Eyeworld Daily News

EW SHOW DAILY 28 ASCRS News Today Saturday, May 6, 2017 by Rich Daly EyeWorld Contributing Writer A lthough research consis- tently finds surgeons are among the most intelli- gent members of society, it rarely means they also have high levels of emotional intel- ligence. The owners of practices need to be able to sense tension among em- ployees and become as emotionally unflappable as possible, said Craig Piso, PhD, consultant psychologist. "That is, to keep the jury out, not reach premature closure, not to believe what people tell us or take it at face value," Dr. Piso said. "Because when people are in conflict, they are irrational; when any of us gets really emotional, we become different in our thought processes." The common vulnerability to emotions driving the actions of even the best educated people was illustrated by the impulse to buy a luxury item. When the immediate impulse is resisted, people later com- monly are happy they did so. "That's just one facet of emo- tionality or how, as human beings, when we're tense we become irratio- nal," Dr. Piso said. Ophthalmologists can fight that impulse by practicing neutrality, objectivity, poise, and objectivity as much as possible. Many physicians have told him over the years that they dislike conflict. "I want to reframe that as an invitation to get really good at it because what we don't confront, we enable," Dr. Piso said. "If we are perceived as being weak, we will not earn or maintain the respect of our people, including the patients." That is because a key facet of strength is the ability to think and behave clearly and effectively when others become irrational and under- take actions they later regret. Ophthalmologists can model emotional intelligence by develop- ing it from the inside out. Dr. Piso also urged them to recognize everyone has emotional similar effect has been seen from the administration of placebos. "We can mold some individuals by what we expect of them," Dr. Piso said. However, Dr. Piso warned that low expectations can be self-fulfill- ing as well. "At some level we're emotional- ly invested in being right," Dr. Piso said. "People like to be able to say 'I told you so.'" EW Editors' note: Dr. Piso has no financial interests related to his comments. buttons so they need to work to know their own buttons and man- age them to disable them. That will prevent employees from manipu- lating practice owners by pushing those buttons. Such emotional intelligence is a key component of employee interac- tions. But another one is the ability to instill expectations in employees that inspire them to perform at a higher level. The so-called Pygmalion effect can motivate employees to higher performance than even they think they are capable of, Dr. Piso said. A Emotional intelligence key for practice leadership " [W]hen any of us gets really emotional, we become different in our thought processes. " –Craig Piso, PhD

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