One of the key elements in Project Management is ‘people management’. The ability to understand and manage people is extremely essential to be a successful Project Manager. That is why Emotional Intelligence (EI) is of paramount importance in Project Management.

EI is a relatively new term in the field of psychological study. It became widely known and popular with Daniel Goleman’s 1995 Book called Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Peter Salovey and John D.Mayer also did a lot of research in defining EI and its importance.

EI means the ability to understand, evaluate and control emotions like love, hate, jealousy or fear etc. These emotions can be very strong or just mild but they play a very big role in our day to day lives. They decide the way we act, react, judge and make decisions.

They are a main deciding factor which defines the type of relations we have with our family, friends or co-workers. Psychologists say that our emotions, not our IQ, experience or technical knowledge, decide whether we succeed or fail at our work places.

Emotional Awareness and EI are more important at work than it is at home or at school. At workplace our relationships can be more ‘brittle‘ than in our personal life.

Therefore, it is extremely important to have the ability to pick up emotional clues from people we meet at work if we are to succeed there. Emotional understanding and empathy help us to build up the right relationships with them and to avoid difficult and sometimes disastrous situations.

At workplace, EI can be extremely essential in successful Project Management. It is helpful in planning human resources, job profiling, recruitment interviewing and selection, management development and many other areas.

There are about 25 major skill areas related to EI but all of them cannot be measured accurately. However, many tests have been devised to measure EI such as Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI), Emotional Intelligence Appraisal and Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I). More and more companies apply these tests in their recruitment and selection process these days.

A recent study conducted by a Dallas Corporation found out that the production of the employees who scored high marks at EI tests were 20 times higher than those of low scoring employees.

The US Air Force once used the EQ-I in selecting recruiters and found out that the most successful HR personnel in the USAF got higher marks in the EI competencies. Seeing these results Secretary of Defense ordered that all branches of the armed forces should use this procedure in their recruitment of personnel in the future.

In a study in 2002 Goleman found out that usually high ranking managers don’t get a proper assessment of their performance due to the fear of their subordinates. This is because the senior managers, though they are well educated, qualified and experienced, have very low emotional literacy.

This proves the theory that in most occasions people become unsuccessful at work not because they are technically incompetent but are socially incompetent; they fail in their relationships with co-workers, superiors and subordinates.

Some project managers may be overly authoritarian and their conflict management skills may be very poor. They may generate fear instead of respect and devotion which is not very healthy for the success of a project.

When people lack EI it is difficult for them to adapt themselves to changing situations. They find it extremely difficult to be team players. Without a good EI it is hard to develop good interpersonal relations.

While a good awareness in EI can help to be more successful and productive in Project Management, the lack of it can cause many problems. Sometimes it can even lead a company towards bankruptcy.