’s mood and that she finds it harder to stay motivated and enthusiastic when you are around her. When you ask her how she is feeling, Barbara’s emotions come to the surface and she describes how disconnected she feels from both Troy and the organisation.

Answers the questions as per the case study

How could you assist Troy to better understand the effect of his behaviour on Barbara’s emotional state?

What does Barbara’s behaviour indicate and what aspects of Barbara’s emotional intelligence could be further developed?

How could you work with Barbara to develop some constructive actions that will help her build a better relationship with Troy?

Answer 1

1. Troy needs to know that his simple rejection is affecting Barbara’s performance and mental state. She has started doubting her own abilities and feels that the organization is unappreciated and unsupported. Her motivation level is going down and soon will get reflected in her performance level. Troy needs to observe Barbara’s behavior to have an understanding of her emotional state.

2. Barbara’s behavior indicates that she clearly has low confidence about her capabilities and competencies. She started doubting her skills, the moment she faced a rejection at work. Barbara needs to work on the self-awareness dimension of her emotional intelligence. If Barbara was self-aware about her skills and capabilities, then she would not have been suffering with self-doubt and dejection.

3. Barbara needs to meet Troy and understand his inhibitions regarding the mentoring program. He has been ignoring her emails , so she needs to take appointment and meet him in person. After understanding all his doubts and inhibitions, Barbara can come up with a better proposal for the mentoring program.