Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers summary

Have you ever felt like your workplace was stifling your emotions? If so, you certainly aren’t alone. A lot of project managers deliberately try to create an emotion-free work environment. That, however, is a big mistake. Positive emotions (and even some negative ones!) can actually help in the workplace.

A bit of emotional intelligence can help lead a project to success. Emotional intelligence, a term popularized by Daniel Goleman’s 1995 best seller, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, refers to our ability not only to identify emotions in ourselves and others, but to use those emotions to guide our behavior.

For project managers, emotional intelligence should be geared toward improving work performance. Emotional intelligence is very powerful. In fact, one study of the relationship between IQ, emotional intelligence and project managers found that a manager’s emotional intelligence often correlated with a project’s success, whereas there was no correlation between success and IQ.

And emotional intelligence isn’t only critical for managing your project – it gives you a competitive advantage as a manager, too!

Emotional intelligence allows project managers to develop positive relationships with their team members and stakeholders, and it can give them the edge on competition, too. If you’re good at working with people, you’ll set yourself apart from other managers, and therefore get better projects and more chances to use and develop your emotional skills

And the competition is rising! Every year, more and more people try to get their PMP (Project Management Professional) certificate. In 1995, only 4,410 people took the test; in 2011, 500,000 took it! In this increasingly competitive work environment, you need to make yourself stand out in any way you can. Emotional intelligence can do a lot in this regard.