April 21, 2014
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers The People Skills You Need to Achieve Outstanding Outstanding Results Anthony Mersino ©2013 Anthony ©2013 Ant hony C. Mersino Adapted by permission of AMACOM, AMACOM, a division of American Management Association ISBN: 978-0-8144-3277-8
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Project managers wishing to improve their management and leadership abilities must invest in emotional intelligence. This means using emotions to enhance thinking, understand others, and employ empathy.
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A project manager’s resources will determine project success or failure. Only with the right skills, experience, and motivations will team members succeed. Therefore, it is critical for project managers to get the right team members and be able to retain them until the project ends.
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Conict is endemic within projects and must be managed eectively. The best performing people assigned to projects also tend to be the most difcult to work with, and emotional intelligence provides the tools to work with them and develop productive relationships.
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Emotions are a valuable source of incoming information. Project managers who are in touch with their own emotions are beer placed to use the associated information to make beer informed decisions.
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A successful project manager must be able to identify an organization’s key power relationships. This means recognizing the individuals who have power and control over projects, including those people who inuence the decision makers.
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Project managers who understand their team members and themselves can communicate more eectively. This understanding enables them to choose words and messages that best connect with team members and stakeholders.
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Project management means geing work done through others. This requires the competencies of eective communication, inspiring and motivatmotivating others, managing conict, and decisiveness.
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Emotional intelligence can set a project’s project’s emotional tone. It enables project managers to create success by fostering commitment, active cooperation, and high morale.
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Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
I
Anthony Mersino
The body can experience temperature swings, accel-
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
I Project managers require more than knowledge to succeed at their tasks. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to recognize emotional cues are now essential tools for team leadership. In Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers , Anthony Mersino explains how emotional intelligence, the ability to recognize and understand emotions as well as employ them in the decision-making process, is a crucial asset in successful project management. Eective project managers (PMs) can use emotional intelligence to communicate clearly, set the tone and goals for their projects, engage and motivate team members, foster collaboration, and counter stress and discord. Without these interpersonal competencies PMs risk seeing even the best organized projects fail.
A I E I Emotional intelligence is the knowledge and management of one’s own emotions and those of others for improved performance. It is an essential tool for project managers, who must work eectively with others in order to achieve success. Research has shown a strong correlation between emotional intelligence and project success, with all types of projects beneing from the related competencies of self-awareness, conscientiousness, sensitivity, and communication. Project managers need emotional intelligence for several reasons. First, each project is unique, and as PMs move from one project to another they encounter different teams, sponsors, and stakeholders. PMs must master the skills to assess, understand, and manage the emotions of team members and stakeholders to establish relationships. Second, the temporary nature of projects requires PMs to move quickly and develop relationships early in the project to form the foundations for success. Finally, PMs have limited power and authority over team members and cannot simply order them to perform required tasks; this is why strategies of inspiring, motivating, and leading are needed to achieve project objectives. The rst element of emotional intelligence is selfawareness. This is the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and the inuence they exert. One way in which emotions manifest themselves is physically.
Anthony Mersino
The body can experience temperature swings, accelerated heart rate, muscle tightness, fatigue, and other sensations. These sensations should be evaluated until one can interpret what they reect in terms of associated emotional feelings. Facial expressions are another medium of emotional display; a person’s face can reect emotions of sadness, anger, excitement, or happiness. Recognizing these expressions and their emotional meanings can be a valuable tool in enhancing one’s powers of self-awareness. Another element of emotional intelligence is accurate self-assessment. This is the ability to evaluate oneself accurately and seek feedback from others to improve personal performance. PMs who master this task are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, learn from their experiences, are receptive to honest feedback, and have a sense of perspective about themselves. Just as important is the “presence” that comes with self-condence. PMs should be able to present themselves with self-assurance, be willing to express potentially unpopular views, and be able to make dicult decisions. Self-condence enables one to feel a level of comfort that facilitates beer communica-
F I Information about the author and subject: www.projectadvisorsgroup.com Information about this book and other business titles: www.amacom.org
C H P B Related summaries in the BBS Library: Becoming a Resonant Leader Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships, Sustain Your Eectiveness By Annie McKee, Richard Boyatzis, and Frances Johnston Leading with Emotional Intelligence Hands-On Strategies For Building Condent and Collaborative Star Performers By Reldan S. Nadler
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Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
tion and relationships with project team members
Anthony Mersino
P M B
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
tion and relationships with project team members and stakeholders, thereby enabling improved performance and enhanced results.
