Team Growth

This week, we will discuss ways how to apply concepts related to emotionally intelligent feedback to a case study.

Instructions

Your supervisor asks you to mentor a new employee, Tonya, and help her learn the ropes of the job. You're excited by the prospect since you're hoping to move into a management position yourself and your previous performance evaluation stated that you should seek out opportunities to coach and mentor newcomers. After two weeks, you see that the new employee has many strengths and skills. She is responsible and punctual. She takes initiative, having cleaned up and organized the community supply storage area, even unearthing two reams of badly needed colored copy paper.

At the same time, you see that she can be careless about details. She doesn't adequately proofread her emails, so they contain spelling and usage errors. She doesn't check back with you and the other person on your team to make sure that what she sends contains the correct information, and since she's new she often misses important context or fundamentally misunderstands internal processes. In addition, you've also noticed that Tonya seems very insecure, needing a lot of praise and occasionally annoying others around her with her constant badgering for assurances she's doing a good job. Last week in the daily stand-up meeting, the boss reminded everyone to submit mileage reports and asked for a volunteer to, "show the new girl how they're supposed to be done so I don't get one that looks like the one she submitted last week." Tonya turned bright red and spent 20 minutes in the bathroom afterward. When she returned to her desk, she looked as if she'd been crying. The few times you've tried to talk to her about a mistake she's made or a way she can improve, she talked over you with what she imagined your criticism would be. Yesterday, when you were explaining a complicated internal process that's new to her, she interrupted to tell you she thought the shirt you were wearing was a good color for you.

You want to give her honest feedback so she can improve her job performance, yet you are afraid she will react defensively and emotionally, which might reflect poorly on your emerging skills as a supervisor.

Adapted from Interpersonal Communication Everyday Encounters, 7th edition by Julia Wood

Answer the following questions in a post:

• In your daily work as a Registered Medical Assistant, have you been in a similar situation before as the giver or receiver of feedback?
• Imagine that you are rehearsing for your mini-evaluation with Tonya - a conversation during which you can't allow your own frustration to get the best of you. Explain what you have learned about yourself, given the readings, which will help you converse in an effective manner in this scenario.
• What do you plan to say to Tonya? Plan your introduction to the conversation and how you plan to broach areas where she needs improvement. How can you inspire Tonya instead of demoralizing her? How did what you read this week guide your thinking?

Initial Discussion

The discussion should be at least or must substantivelyintegrate the assigned readings with appropriate attribution to the author.You may use additional sources and materials if they are relevant to the discussion and cited properly,

Study Materials/Resource for Citation

Kohn, S. E., & O'Connell, V. D. (2007). 6 Habits of highly effective teams. Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press.

Levy, S. M., Allen, S. J., Haber-Curran, P., & Haber-Curran, P. (2015). Emotionally intelligent leadership: A guide for students. Part Two. ProQuest Ebook Central

Davey, L. (2016). A step-by-step guide to structuring better meetings. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 2-6.

Jug, R., Jiang, X. "'Sara"', & Bean, S. M. (2019). Giving and receiving effective feedback: A review article and how-to guide. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, 143(2), 244-250.

Leading Effectively Staff. (2022).How to make a team charter.Center for Creative Leadership.

Hirsch, J. (n.d.). The joy of giving feedback.