Mastering Emotional Intelligence: A Guide for Product Managers
Emotions are real and unavoidable.
Not just in friendships or relationships, but also in the professional world of managing people and projects
Every waterfall carries milestones with its own challenges, mirroring the natural ebb and flow of emotions that arise in response to pressures, successes, and setbacks. This is when everyone recommends LinkedIn courses on emotional intelligence or, worse, you find an Instagram reel captioned "5 Tips on Surviving Your Projects Without Throwing a Punch."
While the market is eagerly awaiting products and the factories are asking for products to fill their capacities, project teams do not have the luxury of playing with emotions or taking their time to deliver results. Deadlines are tight, resources are limited, and the pressure is on to meet expectations and deliver quality outcomes. You have to get the job done despite these emotions. It's crucial to have go-to strategies for when life, work, and emotions intersect and things don't go as planned. Here we will explore how emotional intelligence helps hardware PMs
FIVE COMPONENTS OF EI
If you're familiar with Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, you likely know about its five essential components.
Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social skills.
Looking at each component, we can see how they can constitute an essential part of hardware PM survival kits.
Self awareness involves recognizing one’s emotion and its impact on work performance. Making well-informed decisions is aided by objectively assessing one's own strengths and weaknesses.
Self-regulation involves redirecting as a form of control
Motivation - Staying driven to achieve
Empathy - Not everyone can pull their emotions in, of course not everyone reads Goleman and subscribes to the Hardware PM. Understanding the emotional makeup of your team mates is not hard but usually overlooked since everyone thinks everyone is professional. However, staying empathetic means you can manage team dynamics and relationships
Socialize - You need to negotiate and resolve conflict at each milestone. Get ready to socialize outside of meetings because it provides you a chance to get to know people in a relaxed atmosphere and gain the much needed trust and buy in to move things in the right direction.
Now that we have these basic components, it is only fair to discuss useful techniques for enhancing emotional intelligence. It is an ongoing process that lasts for the duration of a career, not just the upcoming sprint.
Practical Tips for Enhancing Emotional Intelligence
Feedback
Use a feedback tool to gain insghts into personal strengths and areas for improvements. Some easy feedback templates includes MS Create Feedback Tool, Typeform, Smartsheet.
Mindfulness
Use deep breathing, exercise and time management as tools to self regulate. Routines that promote calmness and reduce the likelihood of reactive behaviours.
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There is a visual aid for practicing deep breathing techniques on Youtube: the 4-7-8 Breathing Exercise , Mindfulness Breathing, and there are mobile apps such as Headspace, calm and Insight Timer.
Regular exercise is crucial for managing stress and maintaining overall well-being. Here are some beginner-friendly routines, no equipment needed!
Apps that provide seamless time tracking across various devices, comprehensive reporting, and interfaces with other applications, such as Clockify and Toggl Track, are effective in managing time. These features improve productivity, simplify workflows, and give both individuals and teams information on how best to allocate their time.
Also Jim Kwik & Ed Mylett shares some time management hacks like prioritizing tasks and using focused work intervals to boost productivity.
Listening
Stay active listening. Alex Lyon has a video on active listening skills and its worth watching to begin with.
Amaze has a nice animation video with a game show style presentation that highlights how to use paraphasing and clarifying questions to enhance communication.
Explore workshops and training on empathy and interpersonal communication available on platforms like MindTools, Coursera, and LinkedIn to enhance your understanding of others' perspectives.
Speaking & Negotiation
Improve communication skills through public speaking courses and negotiaition workshops. Encourage open dialogue and team builidng activities
Ted has a course on Youtube Courses (only available today in the US) which offers 11 videos on Public speaking as a curated playlist.
Stanford Graduate School has a video on negotiation by Margaret Neale where talks about how framing a proposal in negotiation addresses the benefits to everyone involved.
EI Makes PMs Better Colleagues
Product Managers (PMs) with high Emotional Intelligence (EI) maintain composure under stress, which aids in effective problem-solving, especially during critical phases.
High EI allows PMs to foster strong team dynamics through empathy and social skills, enhancing collaboration and productivity. This quality is evident in scenarios where PMs successfully manage cross-functional teams by understanding and addressing diverse concerns, leading to smoother project execution and cohesive teamwork.
Additionally, PMs with strong EI skills can significantly boost team morale and engagement by recognizing and celebrating achievements, thus aligning team efforts with project goals.
Conversely, PMs with low EI often struggle with stress management, adversely affecting their decision-making and leadership effectiveness. This can lead to poor communication, misunderstandings, and conflicts, potentially causing project delays and strained relationships with stakeholders.
EI also integrates well with other critical PM skills, such as technical knowledge and strategic thinking. It enhances a PM's ability to communicate complex technical details effectively and anticipate stakeholders' emotional responses to strategic decisions.
Incorporating EI into project management frameworks, like Agile, improves team interactions and responsiveness to change, fostering a more cohesive and agile project environment. This holistic approach underscores the importance of EI in achieving successful project outcomes and overall organizational efficiency.