Everybody knows about IQ – the “Intelligence Quotient” – which measures our problem-solving capabilities, reasoning and overall cognitive intelligence. But in recent years, there’s been a buzz around ‘EQ’, or Emotional Quotient, which measures our overall Emotional Intelligence. More specifically, our emotional intelligence represents our abilities to control and convey our emotions, as well as to empathize with other people, nurture our relationships and make conscientious judgements. While emotional intelligence seems at home in a therapy or counseling session, it’s just as important as IQ in business, too. So why is emotional intelligence important in project management? Let’s look into it.
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
To repeat our description from the section above, our emotional intelligence represents our abilities to control and convey our emotions, as well as to empathize with other people, nurture our relationships and make conscientious judgements.
In short, it’s all about feelings. This includes positive feelings like optimism, motivation, calmness and energy, as well as their negative counterparts such as negativity, resistance, stress and lethargy. As you already know, there are many more varieties of emotions that fall under this umbrella.
So why are emotions so important, anyways? There are a few reasons.
Emotions are ever-present; we’re feeling a combination of emotions and moods during any hour we are awake – sometimes, even while we sleep.
Our emotions are like the lens through which we see the world. Ever notice how when we feel good, we see everything in a positive, good light? How about when we’re down in the dumps – the world seems darker, scarier and less inviting.
Our own feelings often affect our judgement in any given situation. We can also project our feelings onto other people around us, which in turn affects their mood.
As for other people’s emotions, they can be ‘tells’ to us – signs of anger and frustration suggest that the person is overwhelmed, maybe to the point of dysfunction (in that particular emotional state). A sudden lack of enthusiasm or effort from a typical high-performer might signify burnout or depression.
Emotions can convey a lot more than our words do, and our thoughts are often shaped around our feelings in addition to the logical parts of our brains.
Here Are A Few Examples Of Emotional Intelligence In Business
Let’s compare similar situations and how a person with a low EQ handles them vs. how a high-EQ person does:
- Low EQ: A team that’s overworked and worn out, but the boss keeps piling on the work and demanding more.
- High EQ: A manager taking the time to appreciate their team’s efforts and motivating them.
- Low EQ: A business associate is expressing frustration and stress in a particular situation, and another associate responds by showing even more frustration and anger in return.
- High EQ: When sensing the frustration and anger of an associate, a person makes an effort to understand where they’re coming from and why this associate is frustrated or angry.
- Low EQ: A worker has personal issues going on at home, and is short, snappy and angry with people at work. On the flip side, work issues begin to take their toll on a worker’s home life.
- High EQ: Being in touch with their emotions, a worker recognizes that they are affected by their home life, and are conscious about not taking out their problems on their coworkers.
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Increasing Our Emotional Intelligence By Observing The Past
Let’s face it – human are flawed. We can act irrationally, say things we don’t mean and do things we’ll regret later.
We can all think of times when either we, or a someone else, handled a situation poorly – losing their cool, yelling, stressing like crazy, etc. What could they (or we!) have done to handle it better? Which actions or expressions make you cringe when you think of them?
We can also think of times when we or someone else handled a situation well. Have you had a manager who seemed to just know how their team is feeling? How they respond to stress with calmness, or they’re able to diffuse tense situations instead of escalating them? What did they do, or not do, in those instances? How did we sense someone else’s emotions and keep our own in check?
This is the easiest way to not only observe real examples of emotional intelligence at work (good and bad), but to learn for ourselves what we can do or look for in the future.
The Benefits Of Emotional Intelligence In Project Management
Now, back to our original question: why is emotional intelligence important in project management?
Here are a few key ways in which high emotional intelligence is beneficial in the project management profession. We’ll get into a bit more detail on each subject below:
- Understanding someone’s motives and harmonizing with them
- Maintaining balance among parties involved with the project
- Knowing the truth behind someone’s words or actions
- Recognizing a person’s unique strengths and ‘weaknesses’
- Helping people operate at their highest levels
Below are a few details for each of the points above.
Understanding Someone’s Motives & Harmonizing With Them
We’ve all heard someone ask this question, particularly in a job interview situation: what is your ‘why’?
We all do things for our own reasons. Some of us want to perform at the highest level possible. There are many who want to be as comfortable and secure as they can be. Other people want to be recognized by and of service to others.
In project management, knowing someone’s ‘why’ is essential for having positive relationships with those around us.
When working with a high-performer, project managers will fare well by giving them room to work their way, setting goals with them and giving them the opportunity to be heard.
When working with someone who needs comfort and security, this person will appreciate reassurance, an understanding of the big picture and predictability in their work.
A person who needs recognition and to be of service should be acknowledged for their efforts, given responsibility and be seen as the ‘go to’ person on at least one topic (when warranted).
Knowing why someone is doing what they do helps project managers understand the person, which of course helps project managers have a positive relationship with them.
