The Dynamics of Decision Making: Developing an Emotionally Intelligent Board

Arguably the most difficult and critical step in the decision making process is to identify and clarify the problem or issue. Pressed for time and feeling a sense of urgency, governance leaders often rush through this step. An incomplete diagnosis or assessment restricts a boards' capacity to expand options and select the most appropriate one. Without proper attention paid to this step, boards may come up with a solution that fails to address the etiology of the problem. 

The classic decision making cycle looks like this:

Most boards have the ability to grasp what they are or are not doing well in this cycle and can correct their decision making behavior accordingly.

However, making the best decision goes beyond following this process. While these are necessary steps to get to any good decision, they are not sufficient in getting to the best decision. A board may be technically competent in following the steps in this process and yet still not make the best decisions. Why? It has a lot to do with the level of emotional intelligence (emotional IQ) on the board. 

The Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Governance Decision Making

Yale researchers, Peter Salovey, Ph.D. and John Mayer, Ph.D. define 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 action.”

Emotional intelligence integrates emotion and cognition and measures four related abilities:

1. Perception: The ability to accurately identify your own and others emotions.
   
   
2. Use: The ability to use emotions to facilitate thought and to generate emotions to solve problems.
   
   
3. Understanding: The ability to comprehend the causes and progressive changes in emotions.
   
   
4. Management: The ability to manage emotions and use emotional awareness in making prudent decisions.

All four abilities are related and have a high correlation with performance.  Mayer and Salovey with David Caruso developed a test – MSCEIT – that measures individual abilities in relation to emotional intelligence. Although the MSCEIT does not measure group emotional intelligence, it can still serve as a resource for understanding the emotional dynamics in board decision making.

What's Your Board's Emotional IQ?

Governing boards can benefit from improving emotional intelligence by paying attention to the extent of their abilities in each of the four areas. Here are some questions you can ask of your board to see how well you use the four abilities: 

Perception

• Are we accurately reading the context in which we make our decisions?
• Are there emotional factors affecting how we view a problem or how we view options for addressing it?
• Do we take the time to assess our own level of emotional intelligence and mood of the group?

Use

• What are the feelings of the group when engaged in the decision making process?
• Are there feelings that will help in decision making?
• Are there some feelings that will hinder decision making?

Understanding

• What are the reasons why members feel the way they do about the problem?
• Do we encourage explanation and meaningful discussion when feelings are observed or expressed?

Management

• Have we established a governing environment in which members feel safe to honestly express their views and feelings without fear of sanction or retribution?
• Do we ignore or minimize the impact of emotions when engaged in decision making?
• Have we established norms that allow members to think creatively and generatively when examining options for resolving a problem?
• Have we idealized or demonized emotions or do we see them as integral to being human and able to be used for good or ill?

It seems to me that the very act of asking these questions moves the board into a reflective state of observing its own behavior and figuring out what can be done to increase its ability to make good decisions for the organization it exists to serve.  This capacity is a hallmark of emotional intelligence.

Author: Katherine Tyler Scott
From Leading Ideas, newsletter of Trustee Leadership Development (TLD). Used with permission of TLD.

Katherine Tyler Scott is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ki ThoughtBridge and author of several publications on governance leadership. She is a certified trainer and administrator of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT).

For more research information on emotional intelligence www.emotionaliq.org
MSCEIT is a trademark of Multi-Health Systems (MHS)