Individuals who are responsible for leading client and internal projects need to have the ability to create a positive impact on the client and stakeholder experience and ensure that projects deliver upon business objectives, whilst enhancing the client and stakeholder relationship. It is critical that Project Managers lead and manage successful change initiatives, which includes both delivering projects on time and within budget as well as; engaging with stakeholders, dealing with resistance and having the courage to lead and have tough conversations.
Tapping the potential and motivating individuals and teams to work toward a common goal is a job for the project manager. More often than not, the project manager is more qualified to manage the technical progress of the project than to lead the team to deliver the best product in the most efficient manner. It is essential that a person serving as the project leader be able to manage his or her personal and social attributes before being considered fully competent to lead others. The fact is that project managers must be competent in managing the human side of projects as well as the technical components.
Personal Competence and Social Competence.
Personal competence is how we manage ourselves and social competence is how we handle relationships. Personal competence in emotional intelligence consists of those attributes that a person exhibits in managing himself or herself in the conduct of business, and especially how one controls his or her actions. Recognising one’s feeling and ensuring they do not negatively impact others is an important part of managing emotions in such a manner that they contribute to the situation.
Social competence, or how we deal with relationships, is the second part of emotional intelligence. Empathy is the understanding of others and how they feel in different circumstances so that we may deal with them in the proper context. Sensing others’ feelings by being attentive to emotional cues and listening can contribute to early resolution of issues. The social skills, or “softer skills” used to achieve effective leadership results, includes; communication, conflict management, influence, negotiation, coaching, providing feedback and team development.
If we agree that the human element of projects is important and that better management leads to better project results, we can agree that emotional intelligence is important for a project manager. So, what does an emotional intelligence competent project manager look like? Emotional intelligence is not a born trait, but a learned trait that is developed. Emotional intelligence is doing the best thing in the situation – but not necessarily the action deemed the most appropriate by others. With emotional intelligence, a project manager has self-confidence that the decisions made are the best at that time.
Project managers must be committed to achieving the project’s goals and must motivate others while practicing self-motivation. Project managers must effectively communicate with different levels within organisations, and have the ability to navigate through a web of relationships. A good communicator knows when to speak and when to listen. Being assertive in arguments and using the proper tone to emphasise items is essential to convey the message. Listening to others and understanding the context as well as the meaning of what is being said is important to ensure effective communication.
In Summary Emotional intelligence is a guide to successful personal conduct and relationships with people. Achieving competence is when a person can efficiently and effectively develop an interpersonal style that supports his or her ability to accomplish work. In projects, the project manager is the most visible person with or without emotional intelligence competence.
Emotional intelligence is an asset that the project manager must posses and constantly improve upon to be the best that he or she can be. Taking an inventory of the personal and social attributes can lead to using the strengths while improving the weaknesses. This requires a self assessment of each of the skills to determine where improvement can be made.