Anthony Mersino
P M B S-M Self-management involves managing personal emotions in order to control one’s behavior. Self-management uses techniques that help regulate emotions, perceive and head o emotional triggers, and identify and prevent thoughts that invite emotional crises.
PMs can improve their emotional self-awareness by using monitoring techniques to make ongoing assessments of their feelings. One way is through keeping a wrien record throughout the day on experiences and the feelPMs who master emotional intelligence will set themselves ings resulting from them. Simple entries can form a useful record apart from other PMs. They will be able to achieve more with that, over time, may reveal pat- the same team. They will excel in their careers. And they will terns of cause and eect that feel more satisfied with themselves and their relationships with will provide useful insights into others. emotions and their behavioral inuences. Self-management and control are highly inuenced Another form of monitoring is backtracking. This is the retracing of one’s activities to determine why a particular emotion is being felt. A PM feeling the onset of a negative feeling can think back from the present to earlier in the day and identify the specic event that triggered the negativity. Once the source is identied, it can be examined and addressed.
by self-awareness, which is useful in disarming negative emotions. Self-control is actually the maintenance of composure under stress. Given the harmful eects of negative emotions in a team environment, it is natural that project managers seek to master them to prevent damage to project dynamics. The damage can be caused by:
The most eective monitoring will take place in an environment of quiet reection. Therefore, it is advisable to take some time every day to relax and think back on recent events. One can use meditation, breathing exercises, or any other activity that assists relaxation and enables thoughtful examination of one’s feelings.
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Furious tirades: Explosions of anger at the workplace, in public, or in private.
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E-mail ordnance: Angry expressions, through modern oce technology, of irritation, frustration, and resentment.
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Withdrawal: Team members avoid meetings, become uncommunicative, and sometimes avoid specic project members.
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Criticizing: Insecure people may voice unwarranted criticism of others with the intention of causing hurt.
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Sarcasm: A means to cause hurt without directly addressing the truth.
A A Anthony Mersino , PMP, PMI-ACP, is an Agile Transformation Coach and IT program manager with more than 27 years of experience. He has delivered large-scale business solutions to clients that include Abbot Labs, IBM, Unisys, ARAMARK, and Wolters Kluwer. He has also provided enterprise agile coaching for The Carlyle Group, Bank of America, Hayneedle, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Emotional breakdowns are oen triggered by specic emotional stimuli. Knowing what these stimuli are and how to deal with them can remove the threats that these triggers pose. Sometimes, foreshadowing, or the anticipation of the worst, can be the trigger. This occurs when one predicts negative outcomes of future events. Defeating this problem is sometimes as easy as identifying the paern of negative thinking and using another person as a sounding board to get a
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Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
trusted opinion whether a suspected negative potenti-
Anthony Mersino
is a key tool. This means leing another speak with-
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
Anthony Mersino
trusted opinion whether a suspected negative potentiality truly exists. Logic is another weapon. Analyzing the foreshadowing on the basis of its logical underpinning will oen reveal it to be without basis.
is a key tool. This means leing another speak without interruption, giving full aention and making eye contact, and focusing only on that person while suspending judgment.
Emotional breakdowns can also be caused by distorted thinking , a form of self-imposed depression that can make one vulnerable to emotional disturbance. One form of distorted thining is “All or Nothing” thinking, which is the belief that the slightest imperfection equals failure. Recognizing the fallacy of this is the best defense against the imperfection vulnerability. A similar emotional threat is the tendency to dwell only on the negative. By focusing only the unpleasant things that happen, negativity can become the reality. Again, it is important to realize that there are positive things that outweigh the negative. The most eective counter to this thinking is to remind oneself of past and current success, achievement, and progress.
Being able to assess others’ feelings is also important. This means listening for words that convey their emotions, such as disappointed, concerned, or nervous. The speakers may not aach much signicance to those words, but they are communicating more than they are aware. Physical appearances can also show feelings, both in facial expressions and body language. The PM who recognizes the meaning of a scowling face and folded arms has an advantage in assessing feelings.
Self-control techniques are useful in resisting emotional breakdowns. Individuals need to know their specic emotional triggers, the paerns of distorted thinking, and the things that bolster their emotional resilience. Personal health is also important; this means eating healthy foods, geing sucient sleep, and exercising. Talking freely with good friends, trusted acquaintances, and mentors can also help; the opinions of these people will help to place negative thoughts in their proper perspective.
