EQ and the New Project Manager

In 1999, I interviewed Daniel Goleman, the developer of the Emotional Intelligence framework (EQ) for PM Network magazine ... a quarter of a century later, almost, I was gratified to see EQ appear in the PMBOK® Guide, Seventh Edition. I wish we had not waited so long to start recommending EQ to project managers, but better late than never, right?

Well, maybe. A colleague of mine recently told me she asked ChapGPT to create a project charter, and got back a passable first draft--a much better result than she had expected. This tells me that much of the bread and butter tasks--the "science" side of project management--is going to be overtaken by Artificial Intelligence (AI) before you can say Gantt chart. Indeed, an estimated 50 percent of the project manager's work can be "assisted" by AI. What is there left to excel at?

The art of project management. The part that takes creative thinking, those boundary-spanning aha! moments, the gift for working with others to build consensus, sensitively explain hot topics, deliver bad news in a clear but encouraging manner, mastering our own emotions as we create enviroments that engage stakeholders in a shared goal. In short, Emotional Intelligence.

This is the reason our newest research study looks rather different this year. Due to be released in April/May, the study explores the higher-level consultative and human skills that it will take for project managers to add value, deliver results, and grow professionally in the organization. It comes as the latest in 20 years of studies that show high performing organizations train their personnel more frequently, on more advanced topics. There's no time like the present to instill knowledge around those advanced topics.