Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers

How to successfully manage projects in order that projects meet their desired outcomes has become more significant over recent years, as project working has become a preferred and dominant form of work organization within an environment of increasing complexity (Clarke and Howell, 2009).

The success of the project is measured in terms of completing the project within the constraints of scope, time, cost, quality, resources, and risk as approved between the project managers and senior management (Project Management Institute, 2013). To balance these six constraints through a project life cycle, the project managers need not only knowledge competence of understanding project management processes and their tools and techniques, and performance competence of applying their project management knowledge to meet the project requirements; but also personal competencies of communicating, leading, managing, cognitive ability, effectiveness and professionalism (Project Management Institute, 2007).

Additionally, the project management literature shows a shift from a technical focus to a people focus in recent years and key dimension considered to be associated with the success of the projects is the personal competencies of project managers (Turner, Huemann, and Keegan, 2008). More recently, Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been suggested as a unique area of individual differences that is likely to underpin project managers’ behaviors associated with the success of the projects (Clarke and Howell, 2009). Since project management is getting work done through people, project managers need to learn, develop and apply EI to effectively lead project team, build a strong relationship with project stakeholders, and achieve the goals of the projects successfully. Project managers who master EI will set themselves apart from other project managers (Mersino, 2007).

Agreeing with this trend, IMT-PM starts designing a training course in EI for project managers in Vietnam. This research, therefore, will identify whether project managers in Vietnam apply EI in their work and identify whether the application of EI can develop personal competencies of project managers in Vietnam.

References:

Clarke Nicholas and Howell Ranse. (2009). Emotional Intelligence and Projects.

Creswell John W. (2008). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (3rd edition).

Goleman Daniel. (1995). Emotional Intelligence.

Goleman Daniel. (2002). Primal Leadership.

Goleman Daniel. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence.

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence?

Mersino Anthony. (2007). Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers.

Mulcathy Rita. (2013). PMP Exam Prep (8th edition).

Project Management Institute. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (5th edition).

Project Management Institute. (2007). Project Manager Competence Development Framework (2nd edition).

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence.

Turner J.Rodney, Huemann Martina, Keegan Anne. (2008). Human Resource Management in the project-oriented organization.

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