Social awareness also involves the concept of organizational awareness. This is the ability to accurately discern and understand the social, political, and cultural forces within an organization, as well as its key power relationships. The easiest way to understand an organization’s culture and values is to read its mission statement. These statements oen take the form of wall posters, advertising slogans, and other promotional materials. Other insights can be obtained by examining an organization’s distribution of awards. This means understanding who gets promoted and why, as well as identifying the specic behaviors that get rewarded and punished.
Determining key power relationships means identifying the If we don’t manage our emotions in the project environment, people who have power and politvery bad things can happen. In addition to poisoning the ical inuence over projects. These atmosphere of the team, we can get a reputation for being out people reveal themselves when they make decisions that actuof control. ally impact a project. A systematic approach to evaluating power relationships is essenB P S tial because without recognizing decision makers, R one cannot manage stakeholders. Social awareness is the facility of evaluating situations and people and understanding and empathizing with Stakeholder relationships are important, and manothers’ emotions. This is important for project managing them involves carefully developing contacts agers because they work through others and cannot and understandings with stakeholders to gain their succeed without them. support for a project. A stakeholder is a person who is impacted by a project or who can cause its failEmpathy is crucial to social awareness because it ure. Stakeholders can be senior management, the enables the PM to see maers from other people’s customer’s program management oce, vendors, points of view and gain beer understanding as a suppliers, or end users of the deliverable. Once they result. Empathetic listening , listening without judging, Business Book Summaries® April 21, 2014 • Copyright © 2014 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • www.ebscohost.com • All Rights Reserved
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
are identied, their information should be collected
Anthony Mersino
essential here and is one of the most vital skills for
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
Anthony Mersino
are identied, their information should be collected essential here and is one of the most vital skills for and analyzed. This means understanding stakeholder a PM. Much of the PM’s management activities will roles on the project and their objectives. It is also involve moving around to talk with team members important to determine the best communication style or stakeholders. Siing in meetings, participating to use with them—some may prefer brief face-to-face in telephone conversations, and sending emails are meetings while others may prefer e-mail or telephonic additional communications tasks that must be done communication. With the communication style well to ensure eective leadership. selected, PMs can then obtain needed information from and Leading others is all about relationships. If we build solid provide information to the right relationships with team members and other project stakeholders, people using the methods that work best. This approach is the we improve our ability to lead. Without relationships, leadership best for creating solid relation- is difficult or impossible. ships with the individuals whose support is vital to project success. PMs can best cra communications by using the following steps: Another aspect of relationship management is that of developing others. This means increasing team 1. Determine the objective—Before issuing instructions members’ capabilities and building team cohesion. or seeking information from others, understand One useful approach is to acknowledge and reward the point of the communication, whether it be to specic skills and contributions, thereby showing obtain a progress update, recognize a team memappreciation. Another developmental method is to ber’s contribution, or motivate a team member to provide practical feedback and identify those areas work harder. where an individual needs further growth; this should 2. Understand personal emotions—PMs should be be communicated as an investment in the individual’s aware of their own emotions before selecting potential for contribution. Finally, a procient PM will the method and content of communication. This give relevant coaching as needed and assign tasks that facilitates the accuracy of the communication and challenge and nourish a person’s skills. reduces the probability of ambiguity. Another component of relationship management is 3. Select the appropriate time, place, and mode—Delivthat of telling the truth. This means using an unvarying ering bad news as team members are leaving for openness in communicating with others, something home is bad timing. Personal issues, such as poor that is not always easy. It can involve tactfully disperformance, are best discussed in private. Firing agreeing with superiors, saying “no” to someone should not be done by e-mail, and instant messagwho clearly expects “yes,” and voicing existing issues ing is a poor medium for a contentious discussion. with another person. Some topics may be dicult to address and will require courage to bring to light, but telling the truth requires risk taking in order to develop the relationship. Ultimately, the respect a PM earns for being truthful can become a key element of project success.
U EQ L P T Project team leadership is the dominating focus of emotional intelligence competency for PMs. It means obtaining the right people for the team, motivating and communicating successfully, resolving conict, and removing obstacles so that team members can achieve project objectives. Good communication is
4. Listen and respond to the emotions of others—PMs must be able to discern the dierence between the content of what people say and the emotions that underlie it. It may be more appropriate to respond to the emotions rather than the precise wording of the expression. Team meetings are essential components of project management, and PMs can maximize their utility by using these approaches: •
Begin by stating meeting objectives and the agenda.
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Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
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Assess the group’s emotions; if people seem bored
Anthony Mersino
Emotional intelligence is an eective tool in conict
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
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Assess the group’s emotions; if people seem bored or tense, do not hesitate to ask why.
