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Impact of Emotional Intelligence in Project Management
Impact of Emotional Intelligence in Project Management

October 21, 2022

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All projects in diverse sectors are unique in nature and cover risks across many issues through the processes. One of the sectors that is blooming, and rising sector of all developing economies is the Information Technology (IT) sector. The nature of work in the IT sector is mostly project based. The failure of IT projects continues to trouble managers and organizations. The IT environment is ever demanding, puzzling and vigorous. Also, IT project managers (PMs) handle technical employees, leaders, clients, users, work breakdowns, and miscommunications. In order to be successful, IT project managers should improve their project management competencies and skills.

Post pandemic, mental health concerns and exhaustion have risen steeply. About six times as many employers report increased mental health issues among employees since the pandemic began—burnout being among the most common.2

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to sense, understand, manage, and apply the information and power of emotions as your greatest source of energy, motivation, connection and influence. EI is now considered to be twice as important as IQ, technical experience, and education for success. When you have a good EI, you can use your IQ to make rational choices.

Some of the benefits of increasing EI are:

  • PMs with high EI can endure storms, use a rational mind, network effectively and focus their energy and efforts on identified goals. Whereas people with amazing IQs are in most cases ones who just don't understand their team or clients. They offend people, are poor team members, may be sarcastic, cannot build relationships, get defensive easily, cannot transition quickly during times of change, and do not have an awareness of their deficiencies.
  • With higher EI one can easily persuade and influence others. They are able to remove barriers to working with others. They can quickly transform change, problems and conflicts into opportunities.
  • And most importantly higher EI directly contributes to PMs assisting their team in producing impactful and successful projects.

There are four project success factors that focus on people dynamics build project success. They are:

 

  • Effective communication with stakeholders is of foremost priority. When a team is working on a specific schedule, it is important that the team and external stakeholders remain well-informed in every aspect of the project
  • Management of unforeseen challenges is key to surpass roadblocks. Projects do not go exactly as planned. Some projects fail and some fail hugely due to risks that arise during a project. Even if something happens, your team can resolve the problem in an efficient manner with either a plan already set in place or quick EI skills to resolve most issues efficiently.
  • Clear project goal and priorities help team and the stakeholders of the project to always know from the beginning in which direction the project is heading. Having a detailed plan sets the ball rolling in favour of project success from the start.
  • Leadership support and motivation plays an important factor in keeping a team’s spirit high during tough phases of any project and also in general. This also helps keep a team morale high there by keeping them focussed only at the job at hand.

PMs who actually understand the talents, values and potential of themselves and their project team members, who know how to manage their own emotions and the emotions of others, and who can connect with team members have the opportunity to have the best project environment.

EI, is hence, one of the most growingly important factors in project management as it plays a crucial role in creating a positive working environment where the project lead/PM, can remove roadblocks and help the people on the team to deliver the project successfully.

 

Sources:

  1. The impact of project managers’ competencies, emotional intelligence and transformational leadership on project success in the information technology sector
  2. Mental Health In A Post-Pandemic World
  3. Using emotional intelligence to improve project performance
  4. Emotional Intelligence in Project Management

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Current Focus Areas: IT Services, AIOps, 5G, Cloud, Project Management. Also specialises in Application Rationalization, Cost Optimization, Benchmarking, Report writing, and Market Research.

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