COMMENTARY
can’t effectively communicate without understanding emotions, which leads us to emotional intelligence.
Te clarity of the verbal messages is just as important. It is required to understand the purpose and goals of the message, and to keep the workforce motivated. In my experience, when people do not understand why change needs to happen, they resist it. Schramm’s theory also demonstrated that communication is a critical part of emotional intelligence. (See Figure 1.)
Communication problems don’t apply to leaders only. Tere are organizations within Army acquisition in which leaders call employees “leaders” regardless of official positions. Inherent in this idea is that everyone is expected to act like a leader.
Army Futures Command headquarters personnel have to embrace cultural change and adopt a more corporate train of thought. As Sgt. Maj. Michael Crosby, Army Futures Command principal enlisted adviser to the commander and staff, said, “Don’t get in the box, don’t even use a box—get rid of the box.” Te Army’s modernization goals push many outside their comfort zone. So the responsibility to communicate falls on both formal and infor- mal leaders. During the development of the Bradley program, leaders broke upward and downward communication, causing confusion and resistance. Is there a similar trend happening now in your organization? If there is, what do you do about it?
ADJUSTING PERSONALITIES TO CHANGE ARMY CULTURE As noted, the Army is in the business of protecting, defending and winning. We work hard, day in and day out, to successfully complete our mission. Te environment we are in is complex. Changes happen almost too fast to keep up. To embrace the culture of the future, we need to ensure that we avoid the Brad- ley mishaps by communicating what is significant upward and downward. Reviewing the literature on emotional intelligence, I found that emotional intelligence has to coexist with communi- cation. Emotional intelligence ensures that all leaders, formal and informal, take an active role in the well-being of their organiza- tions through effective relationship-building and based on clear communication. More importantly, if the Army is to effectively modernize, leaders must want to improve their own thinking before they can improve their organizations.
Emotional intelligence points to self-awareness as an impor- tant element of the self-improvement process. A leader must first become aware of who he is, then reflect on it, and finally apply this knowledge to make the necessary changes. In a 2019 interview,
Hiring officials should select leaders on the basis of their ability to work effectively with others, and never based solely on their experience. Choosing leaders based primarily on experience or internal politics can result in the loss of valuable assets as well as organizational stability.
Crosby mentioned that he does not “go to someone who has been in uniform for 20 or 30 years because they think the same.” Te Army Futures Command is the biggest organizational revolution since 1973, and so must our thinking be to catch up.
So, is emotional intelligence a key component of organizational effectiveness? No, but it is the key component of leader effective- ness. (See Figure 2, Page 70.) In his book “What Makes a Leader,” Daniel Goleman found that almost every effective leader has some level of emotional intelligence. Tis explains why emotional intelligence is significant when addressing change, which is often necessary but never easy.
Change requires communication skills and empathetic behaviors. Tink about change in your family. How would you communi- cate difficult news? Would you just blurt it out, or would you look for ways to reduce tension or pain? Once, a leader who was not my direct supervisor informed me in a quite emotionless way that I was reassigned to a different project. Tis had a strong impact on trust: It changed my perception of the leaders in my organi- zation, making me see what my leaders were lacking.
Te 2020 Army People Strategy states that people are the Army’s No. 1 priority. If that’s true, why do people often feel like they are the last priority in their organizations? Leaders talk about open
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