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Show respect for others; this applies to team members not in aendance.
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Enforce appropriate expressions of emotions; reproach sarcasm or malicious criticism.
Anthony Mersino
Emotional intelligence is an eective tool in conict resolution because it facilitates the understanding of opposing parties’ feelings and helps in identifying underlying needs. These may include the need to be recognized, to be considered important, the desire to be productive, and the need for self-expression.
Project managers must use emotional intelligence to create a project environment that is positive and productive for the team. They do this by seing the project’s tone and direction with A great deal of conflict that we experience on projects could specic leadership conduct. First, be reduced or eliminated if we simply tried to understand the they lead by example. They show other person’s point of view before we tried to convince them themselves willing to take on difof our own message. We need to listen with the intention of cult tasks, sacrice their own interests, and never assign any understanding what others are trying to say. team member a chore that they would not do themselves. Second, Conict is unavoidable on projects. Time, cost, and they are optimistic. They set positive expectations scope are potential fuels for conagration wherever for team performance and project outcomes. Team people must interact to achieve project goals. There members feel heightened senses of creativity when will also be conict over resources, recognition, they are directed by optimistic leaders and perform responsibilities, reporting structures, and personaccordingly. Third, they establish team values. These alities. Without proper management, conict will are the expected norms of the team and represent an disrupt productivity and may even lead to failure. accepted standard of how team members will act and Project managers must rst recognize it when it arises treat each other. Naturally, PMs must enforce these and then choose one of several methods of removnorms, whether they mean showing up for work on ing it. Possible methods include compromise , which time, aending meetings, or judicious use of team does not entirely satisfy each party but oers some resources. Enforcement shows team members that measure of identiable benet. Compromise is best the PM treats everyone fairly and in accordance in situations where the stakes are not high. Another with stated expectations—an underpinning of good method is accommodation , which works to emphasize morale. areas of agreement and aempts to minimize points •
Address conict; where it arises, examine, discuss, and work to resolve it.
of conict. Its drawback is that problems can be submerged only to reappear at another time. Forcing is another conict resolution technique. It actually requires the suppression of disagreement, usually by the PM’s clear statement that conict will not be tolerated. It fails to address the cause of the discord and should only be used when time is limited or when no other solution appears to be viable. The most eective method is confrontation—facing the conict directly and employing problem-solving techniques to break down the disagreement. Confrontation exposes the conict elements to full view for examination so that the underlying causes can be addressed.
Projects of greater size and complexity require PMs to have enhanced levels of emotional intelligence. PMs will encounter the following on larger projects: •
Stakeholder conict—disagreements about objectives and approaches.
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Layers of sta —larger project teams that may be divided into subteams headed by other PMs.
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Subcontractors and vendors—third parties that require eective PM communication skills in order to deliver desired results.
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Virtual teams—sta that are in remote locations and removed from daily face-to-face PM contact.
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Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
In larger projects, the most successful PMs will
Anthony Mersino
they should refrain from oering advice and instead
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
In larger projects, the most successful PMs will be those who step away from the daily minutia of activities and deliveries and instead concentrate on leadership, coaching, stakeholder management, and task facilitation. The primary tool for this eort will be delegation. PMs who nd this dicult should start delegating small tasks and work upward. Those who receive delegated responsibilities must be made to understand their accountability. Management of virtual teams presents its own challenges, largely because of team members’ placement in dierent locations. This means that emotional intelligence has to be employed to get the most eectiveness out of telephonic and e-mail communications. It is strongly recommended that PMs have at least one face-to-face meeting with each team member at an early stage of the project. This assists in later communication when the PMs can remember the earlier physical meetings and picture facial expressions and body language. Project communications can be greatly enhanced with available technology, which can include a project web site, blogs, instant messaging, bulletin and discussion boards, and video conferencing. Teleconferences are one of the most important means of project communications, and it is vital that they not be overly formalized or structured. PMs can build relationships with virtual team members by encouraging them to talk about their viewpoints, interests, goals, and even hobbies. Agile projects may pose a dierent challenge for the PM but can be eectively managed using emotional intelligence. Agile teams are generally self-organizing groups working on new product or service development eorts in a very exible and interactive manner. Most team activities are performed by the team with lile PM participation. This means the PM must avoid heavy-handed involvement that might squelch team creativity and inventiveness. The substitute for PM direction and control in these teams is “servant leadership.” Servant leadership means making the requirements of others a priority and then serving them. Agile leaders function best in this role when they remove obstacles and assist the team to improve collaborative performance. PMs stuck in the traditional command mindset can benet from adopting a dierent set of approaches. First,
Anthony Mersino
they should refrain from oering advice and instead place the focus on team problem resolution. Second, they must release expectations of specic results and focus on team learning and growth. Lastly, they must be willing to let teams fail, not spectacularly but in the sense of learning from a misstep. g g g g
F B Estimated Reading Time: 5–6 hours, 278 pages Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers introduces the concepts of emotional intelligence and presents the ways in which it can be applied to achieve project goals. The book would benet project managers who wish to enhance their leadership, communications, motivational, and developmental skills. It contains numerous gures and tables to illustrate its major points, and Anthony Mersino has provided many anecdotes detailing his experiences in project management. Some chapters end with personal action plans to assist readers in seing down specic emotional intelligence development tasks. A set of appendices provide assessment tools. The book should be read in order to preserve its continuity.
