D082 Task 1 Emotional Intelligence Improvement Plan Example

Calm on a Slow Tuesday, Short With Everyone on a Busy Saturday: An Emotional Intelligence Improvement Plan for a Composite Assistant Store Manager

Student Name

School of Business, Western Governors University

D082: Emotional and Cultural Intelligence, Task 1

Course Instructor

Month Day, Year

Calm on a Slow Tuesday, Short With Everyone on a Busy Saturday: An Emotional Intelligence Improvement Plan for a Composite Assistant Store Manager

Introduction and Assessment Results

I am an assistant manager at a composite home improvement store with 85 employees, responsible for the front end, including cashiers, customer service and the returns desk. I completed the emotional intelligence self-assessment required by the course, which scores four areas on a scale of 1 to 5. My results were: self-awareness, 3.4; self-management, 2.6; social awareness, 4.1; and relationship management, 3.3.

The results match what I see in myself. My highest score, in social awareness, reflects that I usually notice when a cashier is struggling or a customer is upset, and employees often tell me I understand them. My lowest score, in self-management, reflects a pattern I recognize: on busy weekends, when lines are long and staff call out sick, I become short with people, give instructions abruptly and sometimes criticize an employee in front of others. My relationship management score reflects the consequences: employees trust my intentions but some avoid me when the store is busy, which is exactly when I need them to tell me about problems.

The Research Framework

Salovey and Mayer (1990) defined emotional intelligence as the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions. Goleman (1998) extended the idea to leadership, naming five components, knowing oneself, regulating oneself, inner drive, empathy and social skill, that he found set effective leaders apart, and arguing that these capacities can be learned with sustained practice and feedback. I use Goleman's framework because it focuses on workplace behavior and development. Research also supports the value of these skills at work: Joseph and Newman (2010) pooled many studies and showed that emotional intelligence relates to how well people do their jobs, with the clearest link in work that places heavy emotional demands on employees, which describes customer-facing retail management.

Intrapersonal Improvement One: Self-Management Under Pressure

Goleman (1998) describes self-regulation as the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, and to think before acting. My first improvement targets the moment when pressure turns into sharp words. I will use a pause-and-name routine: when I notice the signs I have learned to recognize, a tight jaw, talking faster, the urge to fix everything myself, I will stop for one slow breath and silently name the feeling, such as frustrated or overwhelmed, before speaking. Naming an emotion creates distance from it and gives me a moment to choose my response. I will also adopt a firm rule never to correct an employee in front of customers or coworkers; instead I will say, "Let's talk in five minutes," and do it privately once the rush eases.

Intrapersonal Improvement Two: Building Self-Awareness

Self-awareness, in Goleman's framework, is the ability to recognize one's own moods and emotions and their effect on others. My score of 3.4 suggests I know my patterns in general but not always in the moment. I will keep a brief end-of-shift log for eight weeks, noting when I felt most stressed, what triggered it and how I responded. Reviewing the log each week will show whether my triggers are predictable, such as understaffing or a difficult customer escalated to me, which will help me prepare. I will also ask my store manager to tell me honestly, once a week, whether she saw my stress affect how I treated staff.

Interpersonal Improvement One: Active Listening

Relationship management depends on people feeling heard. When an employee brings me a problem during a rush, I tend to interrupt with a solution before they finish. I will practice active listening: letting the person finish, summarizing what I heard in one sentence and asking one question before responding. This takes perhaps 20 seconds longer, but it tells employees their concerns matter and often reveals that the problem is different from what I assumed.

Interpersonal Improvement Two: Assertive, Respectful Requests

My second technique addresses how I give direction under pressure. Instead of abrupt commands, I will use a simple structure: state the situation, state the specific request and give the reason, for example, "Lines are backing up at register four. Can you open register six? We need to get wait times under five minutes." Assertive requests are clear and direct without being harsh, and they help employees understand priorities rather than feel blamed.

Anticipating Setbacks

Changing a habit formed over years will not happen in a straight line. I expect that on the most chaotic days, such as the first warm Saturday of spring when garden sales triple, I will sometimes slip back into snapping at people. Rather than treating a slip as failure, I will treat it as information: I will note it in my log, apologize to the employee involved before the end of the shift and look for what made the routine fail. Apologizing is itself a relationship management skill; it shows employees that I hold myself to the standard I expect of them. I will also reduce the pressure that triggers my reactions by preparing better for busy days, for example by scheduling one extra cashier on weekends that forecasts show will be heavy and by asking a senior cashier to handle routine questions so that fewer problems reach me at once. Managing the situation is part of managing myself.

Checking Progress

I will retake the assessment in three months, with a goal of raising self-management to at least 3.3. I will also ask three cashiers and the customer service lead to rate, anonymously, how approachable I am on busy days, before and after the eight weeks, and track how often I have to address conflicts that began with my own tone.

Conclusion

My assessment shows a manager who understands others well but loses self-control under pressure, which weakens relationships just when the team most needs them. A pause-and-name routine, a rule against public correction, a stress log, active listening and assertive requests translate emotional intelligence research into practices I can use on the next busy Saturday, and regular feedback will show whether they are working.

References

Goleman, D. (1998). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, 76(6), 93-102.

Joseph, D. L., & Newman, D. A. (2010). Emotional intelligence: An integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 54-78. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017286

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), 185-211. https://doi.org/10.2190/DUGG-P24E-52WK-6CDG