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Since the release of Daniel Goleman’s landmark 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, emotional intelligence has become a popular business topic. Understand your feelings and recognize them in others, the theory goes, and you’ll not only get better business results, but you’ll be happier in the process. What’s often lost in the shuffle, however, is the fact that emotional intelligence is not simply a personal tool to help you improve your own career. It’s a methodology that helps you put the right project team in place. A 2005 study by Leadership IQ found that 46 percent of new employees fail within 18 months of hire, while a mere 19 percent are considered true successes. Despite the high costs of failures in hiring, most organizations still don’t do enough to address it. Fewer than one-third of companies have a formal procedure for molding and developing leadership talent, according to a 2006 survey by Towers Perrin. Whether you work directly with or for human resources, or you are simply trying to select project team members, using emotional intelligence (or EQ for short) can help you make the best possible choices. ‘’According to various studies, EQ competencies account for 24 to 69 percent of performance success,” says Adele B. Lynn, founder of the Lynn Leadership Group in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, USA. In the context of a team, EQ is even more important. “Technical understanding, organizational skills, and process improvement all contribute to good performance for the project manager,” she says. “But more often than not, projects get derailed because of a project manager’s poor interactions with team members. Good interaction with team members stems from emotional intelligence.” Fortunately, you can screen for emotional intelligence competencies. Ms. Lynn, author of the 2008 book, The EQ Interview: Finding Employees With High Emotional Intelligence, recommends that you focus your interview process to gauge candidates’ EQ qualities. Their answers can give you an important glimpse into troubling patterns that could spell future disaster. Traits to look for include the following. Managing Emotions One of the hallmarks of emotional intelligence is understanding your emotions and managing them while working. Do your candidates understand their emotional states while working? Do those emotions affect their jobs in a positive or negative way? Understanding Impact on Others It is not enough to simply understand your own emotions; you need to understand how they influence your coworkers, as well. Do your candidates recognize the impact they have on others? Do they drive others away with rude behavior? Taking Responsibility Despite your best efforts, almost all project team members will make mistakes at some point. People with high emotional intelligence, however, will take responsibility for their failings. Do your candidates blame others for things that went wrong? Do they consistently play the victim? When dealing with new talent, it’s easy to look solely at the “hard” qualities, such as experience and education. However, the “soft” qualities play a much larger role in success or failure than we often realize. By using emotional intelligence, you can help ensure that your project team embraces the former—and not the latter. Interested in learning more about emotional intelligence? Build your skills and earn PDUs at Mega SeminarsWorld coming in June to Orlando, Florida, USA. Community Post contributor Brian R. King, P.Eng., PMP, offers additional strategies for finding the right members for your teams. You can find the related articles here, here and here. |
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Emotional Intelligence: It’s Not Just About You
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