Many people are used to being team members at some point in their life. Moreover, some of them remain working in a working unit professionally. Teamwork is a process that enables a group of people to gain a competitive advantage (Lencioni, 2020). However, I assume that emotional intelligence is the most important personal feature that defines them as a qualitative team member among all other features due to its flexibility and motivation encouragement.
To begin with, different roles are presented in every team due to the personal character variety: those who defend, those who search for the information, and those who expertise the process (Sale). As a result, if a working unit will theoretically consist of only humble individuals, then the process of determining the group roles will be impossible. Furthermore, according to Salas et al. (2020, p.21), it is important to have different types of people because the effectiveness will be maximized only in that case.
Moreover, many personal features are correlated with each other and depend on an individual’s motivation. To represent the desirable feature, a group member should take into account other traits of character and whether the motivation is intrinsic (the person is self-encouraged) or not (James, 2018). Following this, if a person wants to remain humble, they must refuse to be in the contrast position, such as activeness. However, due to the emotional intelligence principle, a person should not be determined by only one mood or feature; they must present the right emotion and character, depending on the situation (Goleman, 2020). For example, when an individual is working in a team and wants to persuade others in the rightfulness of their arguments, then they should remain active to be a good orator. At the same time, the person should be humble as emotional intelligence teach people to control the emotional flow so that activeness should be ‘turned off’ at the right time.
Overall, the most important part of personal effectiveness in the role of a team member is emotional intelligence because it enables people to remain flexible and motivated. Some other features like humbleness and humility have many serious constraints, such as the destructive impact on personal motivation and the inability to change emotions according to needs.
Reference List
Goleman, D., 2020. Emotional Intelligence 25th Anniversary Edition 1st ed., S.l.: Bloomsbury Publishing.
James, R., 2018. Emotional intelligence: The definitive guide to understanding your emotions, how to improve your EQ and your relationships. PublishDrive.
Lencioni, P., 2016. The five dysfunctions of a team: facilitator’s guide: the official guide to conducting the five dysfunctions’ workshops for teams and team leaders, San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Salas, E., Rico, R. and Passmore, J. (2020) The Wiley Blackwell handbook of the psychology of team working and collaborative processes. 1st ed. p.21.
Sale, J., 2021. Mapping motivation for top performing teams, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.