Emotional Intelligence attributes and advising capability: Implications for selection and training of military security force assistance advisors

Abstract

Abstract

Understanding the attributes of effective military advisers is crucial when military operations are focussed on advising, training and accompanying foreign national security forces.

The purpose of this research was to clearly categorize the behaviour that advisers identify as necessary and sufficient to broker effective positive relationships with their foreign counterparts. Positive relationships are an operational imperative to gain trust, build rapport and elicit task motivation. Failure to achieve a positive relationship can result in poor outcomes, task failure, and potentially a security threat to the adviser.

Existing research provides evidence that emotional intelligence (EI) correlates with interpersonal effectiveness. Individuals with high emotional intelligence more effectively understand and evaluate their own behaviour in order to guide their decision-making and cope with environmental demands. They are better at regulating emotions, including inhibiting anger. They readily detect emotional reactions in others to help determine appropriate actions. This research extends extant emotional intelligence research to the military domain where the context differs in culture, daily demands, stress and risk level. In a concurrent mixed-methods approach, qualitative in-depth interviews with advisers who have deployed in Train-Advise-Assist roles in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Australian Defence Force missions formed an explanatory description of advising behaviours. Interviews with foreign counterparts who had been mentored by Australian Defence Force personnel supplemented the data from the perspective of an advisee. In addition to fifty participant interviews, advisers rated the importance of behaviours they considered desirable in military advisers for selection. The data were coded and examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Overall, participants who were advisers, supervisors and strategic commanders described EI attributes such as relationship-building, adaptability and self-awareness as essential for effective advising behaviour over and above non-EI attributes such as technical expertise. Moreover, foreign counterpart participants also rated EI attributes as indispensable. Furthermore, EI attributes were viewed as essential characteristics when recruiting advisers and were highlighted as beneficial skills and knowledge for training and professional education.

These findings form the basis of recommendations for how current advising selection processes could be improved to identify personnel with optimal attributes for advisory roles or those which heavily depend on interpersonal relationships. Additionally, suggestions are provided for how training can be enhanced in a manner that could develop and augment adviser emotional intelligence. It is suggested that a better understanding of adviser's EI levels and the capability of training programmes to increase adviser EI may serve to produce military personnel who are better equipped to meet the future requirements of today's uncertain, dynamic and complex operating environment. Show more