Maintaining Balance Among Parties Involved With The Project
People are individuals, but teams have their own separate dynamic. A project staff involves many people of various backgrounds, personality types and skill sets, and the collective is like a stew – all of the parts blend together to create their own ‘flavor’…metaphorically!
In addition to the parts above, the emotions, feelings and intentions of each staff member are ingredients in the ‘stew’, too.
Project managers are in the unique situation of being both an ingredient in the stew as well as the chef. This requires that project managers have high emotional intelligence in relation to their own emotions and the relative to the emotions of others – all of which are ingredients to consider.
Anyone who cooks understand this: not all ingredients mix well. In fact, one well-known expression used to describe people who don’t get along as being like “oil and water” – they just don’t mix at all, no matter what.
Thus, project managers must balance the team’s dynamic like a chef cooks the perfect stew.
High emotional intelligence helps project managers identify bad energy, stress, conflict and resistance among various project staff. This can be many things, like a consultant and a teammate butting heads, a person with bad intentions, or the team feeling forgotten, misunderstood or burnt out.
You can imagine ways to resolve these specific issues, but being able to identify and remedy these situations to the benefit of the project’s dynamic is a key ability for a project manager with high emotional intelligence.
High emotional intelligence lets us sense changes in behavior in others, and look closer as to why. This person might feel unchallenged or bored at work, or their home life may be suffering due to workload and stress. There are a myriad of scenarios to consider, but all of these feelings will take their toll on a project’s day-to-day operation, affect team members who rely on this person and in turn, the big picture of the project.
As project managers, we can make efforts to relieve these feelings. Some easy solutions might be to give this person more important work to do, take up less of their time on unimportant processes or work out a more flexible schedule.
At the end of the day, project managers must manage the project, and it’s people who bring the project to a successful completion.
Knowing The Truth Behind Someone’s Words Or Actions
Experts agree – most communication is non-verbal (via Psychology Today).
While we feel a whole spectrum of emotions in our lives, we often tell others that “we’re fine”. According to Aerosmith among others, F.I.N.E. stands for “F***ed Up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional“.
With these two things in mind, it’s easy to see why someone’s words don’t always mean a lot in relation to the truth.
Having high emotional intelligence includes being able to sense people’s true emotions, even if that person is not telling us. This is done by perceiving these emotions through verbal inflection/tone and through body language.
Closed off body language like crossed arms or shaking the head indicate feelings of discomfort, lack of openness or anticipating something happening.
When a person is hunched over or looking at the ground, this signifies a lack of confidence, low self-esteem and other negative feelings like shame or unworthiness.
Verbal cues like fast-talking, trying to interject/interrupt and a higher pitch in voice can communicate frustration, stress and even guilt.
Emotions we’re more familiar with are easier to spot, such as anger, disagreement and dislike of another.
As project managers, we need to know the truth, no matter if it’s good, bad or ugly. Knowing how to interpret non-verbal and physical communications will help us understand a person’s true feelings on an issue and act accordingly.
Recognizing A Person’s Unique Strengths & ‘Weaknesses’
If we watch someone at work for just a short time, we can understand a lot about them. We quickly realize how this person responds to challenges, how they act around others, what makes ‘their eyes light up’, whether or not they’re working with enthusiasm and many more things.
This goes hand-in-hand with understanding the nuances of various personality types. Everyone is different – some people like to be loud and boisterous; at the center of chaos and craziness. Other people want to work quietly on the backend, doing things that don’t require interacting with others.
As project managers, this helps us determine who is best suited to handle specific tasks, as well as how to minimize the impact of people’s ‘weaknesses’.
We all have weaknesses. By weaknesses, we mean things we’re not as good at. This can be because of ability or skill, but also because of our interest in the topic, our experience level and unique circumstances.
When working with someone who is bookish and more introverted, it makes sense to work with them in a similar fashion. Having them handle negotiations, conflicts and meetings is not beneficial. Instead, they may be suited to track information, analyze data and strategize next steps.
A person who is extroverted, high-energy and a people-person is not suited for back-room work, but rather as a manager of people, communicating between parties or ‘in the trenches’ as a leader or supervisor.
Being able to perceive a person’s natural strengths, abilities and interests is extremely important for a project manager, and emotional intelligence allows them to do so.
Helping People Operate At Their Highest Levels
This is really just a summary point of the other items above. In general, emotional intelligence is important in project management, because it allows us to understand motivations, feelings, energies, etc. This understanding is the essence of emotional intelligence, because it allows us to work with feelings, not against them; to manage emotions of ourselves and others, rather than react to them blindly.
When we can manage emotions and energies, we can maximize the good and minimize the bad. In turn, this brings out the best in those around us, which is essential for maintaining quality, schedule and performance on a project!
In Summary
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, learned something new about emotional intelligence, and utilize the specific concepts discussed here in your project management endeavors in the future!
