High-performance as desired outcome forms hub of team wheel. Supporting hub are four critical spokes, each of which must be built through explicit and clear communication. These four spokes represent phases of team development.

The first spoke is that of membership, in which people are asking questions related to membership and group identity issues : What can I contribute? What is expected of me? What values and assumptions are we working under? What are our individual roles and responsibilities? These questions must be answered for participants to feel that they belong to and are committed to team.

The second spoke is that of team operating norms. Every group develops norms, either explicitly or tacitly. To be most effective, team needs to create emotionally intelligent norms that intentionally support behaviors for building trust and group efficacy - both essential to a team’s effectiveness. Norms may include whatever individual members believe is important and valuable for effective teamwork.

Norms that lead to high performance are numerous, but can and should include things like:

• Using good listening skills to build on on-going discussion and offering summaries of issues being discussed to make sure we have a shared understanding.

While technical skill and cognitive ability are essential competency areas for leaders, emotional intelligence has been shown to be twice as important in outstanding performance as other two competencies combined! In fact, 80-90% of difference between outstanding and average leaders is linked to EI. The abilities that drive successful execution of vision – motivating, guiding, inspiring, listening, persuading, and creating resonance – are emotional competencies. If you want exceptional business results, you should assess your EI or your team’s EI, for these are abilities that can be developed.

What is emotional intelligence? Dr. Daniel Goleman, a thought leader in field, defines it as “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.” Thus, emotional competence integrates thought and emotion.

There are four domains of emotional intelligence - self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management – within which are eighteen competencies that have been identified as differentiating characteristics in outstanding performers. Effective relationship management is at heart of great leadership but self-awareness is considered linchpin for developing other three domains. Emotionally intelligent leadership, then, builds up from a foundation of self-awareness.

Furthermore, a leader’s EI creates a certain culture or work environment. Organizational research done by Hay Group, co-creators of Emotional Competence Inventory (a 360 assessment of EI), discovered that “EI is carried...like electricity through wires....the leader’s mood is quite literally contagious, spreading quickly and inexorably throughout business.” Feelings and emotions have a direct impact on effectiveness, efficiency and ultimately bottom line.

Leaders need to understand that their single most important task is to create resonance. Put another way, they must create a positive emotional environment that frees best in people. Climate, or how employees feel about working in organization, accounts for 20-30% of business performance; and 50-70% of how employees perceive their organization’s climate can be traced to actions of one person - leader.

How does this translate to bottom line? In one study, experienced partners in a multinational consulting firm were assessed on EI competencies plus three others. Those who scored above median on 9 or more of 21 competencies delivered $1.2 million more profit from their accounts than did other partners – a 139 percent incremental gain. Another study of 130 executives found that how well people handled their emotions determined how much people around them preferred to deal with them.