EI White Paper

7/29/2019 EI White Paper

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The Role of Emotional Intelligence (EI)in Project Management Over the Next Five Years

A White Paper by:

Troy Alexander, BSTM, [email protected]

James Caldwell, MIS,[email protected]

Matthew Gonzalez, Ph.D., PMP, [email protected]

David Harvey, [email protected]

Bradford Nye, [email protected]

Charles Rodgers, [email protected]

Angela Washer, [email protected]

February 2010


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Introduction

The worlds largest nonprofit professional organization is the Project

Management Institute (Campbell, 2009) boasting a worldwide membership of over

150,000 in 140 countries. PMI has unified and equipped project managers (PMs)

around the globe with best practice standards and methodologies. PMs of the 21st

century command and control project constraints through an arsenal of defined tasks,

hard deliverables, and standard tools and techniques. With over 40 years of research,

community exchange and precision tuning, the hard skills required for effective project

management are demonstratively established. Why is it then that so many projects fail?

If tools and techniques are ubiquitously available and consistently applied, why is it that

a majority projects fail to deliver promises within time, budget, and scope? Ask any

project manager what roadblocks typically impede project progress and nearly every

response will state People! Pressing the issue, they will likely add, Because they

always resist the changes that my project requires (Campbell, 2009). Take a quick

inventory; are you battling the same people challenges? Are your project roadblocks

political, environmental, economical, or social and cultural? What PM skills must be

adopted and sharpened in the next 5 years, or risk receding into the sunset?

While the project management industry emphasizes control of Cost, Schedule

and Scope as the barometer of project success or failure, renowned psychologist Daniel

Goleman and other contemporaries argue that this is only a partial valuation (Goleman,

1998). In his ground-breaking research, Goleman asserts that the bedrock of project

success is a PMs human competencies or soft skills such as communicating, listening,

sensitivity, influencing, and motivating (Cabanis-Brewin, 1999). Conventional practice

in managing resources, empowering, developing, and analysis candeliver a project

within budget, time, and scope, but still categorically fail. The additional dimensions

such as team performance, knowledge transfer, mobilizing the business case, and

influencing stakeholder management are what really determine success. An Indy race

car can cross the finish line and win a race, but the repeatability of this success is

sustained by motivational competencies, camaraderie, and a discerning personality.

These dimensions are the fruit of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and are no less important

than the hard skills of project management. During an interview with PM Network, Issue

November 1999, Goleman reported that Emotional Intelligence matters twice as much

for success over technical skills. IQ is still the biggest predictor to land a project award,he admits, but once youre in, its the ability to handle self and others that promotes you

and makes the difference (Cabanis-Brewin, 1999). Which emotional intelligence tool

should you concentrate on? What are the critical success factors required for effective

project management over the next 5 years?

Throughout this paper, our operating paradigm is based on market conditions

over the next 5 years. Our focus will illustrate that EI skills will be required within the


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realm of project management. While credentials and learned capabilities are still at the

forefront within a project managers arsenal, a view through the lenses of EI skills

suggests a project is better served moving forward through a mixture of adaptive

leadership and practical experience.

A Brief History of Emotional Intelligence

1930s Edward Thorndike describes the concept of social intelligence as the

ability to get along with other people.

1940s David Wechsler suggests that affective components of intelligence may

be essential to success in life.

1950s Humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow describe how

people can build emotional strength.

1975 - Howard Gardner publishes The Shattered Mind, which introduces theconcept of multiple intelligences.

1985 - Wayne Payne introduces the term emotional intelligence in his doctoral

dissertation entitled A study of emotion: developing emotional intelligence; self-

integration; relating to fear, pain and desire (theory, structure of reality, problem-

solving, contraction/expansion, and tuning in/coming out/letting go).

1987 In an article published in Mensa Magazine, Keith Beasley uses the term

emotional quotient. It has been suggested that this is the first published use of

the term, although Reuven Bar-On claims to have used the term in anunpublished version of his graduate thesis.

1990 Psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer publish their landmark

article, Emotional Intelligence, in the journal Imagination, Cognition, and

Personality.

1995 - The concept of emotional intelligence is popularized after publication of

Daniel Golemans book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.

1998 Goleman publishes Working with Emotional Intelligence, in which he

explores EI in the workplace.


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Figure 1. Evolution of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence What is it and why do you need it?

Emotional Intelligence is the area of cognitive ability involving traits and social

skills that facilitate interpersonal behavior. While intelligence can be broadly defined as

the capacity for goal-oriented adaptive behavior, EI focuses on the aspects of

intelligence that govern self-knowledge and social adaptation. The term first appeared in

1985, in Wayne Payne's doctoral thesis, A study of emotion: Developing emotional

intelligence. Payne's thesis centered on the idea that society's historical repression of

emotion is the source of wide-scale problems such as addiction, depression, illness,

religious conflict, violence and war. Goleman later popularized the term and developed

related concepts in his influential book, Emotional Intelligence (1995). In Working with

Emotional Intelligence (1998), Goleman explored the function of EI on the job.

