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I'm new to this stack section. I have 2 questions which might be too broad, which in case it can be modified by any of you. My questions are,

1) How does emotional intelligence of project managers help to drive a project towards success?

2) Does conflict resolution in project management have anything to do with emotional intelligence of Project Managers?

Please inform me if this question goes against the stack rules so that I can either modify it or remove it accordingly.

Thank you.

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  • Hi Sahan, welcome to PMSE! As your question is presented, it's likely to be considered offtopic, since there's no specific case / problem being presented. Answers might be opinion based or too generic. Is there any real situation you'd like to present to get better, more accurate answers without invalidating the answers already provided? Cheers
    – Tiago Cardoso
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 17:53
  • Hi Tiago, thanks for the comment. Actually I'm planning to do research on how emotional intelligence affects on Project management. So I decided to grab some fresh opinions from stack users. Sorry if this question is off topic. Does it need to be deleted? Or should I wait for some other opinions as well?
    – Sahan De Silva
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 3:36
  • Hi Sahan, the community will decide whether this is really offtopic or not. Being the case, the community will close the question.
    – Tiago Cardoso
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 16:26

3 Answers 3

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EI and conflict management goes hand in hand. EI will be useful in all areas -

  • Negotiations with client during inconvenient situations
  • Motivation to resources who may not be happy with their role/responsibilities or senior management
  • Conflict between team members
  • Your team member may not be happy with you as well, you dont have to take it personally and dont go against his career path. Understand the professional reasons behind that and communicate/explain or correct things.
  • Your communication with senior management regarding approval of more budget/resource requirement while project cost does not allow that
  • Project not on track and you are pressurized, you need to explain it to various stakeholders

According to me, EI is an important quality of a manager for handling project activities. I have seen popular managers having this quality.

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I think EI is important for everyone in a collaborative organization, especially so for any leadership roles. How much impact it has depends on the org culture and context - hierarchy (or lack thereof), individual autonomy, team makeup, etc. That being said, in a general sense, PMs that "lead" teams and have solid EI will be able to leverage it to improve the project team's cohesion/alignment, culture, morale, etc. Conflict resolution often depends on EI, because it allows the arbitrator to understand the root causes of the conflict and work towards a resolution that address those causes.

TBH, you can search online and find a tremendous amount of hard data and studies around this, so I would start there instead of here. :)

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  • True!! I've browsed for more info: as well. I really needed some fresh opinions from stack users. Thanks a lot for your response.
    – Sahan De Silva
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 3:37
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EI impacts all aspects of interpersonal interaction - the lower your interpersonal skills the harder you'll find it to work successfully in and with a team. Conversely, better EI/interpersonal skills means you'll find yourself more successful at navigating all facets of teamwork (working in a team, managing a team etc).

Addressing your questions directly:

1) How does emotional intelligence of project managers help to drive a project towards success?

Better interpersonal skills means more effective people management and engagement. Effective people management and engagement are key to productive project teams.

2) Does conflict resolution in project management have anything to do with emotional intelligence of Project Managers?

Yes. Higher EI = more effective interpersonal skills. Conflict resolution relies heavily on effective interpersonal skills.

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