Managing complex projects requires a great deal of analysis and understanding of project key success factors, efficient handling of different stakeholders in such challenging projects is usually one of these factors, we need to always remember that project managers are human beings with feelings that sometimes are strong enough to drive the project and introduce negative impact on it, it’s very important that projects managers are aware of their behaviors and always question their motives, we often fall into the trap of making decisions that seem rational while it’s based on emotions.
We are all aware that it’s always easier to judge things from outside and act accordingly, those who don’t have empathy to understand others motives and emotions might be eventually not tackling the real issue, in complex projects where we have diverse stakeholders and tightly coupled components, things can go out of control if the real issues are not detected and handled properly.
I have read before that emotions can be considered as a process created by us, if we create it then we can improve, regulate and manage it, and given that we are dealing with stakeholders that have emotions, we can consider managing their emotions considering our followed code of ethics and this is achieved by learning and developing the skill of emotional intelligence.