According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is the largest single predictor of successin the workplace.

Goleman describes EI as "managing feelings so that they are expressed

appropriately and effectively, enabling people to work together smoothly toward their

common goals." According to Goleman, the four major skills that make up emotional

intelligence are:

Self-Awareness

Self-Management Social Awareness

Relationship Management

EI has become a vital part of how today's leaders meet the significant challenges they

face. EI can further help leaders in a difficult leadership role, one that fewer and fewer

people seem capable of fulfilling, and can provide developing leaders with the

competitive edge they need to succeed. As EI evolved into a finite attribute among

leaders and managers, it has become clear that without EI, projects would continue to


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fail at an alarmingly high percentage. It is these authors foci that 1) Communicating with

Impact, 2) Persuasive Leadership, 3) Conflict Management, 4) Change Management,

and 5) Adaptive Personality will serve as the most vital EI skills over the next five years

for successful project/program management implementation.

Communicating with Impact

Everyone wants to be significant, important and to make an impact with other

people when they speak. Communicating with impact is conveying your messages to

other people clearly and unmistakably. Communication is also about receiving

information that others are sending to you, with as little distortion as possible.

Communication is at the heart of everything we do. It is impossible not to communicate,

and further possible that we communicate even when we are not actually speaking.

Non-verbal communication, such as body posture, gestures and facial expressions can

be more powerful and more genuine than the spoken word.

Communicating with people in the workplace can be challenge. Maximizing your

communications skills is vital to developing relationships, improving customer service,

increasing productivity, building teams, managing change and increasing the bottom

line. Communicating with impact is what sets you apart from other individuals both in

your personal life as well as your professional career. Communicating with impact is a

must for everyone who hopes to climb the ladder of success.

If communication fails, is it possible to be successful? As discussed,

Communication is at the heart of everything we do. While many articles, books, and

training seminars on the topic of effective communication seek to foster growth, theimpact has not received as many accolades. Thus, it is these authors collective view

that communication starts with the leadership itself.

What is Persuasive Leadership?

Persuasive leadership is a leaders ability to move people from their current

position to a position that they dont currently hold. Persuasive leadership requires a

leader to not only make rational arguments, but also frame ideas, approaches and

solutions in ways that appeal to diverse groups of people with basic human emotions.

This is further based on what we consider to be the top 5 EI skills that a project

manager must be able to articulate his/her position while effectively managing the

conflict(s) that it may stir up, while employing practical change management solutions

throughout the various projects life cycles.

According to Krakoff, there are four steps to successful persuasion. First,

establish credibility. Second, understand your audience, identify key decision makers,

stakeholders and the organizations network of influence and pinpoint their interests and


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how they view alternatives. Third, reinforce your positions with vivid language and

compelling evidence. Fourth, connect emotionally, the persuasive leader must be able

to connect to their audience and demonstrate both intellectual and emotional

commitment to their position.

Project Managers are constantly faced with the challenge of managing peoplewho dont report directly to them, assuming a matrixed environment. That means a

projects success often depends upon the PMs ability to influence and persuade team

members and stakeholders at multiple levels. We believe that in the next five years the

project management industry will become more collaborative, extending beyond cross

functional teams and peers, merging into multi-cultural/global business partnerships.

We see that the future of project management will entail project managers becoming

more diverse, entailing them to be more familiar with virtual communications and

nanotechnology. The project manager will become more global centric and requiring

them to be better at influencing stakeholders that are in different parts of the world and

not just in their immediate sphere of influence. As such, it is imperative that the Project

Manager develop his/her persuasion skills to engage those outside of the local business

partnerships.

Conflict Management

Conflict is defined as the process which begins when one party perceives that

another has frustrated or is about to frustrate (Thomas, 1992). Conflict Management

can be divided into two positions based on positive and negative emotions (Desivilya,

2005). First, positive conflict management often exhibits behaviors that are integrating,

compromising, and obliging. Secondly, negative conflict management yields dominatingand avoiding behaviors.

The pace of change confronting organizations today has resulted in calls for

more organizations to work in teams; in turn, many scholars have noted that leadership

may have important consequences for groups, suggesting that a focus on the group

level is important. Lowe, Kroek, and Sivasubramaniam (1996) found that leaders who

exhibit transformational leadership behavior are associated with higher levels of job

satisfaction, involvement, and performance of their subordinates. Organizations such as

General Electric, Motorola, Toyota, Unilever, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman have

employed the use of training in Leadership models for new and future leaders. Some ofthe fundamental concepts taught are managing change, ethical leadership, working with

teams, and motivation and inspiration. An unexpected benefit of this training was

discovered with improvement in communications and cooperation among subcontractor

elements had dramatically improved.


