EI Case Study – Vishal Madhani
Vishal is the owner of west1health.com, established in Harley Street and now moved to a bigger location in Mandeville Place. Vishal decided to integrate an Emotional Intelligence Training session into the usual monthly team get-together. The physio clinic is composed of nine people and they deal with a wide array of physical issues. As for a private conversation we have had Vishal shared that the pain can be seen as tri-dimensional, namely: Physical, Psychological and Emotional. Having a very competitive team of high-end professionals, Vishal wisely rationalised how to support them to feel better together not just professionally but personally one with the other. The team did not have any issues and we planned how to move from a good team to a great team, involving as well the emotional part of the dynamic to enhance team unity, cohesion and a higher sense of personal cooperation alongside the consequent professional cooperation.
We had two meetings before the sessions where Vishal shared more about the team, the people involved, the work dynamics and their relationship with the people they accompany through the healing process. From that standpoint, we rationalised what would have been the most beneficial and effective activity or activities to introduce as a 60 to 90 minutes session, bearing in mind that was the very first emotional intelligence training so the outcome from the team was unexpected in regards to their involvement, engagement openness and participation.
The meeting started with some generic questions and we followed with the “roll of twine” activity. The easy and significant “play” was to pass a roll of twine from one member to another. When passing the roll, each member had to phrase “I appreciate ….” About the person s/he was passing the roll to, some words of appreciation, personal or professional, ethical or practical. The person receiving the roll was free to comment or just thank the giver for that. The second activity was a personality test where all team members have been empowered with a twenty-four soft skills chart about themselves, as a result of the self-assessment questionnaire they undertook. We left freedom and space for comments and introspection, this is what we needed to inspire, self-watching, introspection and self-understanding. The second round of passing the roll was after they have established a good degree of openness and psycho-emotional safety, by having already started opening with the appreciation part before. The second round’s phrase was “I believe You can be even better at what You do if…”. In this phase all members have been able to provide constructive feedback to others, pointing out the main strengths and caring about perceived weaknesses in a compassionate and caring way. The same comments, in another scenario, might have been taken as a criticism but, in consideration of the safety environment built beforehand, they exchanged extremely insightful professional and personal suggestions without any feeling of being accused or criticized. The sense of wanting to become a great team was tangible!
Good to know the team kept using the tests and the activity even afterwards, Vishal’s goal, as a proper team leader, business owner and entrepreneur, was to inspire this higher degree of cohesion and I feel privileged for supporting the creation of this psycho-emotional safe environment through emotional intelligence.
Vishal, I deeply appreciate Your belief that the people are the very engine of a company and the main variable for success or failure. I hope Your positive and human-oriented attitude will inspire more and more professionals to consider humans as their main company asset. We are people before being experts!
Once again thanks Vishal!
Have plenty of blessings,
Nick
