Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers - A Luxury or a Must-Have?

 

If only it were as simple as scoping the project, developing a project plan, and tracking costs! Naturally, project management (doctorate in project management) encompasses all of those things, but it's also about relationship development, team building, influencing, collaborating, and negotiating, frequently in a highly complex environment. As my father frequently stated, if it weren't for the people, this job would be trivial!

Until recently, the prevalent school of thought among corporate leaders was that an individual's IQ score is the best predictor of how successful they will be in the workplace, and that emotions should be checked at the door, as they are considered a hindrance to an individual's success. However, as a new generation of managers ascends to leadership positions, this mindset is changing. Emotional Intelligence is a component of this (EI). In 1990, Peter Salovey and John Mayer coined the term "Emotional Intelligence." Salovey defines EI as the "ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate between them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and action." Daniel Goleman popularized the EI theory in 1995 with the publication of his book "Emotional Intelligence," and there have been a number of other significant contributors to the EI debate. 

This article will demonstrate that Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a critical skill for a project manager's success using a model developed by Dr. Steven Stein, CEO of Multi Health Systems, and based on the Emotional Intelligence Skills Assessment (EISA) published by Pfeiffer, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons. The EISA evolved from the work of BarOn (1997), Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (1997), and Goleman (1998) into a five-factor model that measures the interconnected components of emotional intelligence that are directly related to emotional and social functioning.

So why is it necessary for a Project Manager to have a working knowledge of Emotional Intelligence in addition to the ability to manage schedules and budgets?

 The following abilities are required of project managers:

• Work in complex matrix environments - Project managers must influence, negotiate, and collaborate with other departments and teams in order to secure resources and understand project dependencies. The ability to develop relationships and understand how to get the best performance out of others is a critical skill for a project manager to have in a matrix environment.

• Create effective teams - People are critical to the success of any project, and project managers rarely have direct 'control' over the staff assigned to the task. They must be able to motivate employees, form diverse teams, and resolve conflict, all of which require an understanding of people and their unique wants and needs.

• Manage change - projects, by definition, bring about change. Developing a technical solution is only one component of a project; comprehending and managing the impact of that solution on a user population, as well as the effect of that change, is a critical skill for a project manager.

• Lead - Project managers must lead the team, the stakeholders, and any other groups with which they interact. Along with the ability to make decisions based on a thorough analysis of the situation, the ability to make decisions based on an understanding of the ramifications for people is a critical leadership characteristic.

• Deliver results - The complexity of the environment and the degree to which collaboration is required to succeed are unprecedented, and simply being able to track a project plan is unlikely to be sufficient to ensure a Project Manager's success. Understanding one's own emotions, the emotions of others, and the most effective methods for managing them can have a dramatic effect on a project manager's ability to deliver results.

The EISA framework is based on Reuven Bar-Emotional On's Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) model and is a simplified version that serves as a foundation for understanding EI-based behaviors, identifying them in ourselves and others, and developing action plans to modify behaviors in the future to achieve desired outcomes. 

The framework is composed of the following five fundamental EI factors:

- Perceiving - the capacity for recognizing, attending to, and comprehending emotion accurately.

- Managing - the capacity to regulate, control, and express one's emotions effectively

- Decision-Making - the effective use of emotion to manage change and resolve issues

- Achieving - the capacity to generate the necessary emotions and to motivate oneself in pursuit of realistic and meaningful goals

- Influencing - the capacity for identifying, managing, and eliciting emotion in oneself and others in order to effect change

The framework is organized around Perceiving and Managing, on the premise that a person must be able to perceive and manage emotions in order to apply EI to the remaining three factors. Enhancing one's awareness of oneself and others through the perception and management of emotions is an excellent starting point and lays the groundwork for improving our decision-making, achievement, and influence outcomes.

Perceiving is an EI skill that is based on an individual's capacity to identify, attend to, and comprehend their own and others' emotions. This is closely related to the critical abilities to demonstrate empathy, distinguish between emotions, and recognize the impact of emotions on a situation. According to research, approximately 55% of what we perceive about someone comes from their body language, 38% from their tone of voice, and only 7% from their actual words. Emotional intelligence is a critical skill for project managers. For example, misreading a resource manager's body language while negotiating for project resources from another part of the organization can be critical in determining not only whether the Project Manager obtains the resources they require, but also the tone of the relationship with that manager for the remainder of the project's schedule.