Specific QA Domain Knowledge

I know that my emotions have an impact on my performance and in some cases my emotions have also impacted on the performance of others both positively and negatively. When I feel that I am being recognised and get positive feedback, it motivates me to go above and beyond and drives me to exceed expectations. On the other hand, if I get criticised, especially if it is not presented in a constructive manner, I tend to lose my motivation to excel and I find that I procrastinate which then negatively impacts on my performance and I don’t deliver to the standards that I would normally strive to.

Equally, I have seen that if I am in a bad mood or stressed, it can impact the team dynamic and I find that the team’s engagement is adjusted to deal with this. Likewise, when I am in a good mood, the team’s mood can also be upbeat and positive. Using a recent change within my role as an example, I can review how those changes impacted on me and my teams emotionally and how I dealt with those changes for both myself and the team while still performing and delivering as expected.

Due to organisation changes to aid the company’s transition to agile, my team were moved from under my leadership into another leader that does not have our specific QA domain knowledge. The team were obviously uncertain as to how this would impact them and their day to day jobs and collectively they were upset that I would no longer be their lead.

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I also was upset and struggling with this change, as it’s a great team and we’d been together for several years, we have a lot of history and rapport. Not only did I have to deal with my emotions and how they would impact the team or be perceived by the team, I also had to deal with the many emotions of the team. They were feeling overwhelmed and, in some cases, angry at how the changes being implemented were communicated. The team’s performance was impacted as the general mood was despondent and there was no drive to deliver on objectives.

To me, it was important to ensure that the team were fully informed of changes as I became aware of them and what the impacts would be for them. I initiated several open and honest sessions with them, where I also expressed my own concerns with the changes. This allowed us to explore what it meant as a unit and it did go quite a long way to restoring confidences and aligns with Maslow’s self-actualisation and esteem needs being met. During all of this, my new role was not clearly defined, but I didn’t want that to impact on the team and their overall morale, as the uncertainty for some individuals could result in them leaving the company.

Understanding how my emotions could impact the team, I attempted to manage them so as not to project my feeling on them and bring more negativity to the situation. I presented them with the vison of what this change could represent for them and why it should be viewed as a positive and a chance to pursue other career opportunities within a wider organisation. I worked with their new leader and secured the funding to get targeted training courses for those that wanted it, to strengthen their existing roles and restore confidence. I also spent time with their new lead to give him background on the different personalities so that he could smoothly manage the transition from his side without too much distraction to the team.

Overall, the team have now transitioned under their new lead and based on my feedback, additional responsibly has been given to those that see this as a reward for delivering on goals and the team are successfully working with their new lead and happy and productive. My new role is now defined and the feeling of uncertainty I felt are starting to dissipate. I have also received some positive feedback in relation to my previous role which was the main driver to my nomination for this new role, which if had been provided initially may have been a less negative experience for everyone involved.

I feel I managed my emotions and took on the responsibility to ensure the team transitioned smoothly. It is clear to me that emotions have an impact on performance and I now understand that the Bar-On ESi areas of intrapersonal and interpersonal are important to me and to the team, and this shows that once they can be managed then the general mood of the team can be influenced. Being aware of mine and others emotions did allow me to react to the situation as it unfolded and allowed me to positively put in places the changes needed to deal with it while being mindful that we had a product to deliver and had to maintain our performance.