The Missing D N A Chromosome in Project Management

In response to the project management magazine Feb2020, discussing the series of project manager DNA. This article sheds the light on the emotional intelligence importance to the project manager.

Despite the fact that, people are the fuel of projects and organizations in general, there is a lack of consideration to the emotional intelligence to the benefit of technical capabilities to the project management team in and managing and delivering projects.

In this article want to define the list of common emotions’, and emotional intelligence components to drag the project manager attention to the emotions topography that must be known to control the project members' behavior towards success.

Depending on life experience, and researches in addition to my personal library, some examples and important quotes were selected to present the idea to the reader.

A project consists of people with differentiations as a major common factor.Men and women with different nationalities, different habits, different routes, different education, values, ethics, religions, intentions, and objectives-Actually people are all different in everything but they are similar in human being.

While I was in college, my father was an agriculture engineer who managed agriculture airport to fight agricultural insects by airplanes; he was requested to manage the airport due to his management, and languages (English, French, and Russian) skills.

He was receiving different pilots from different countries and some of them had no believe, but he taught us an important lesson “a human being is a human being regardless of your disagreement with his ideas, political views or believe”. To get the best out of human been, you need to deal with his/ her core as a human being. When you give the Russian pilot cold watermelon in a very hot weather, certainly you cared about him, when you discuss English literature with British pilot aside from work, you open communication channel to cut distances.

Based on the above management concepts that my father used, combating agricultural insects’ projects achieved success. Communication, emotional intelligence skills were a clear key success enablers.

The conclusion here is that dealing with humanity not only work orders, tasks, plans, stress, deadlines, scope changes … is a major management aspect that must be taken into consideration and actually it make the difference.

Emotions, According to Alan S Cowen and Dacher Keltner in a study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, was led by Alan S. Cowen and Dacher Keltner PhD from the University of California, Berkeley there are different types of human emotions that can be listed in the following:-

• Admiration, Adoration, Aesthetic Appreciation, Amusement, Anxiety, Awe, Awkwardness, Boredom, Calmness, Confusion, Craving, Disgust, Empathetic pain, Entrancement, Envy, Excitement, Fear, Horror, Interest, Joy, Nostalgia, Romance, Sadness, Satisfaction, Sexual desire, Sympathy, Triumph.

Those are imbedded in each human being and each one of these emotions is an important part of people's recipe that you deal with their behavior impacted by these emotions.

Projects are not only construction or technology opening new business is a project, producing a movie is a project, etc. The good news about people in projects is that, when you unify the target and increase the motivations towards the goal you are attracting the components inside each project member to contribute to the success recipe.

According to the dictionary of oxford emotional intelligence is defined as “The capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically”.

Emotional intelligence components, According to Daniel Goleman the five components of emotional intelligence are:

Self-awareness:

When we’re self-aware, we know our strengths and weaknesses, as well as how we react to situations and people. 

Self-regulation:

Because they are self-aware, emotionally intelligent people can regulate their emotions and keep them in check as necessary. 

Motivation:

People with high emotional intelligence tend to be highly motivated as well, which makes them more resilient and optimistic. 

Empathy:

People with empathy and compassion are simply better at connecting with other people. 

Social skills:

The social skills of emotionally intelligent people show they genuinely care for and respect others and they get along well with them. 

I think professionals in the project management field and who even shared in a project can agree that each member in the project is there to share a part of his experience regarding this project, he is there to be a partner in success.

Thomas Jefferson observed “A candle loses nothing when it lights another candle”. That is the real nature of partnership.

Each one in the project needs also to achieve success, to have his success story to tell and to be proud of between his colleagues, friends and family. Success is not only for the project.

Richard Shipley, president and CEO of Shipley associate, offers this advice:” Work well with others to help them achieve their own victories, yours will follow.

When you build the project structure actually you are putting people together in relationship, this relationship is very dynamic due to each one’s emotions’ recipe production.  

Project manager role must exceed organizing the work packages and meet deadlines, the day today practice carries many else activities without it pm can’t deliver the project, creating good project environment, supporting the teams cooperation, building trusted relationship with stakeholders and between team members, solving disputes. These activities actually the broad role of the modern project manager. EQ is a fundamental skill needed to meet the role responsibilities.

Most of the time, there is a focus of the technical project manager skills in managing the project, however, effective communication, people management skills.

The relationship dynamics management is a core skill in managing people in projects. The ability of creating effective team dynamics, creating healthy project culture, and manage people are essentials to project manager job.

Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid “DNA” is main component of the chromosome and is the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms.

Emotional indigence is considered one of the missing DNA’s to complete the professional project manager characteristics.

Conclusion

Despite that emotional intelligence is not in the project management major practice guides but Taking care of people in projects is considered one of DNA’s skills that should be built in project manger’s chromosome to enable his/her capabilities to have remarkable project delivery.

Finally, please make sure to remember the following points

Alan S. Cowen and DacherKeltner PhD Emotions list that are the major components of all behaviors recipes, focus on getting best out of it in building the project culture.

Make Daniel Goleman the five components of emotional intelligence cornerstones to shape your emotional intelligence style in projects.

Richard Shipley words needs more attention and work to create the success for all parties in the project and it put a method of work to the project manager in how to succeed and let others succeed.

Sources

• https://www.lexico.com/definition/emotional_intelligence
• http://theimportanceofemotionalintelligence.weebly.com/the-5-components.html
• John C.Maxwell winning with people, the partnership principle chapter, p254, p 255