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Research has indicated that emotional competencies are twice as important as

IQ and expertise in contributing to excellent and effective performance. It seems to be

the consensus between leading authorities that EI generates delegating, open

communication, and proactive behavior, which can bring positive outcomes to an

organization. A study done in Thailand demonstrated that PMs and project engineers

with higher EI scores tend to use more open communication and proactive styles of

leadership than those with lower EI scores. As stated by Charles B. Daniels, the

implications for engineering managers seem clear. As globalization becomes even more

profound on the economy the pressure for companies to achieve continually higher

levels of quality will increase. That being said, it is evident that there is an importance

for a focus on emotional intelligence in the workplace.

Change Management

A project is a unique, temporary endeavor with a definite beginning and end.

Translation? Change is coming! Every project overtly or covertly introducesorganizational changes in order to achieve a desired future state. The myriad resulting

impacts to the project team, end users, direct stakeholders and other project affiliates

are espoused, marginalized, or rejected largely dependent on the project managers

leadership style and comportment throughout the project lifecycle. A project manager is

a change agent and must intricately guide both team and the organization through

change. Succinctly put, a PM must incorporate EI elements into change management

strategy to effect change and produce 360 results.

By the 1980s and 1990s, the school of leadership shifted its focus from

situational leadership to leading an organization through change (Geoghegan &Dulewicz, 2008). Two types of leadership styles were defined: transactional and

transformational. Transactional leadership emphasizes task completion by rewarding

followers for achieving performance targets. Examples include guiding, directing and

managing constraints. Transformational leadership, alternately, focuses on people

development to achieve performance goals. Examples include providing motivation,

intellectual stimulation, challenging followers, developing vision, engendering trust and

pride, etc. Respect, personality and creativity are all hallmarks of the transformational

leader. Which style contributes more to project success? Studies conducted by

Keegan and den Hartog (Tuner & Muller, 2005) predict that a transformational

leadership style is more appropriate for PMs. However, direct correlations that link a

PMs leadership style and project success are untenable; this is largely due to a lack of

relevant studies.

Much research over the years has been published around committing to and

accommodating changes in a project, including how to overcome resistance to change;

how to communicate change in a positive way; how to lead change with great results,


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etc. Change Management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams

and organizations from the status quo to a desired future state (Campbell, 2009).

Voluminous studies in leading change attribute project success to the managers

personality and social skills in particular.

Participative management is one such tactic and suggests the importance ofgetting team buy-in at the beginning of a change initiative. Or, by tactful pursuit, the PM

may facilitate change by cleverly leading his team into an ah-ha moment where the

team identifies the change requirement and takes credit for the good idea. People are

much more likely to take ownership and commit to change if it was their idea to begin

with. A project managers ability to cooperate and associate with the perceptions of his

followers bears directly on his effectiveness in introducing change. The Center for

Creative Leadership demonstratively concludes that satisfying relationships have a

direct connection on how well peers judge a leaders ability to institute change

(Leadership, 2003).

Almost all changes birthed in a project endeavor filter through four dimensions:

technology, economics, demographics and culture. Most organizations and teams

embrace new change in technology, new economic structures, and new team members,

but cultural changes are viscerally resisted. Culture is essentially the beliefs we have

about the way things ought to be (James, 2006). Examples of cultural barriers include

ineffectual leadership, poor timing, and inadequate behavior management (Council,

2008). Further examples include, but are not limited to the following:

Disagreement between top leaders can produce an inconsistent change vision.

Insular leadership and traditional corporate culture can prevent the recognition ofrisks and opportunities.

Minimal involvement by top management can diminish company-wideenthusiasm for change and slow implementation.

Attempts to complete broad changes simultaneously can prompt a total rejectionof the change program.

Changing the largest or most profitable business units first can preempt warmup learning opportunities.

Disengaged groups can become islands of resistance, preventing the broadpromotion of change.

Silent resisters can undermine the change vision by promoting personalagendas.


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Poor alignment between rewards and expectations can present an ambiguouschange message and discourage changed behavior.

Adaptive Personality

Due to the infinite similarities to other management skills in todays world, we

have provided several concepts of adaptive personality from each of these authors foci,

as it relates to other emotional intelligence skills presented in this research paper.

