How to Find New Perspectives Through Emotional Intelligence

“I’m good at the technical parts of my role and have valuable information to share... so why does it seem like no one wants to work with me?!” If you’re asking yourself a question like this, it might be a sign that you’re in need of a fresh perspective.

This was the topic of a recent Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast with guest Karine Leblanc. Karine is a bestselling author and international public speaker who uses her engineering background to help technical professionals bridge the bridge between technical brilliance and human connection.

In this great episode, she shared some of her favorite, actionable tips for harnessing the power of emotional intelligence, improving organizational outcomes, and finding new perspectives.

Finding New Perspectives, Tip #1: Are You Ready for Feedback?

If you’re starting to feel stuck or wondering why you don’t have the relationships or outcomes you want at your organization, ask yourself two questions:

Am I ready to hear feedback on how I can improve?
Have I made it clear to my team that I’m ready to hear their feedback?

If you’re not willing to listen to feedback—or if your team doesn’t know you’re ready to listen—it can create a sense of disconnect. If you want to improve yourself through feedback and dialogue, be ready to take the initiative and start productive conversations.

Finding New Perspective, Tip #2: Learn the Signals

Much like a car, we all have “signals” that show when we’re in a need of a little extra maintenance... or when we’re nearing a total breakdown! By practicing self-awareness and emotional intelligence, you can learn your own signals and triggers. This will allow you to recognize when you need to shift or improve your behavior, and will help you take the steps toward stronger outcomes.

Through emotional intelligence, you can also learn to recognize the behavior and emotions of others, which makes it easier to find the best way to communicate with your team and navigate challenging situations.

Finding New Perspective, Tip #3: Find the Courage to Be Vulnerable

Emotional intelligence isn’t about being happy all the time. Instead, it’s about recognizing and expressing your emotions. To have better relationships with your team, have the courage to be vulnerable. For example, if you come to work feeling exhausted or stressed-out due to a sick child or other issue at home, let you team know. Ask them to give you some space and patience, and be clear with your emotions and boundaries. Through this, you can strengthen relationships and keep up productive communications, even when you’re not at your emotional best.

When you’re vulnerable with others, it will also increase the chances of others being vulnerable with you. Through this, you can encourage a healthier dynamic throughout your entire organization.

Learn More on the Podcast

To hear more about emotional intelligence from Karine Leblanc, check out her episode of the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast here.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When a mistake occurs on the plant floor, your mind might jump to one question: who caused this issue, and should I write them up for their mistake? But there’s a more productive approach you could be taking—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Dr. Jake Mazulewicz breaks it all down!

With a background as a firefighter, EMT, and military paratrooper, Jake knows the challenges of high-hazard industries, and works with organizations to reduce errors and create safer, more reliable workplace environments. In this episode, Jake shares why you can’t procedularize everything, including the way you handle errors and accidents, and offers great insights and stories about how to use connection and curiosity to improve safety, address errors, and strengthen your organization.

3:35 – Procedures and policies are the work that is imagined, and on the floor is how the work actually gets done

4:19 – The work as-done is almost always radically different than the work as-imagined

5:20 – Even when you have standards and people show up wanting to do a good job, you can still see issues that need to be addressed

6:44 – There will always be areas that absolutely need to have procedures in place

8:02 – There are also adaptive jobs, which leans less into procedures and more intro troubleshooting and tacit human knowledge

10:56 – In an ideal environment, both mechanistic and adaptive models are used and respected and needed

12:11 – There are four levels, ranging from strict procedurals to looser guidelines that show what to do, but not how to do it

15:36 – Tacit knowledge gets shared through conversations

16:22 – A way to share important information is to have frontline experts record videos sharing their insights to problems, especially those that are not covered in procedures

19:44 – Through conversation and connection, more knowledge is shared

21:58 – Debriefing also plays a central role

23:45 – If you have strong discipline, you’ll find more freedom

25:31 – In most situations, errors are signals, not defects

27:07 – When an error occurs, be curious and find the deeper cause of the problem

Connect with Jake Mazulewicz

Find him on Linkedin

Visit his website