C Acknowledgments Part One: An Introduction to Emotional Intelligence 1. My Growth in Emotional Intelligence A Dangerous Situation Emotional Mastery for Project Managers Project Management Is Competitive The Rules for Project Managers Have Changed What Is Emotional Intelligence? Measuring Your Emotional Intelligence The Good News About Emotional Intelligence Applying Emotional Intelligence to Project Management Emotional Intelligence Is Vital to Project Managers 2. A Brief Primer on Emotional Intelligence
Business Book Summaries® April 21, 2014 • Copyright © 2014 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • www.ebscohost.com • All Rights Reserved
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
The Popularity of Emotional Intelligence
Anthony Mersino
Developing Others
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
The Popularity of Emotional Intelligence
Developing Others
Some Useful Denitions
Telling the Truth
How to Improve Your Understanding of Emotional Intelligence Concepts
Additional Principles of Relationship Building
Learning About Emotional Intelligence Is Only the First Step Part Two: Project Management Begins with SelfManagement 3.
Anthony Mersino
Self-Awareness An Introduction to Self-Awareness Emotional Self-Awareness Accurate Self-Assessment Self-Condence Techniques to Improve Your Self-Awareness Personal Action Plan: Self-Awareness
4. Self-Management The Emotional Intelligence Model for Project Management Self-Control Prethinking or Foreshadowing Techniques to Improve Our Self-Control Personal Action Plan: Self-Management Part Three: Building Project Stakeholder Relationships 5. Social Awareness An Introduction to Social Awareness Empathy Seeing Others Clearly Organizational Awareness Emotional Boundaries Techniques for Improving Our Social Awareness Personal Action Plan: Social Awareness 6. Relationship Management An Introduction to Relationship Management
Techniques for Managing Relationships on Projects Personal Action Plan: Relationship Management Part Four: Using EQ to Lead Project Teams 7. Project Team Leadership An Introduction to Project Team Leadership Communications Methods of Project Communications Conict Management Inspirational Leadership Additional Considerations for Team Leaders Techniques for Improving Project Team Leadership Personal Action Plan: Project Team Leadership 8. Creating a Positive Team Environment What Makes a Great Project Team? How PMs Set the Tone and Direction for the Project The Team Within the Team Techniques for Creating a Positive Team Environment Personal Action Plan: Creating a Positive Team Environment 9. Leveraging Emotional Intelligence on Large and Complex Projects Are You Ready to Lead Large and Complex Projects? Characteristics of Large and Complex Projects Concerns for Large-Scale Project Managers Applying Dierent Leadership Styles Applying Emotional Intelligence to Virtual Project Teams
Stakeholder Relationships Business Book Summaries® April 21, 2014 • Copyright © 2014 EBSCO Publishing Inc. • www.ebscohost.com • All Rights Reserved
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
Emotional Intelligence Techniques for Large and
Anthony Mersino
Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
Anthony Mersino
Emotional Intelligence Techniques for Large and Complex Projects Personal Action Plan: Leveraging Emotional Intelligence on Large and Complex Projects 10. Success with Agile Projects Agile Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Coaches, and Team Leaders Servant Leadership Is an Alternative to Command and Control Agile Leaders Need to Be Emotionally Intelligent Social Awareness and Relationship Management Positive Regard Techniques for Improving Our Success with Agile Projects Personal Action Plan: Success with Agile Projects Epilogue Appendices A. Emotional Tally Sheet B. Assessment for Emotional Self-Awareness and Self-Control C. Stakeholder Management Tool D. Emotional Intelligence Movies and Scenes E. Books on Emotional Intelligence F. Emotional Intelligence Assessment Instruments Index g g g g
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