Caldwell suggests a PM can diffuse each of these barriers to change, but doing so

requires tactful, deliberate EI application. The PM must first gauge his teams

motivation and acceptance of the change impact, and subsequently adapt his

leadership style to effectively implement the change. In most cases, the team will not

immediately adopt or be inspired. As a result, the PM must selectively employ adaptive

leadership techniques to effectively lead change. Adaptive leadership is a discerning

and calculated transformation by a PM in order to facilitate cultural dynamics and

simultaneously galvanize team performance. Such traits are required by the PM inorder to survive future requirements and diffuse cultural change barriers in a highly

competitive/evolving project environment (James, 2006).

If you exhibit an adaptive personality trait, Washer believes you are most likely

able to tune-in to verbal and nonverbal clues further allowing you to make adjustments

to maintain your effectiveness in ever changing situations. An adaptive personality

allows you to quickly build and maintain positive relationships while motivate and focus

others to achieve success. To ensure future success in project management, leaders of

all facets of business will need to thoroughly understand and practice adaptive

personality. This EI skill may become the most important tool in ones toolbox.

Rodgers further believes emotionally intelligent program/project managers must

have an adaptive personality in order to survive future requirements in a highly

competitive and evolving project environment. To describe what an adaptive personality

is, we must first look at adaptive behavior. Adaptive behavior is any behavior that

changes to fit another behavior or situation. Adaptive behavior should be thought of as a

master concept. It covers all types of behavioral compromises and adjustments (French,

Bodgers, Cobb, 1974). In looking at a salesman, we find that he or she will change their

behavior based on the customers actions and reactions.

The practice of adaptive selling is defined as the altering of sales behaviors

during a customer interaction or across customer interactions based on perceived

information about the nature of the selling situation. (Weitz, Sujan, and Sujan, 1986).

Given these definitions we can see that adaptive behavior is a result of stimuli from an

adaptive personality. This stimulus affects behavior. The emotionally intelligent manager

can correctly apply the right stimuli at the right time to achieve effective / efficient results

from team members performance. The manager possesses an adaptive personality.


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Adaptive Leadership

Nye proclaims adaptive personalities exhibit a positive conflict management traitresulting in a positive emotion. This adaptiveness encourages integration,compromising and obliging. EI allows one to understand what behavior style they might

use in conflict. A higher degree of EI will allow one to select whether a positive ornegative approach towards conflict management will provide the most desirable results.

Several personality traits indicate a persons probability of adaptive or non-adaptive personality (Wrobel, 2007) and outward behavior. Adaptive vs. non-adaptivepersonality has been measured on a Schedule for Non-adaptive and AdaptivePersonalities or SNAP scale. The SNAP is comprised, in part, by 13 diagnostic scalesof personality disorder (APA, 1987). The outcomes of a 2007 study by Wrobel foundthat high degrees of extraversion tend to lead toward a positive or adaptive personality,while pessimistic behaviors lead to a more negative or non-adaptive personality. Thus,this researcher concludes that a portion of adaptive personality is adaptive leadership.

Harvey suggests it would benefit a leader in todays world and in the future to beadaptive in their leadership styles. S/he should be able to exude self-control, providesound judgment, and be culturally aware to be successful in our ever changing fastpaced diversified world. FM 22-100 (US ARMY Leadership Manual) stresses thatleaders must be able to adjust their leadership style to the situation as well as to thepeople being led (Army H. D., 1999). Managers should not limit themselves to oneleadership style in a given situation and, with the direction of the work-force today andtomorrow, being able to adapt appropriate styles will help in influencing employeessuccess.

Conclusion

Projects are essentially risky and PMs require a multitude of tools to succeed.Some of these tools are tangible, measureable, and certifiable. While others are

intangible, non-certifiable and noticeably missing when absent. Inarguably, all PMs

understand that a project has 5 Process Groups (PMBOK 4th Edition, 2008):

Initiating

Planning

Executing

Monitoring and Controlling

Closing

In fact PMs can test and certify that they have expert level knowledge of the

above written processes. Even PMPs following proven processes find their projects not

meeting the desired outcomes. As this paper has discussed, the key to successful

project management resides in the intangible, vague, elusive realm of Emotional

Intelligence (EI). As stated, EI is not a tangible, certifiable process. It is however, a

teachable, learned skill that involves leading people. During our study of EI and how it


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relates to project management, we have defined the five most needed EI skills for

project management:

Communication

Persuasive Leadership

Conflict Management Change Management

Adaptive Personality

Until such a time when people are not needed to manage project management

processes, PMs will need a high level of EI to attain successful project outcomes. By

understanding EI, PMs can use their emotions to build their interpersonal skills and

influence. The better PMs are at developing and sustaining relationships, the more

successful we can expect the end result of projects. EI provides the edge for excelling

at interpersonal skills and building the relationships necessary to succeed within project

and program management.


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