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Emotional maturity is essential for successful project delivery. It allows project leaders and project teams to manage emotions effectively, to build strong relationships, and make sound decisions. However, there are a number of factors that can stop emotional maturity from flourishing:
One of the biggest challenges to the development of higher EQ is a lack of awareness.
Many people are not aware of what emotional maturity is or how it can benefit them. This can make it difficult for project teams to develop their emotional maturity.
Another challenge to the development of higher EQ is fear.
Some people in the enterprise may be afraid of showing their emotions in the workplace. They may fear that they will be seen as weak or unprofessional. This can prevent Project Teams, PMs, PMOs and leaders from developing the emotional maturity needed to deliver a successful transformation program.
Lack of support can also be a barrier to developing higher emotional maturity.
It can be difficult to develop emotional maturity without the support of others. This is especially true in the workplace. If project teams and their leaders do not feel supported by managers and colleagues, it is less likely that they will develop their emotional maturity.
Finally, a toxic culture can stifle emotional maturity.
A toxic culture is often characterised by conflict, competition, and mistrust. In this type of environment, leaders and project teams are less likely to feel comfortable expressing their emotions or developing their emotional maturity.
If you are responsible for quality project performance there are still several important things you can do to address these blockers so you can help establish and build emotional maturity in the enterprise:
Create the right culture:
Everyone in an enterprise contributes in some way to help build and develop a positive and productive enterprise culture that will foster emotional maturity. Executive leaders with their goals and strategies will document, model and demonstrate the enterprise culture, its beliefs, and model behaviours. Managers with their structures and process and styles will say how the work environment operates (whether it’s hierarchical, or collaborative or creative or flexible etc). HR support can create training and development opportunities that formalise, fill gaps and develop the culture. Team members and staff by their interactions with each other and with their clients can set the tone for the work environment (making it supportive and positive or independent and competitive).
Emotional maturity requires an environment where teams and staff can work together and where everyone feels valued and respected. To create this culture:
Ensure people feel ok to speak up, to share ideas, and to even make mistakes.
Listen, respect, be open, and be tolerant
Foster a culture of trust and respect, where people feel comfortable being themselves.
Relate, respect, share feedback & hear suggestions
Encourage people to take controlled risks and learn from their failures.
Model good risk management, show patients, communicate, and celebrate achievements
Provide a supportive environment where people feel valued and appreciated.
Relate, encourage, improve, and listen
Promote collaboration and teamwork, where people feel safe sharing their thoughts and ideas.
Be inclusive, innovative, flexible and have fun.
Establish clear expectations and boundaries, so that everyone knows what is needed from them and they feel safe working together.
Be specific, realistic, flexible, fair and open
Model emotional maturity yourself by being open, honest, and fallible with others.
Create a sense of trust and connection.
Model emotional maturity
Anyone in an enterprise can choose to model high emotional maturity:
Be self aware
Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as your triggers and stressors.
This awareness helps you more effectively manage your emotions and to avoid making decisions based on emotions.
Be empathetic.
Ensure you can really understand and even share the feelings of stakeholders and other project team members
This helps you build stronger relationships and make better decisions.
Be assertive.
Emotionally mature project managers need to be assertive without being aggressive so they can communicate project requirements in a clear and direct way
This helps them to get things done while also respecting the rights and feelings of others.
Be open to feedback.
Ensure you are open to feedback from others so you can learn and grow.
This shows that they are willing to admit mistakes and are committed to improving.
Be supportive.
Emotionally mature project managers are supportive of their whole project team; providing guidance and encouragement, (not just for the squeaky wheels) to help project members develop their ideas, skills, abilities and goals.
This creates a positive work environment where all team members feel valued and appreciated.
Promote work-life balance
The right work-life balance for an emotionally mature enterprise or project team is one that allows team members to be productive and successful at work, while also having time for their personal lives and relationships. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the right work-life balance will vary depending on the individual and the specific team. On that basis the general guidelines to follow to create a work-life balance that is beneficial for both the enterprise or project and the individuals in the team is to:
Discuss and even document workload expectations at the beginning of a project, including standard work hours, and workload forecasts
Encourage a schedule of down-time and personal events
Provide flexible and hybrid working options
Support balance and fairness, pride and respect
Provide feedback and coaching
Add EQ into the standard PM Toolkit.
A straight forward framework (described in an earlier post >> How to add EQ to your PM toolkit ) is available to help you effectively integrate emotional intelligence coaching with project management performance coaching.
Provide information about emotional intelligence
There is an extensive body of research and volumes of literature explaining Emotional Maturity and its proven contribution to the enterprise and project management performance. A summary primer setting out key headlines and improtant information for PMs, PMOs and project leaders, is available from the AppliedEQ Services site. Adopt the EQ development model that is tailored to the needs of your enterprise and your teams
By taking these steps, interested stakeholders will help their projects and their organisations build emotional maturity, create a more productive and positive workplace for everyone and ultimately delivery more successful projects.
Are you a PM or PMO leader who’s not sure how best to fix the problem of low Emotional Maturity? Are you an enterprise leader, directing a Digital Transformation or a complex ICT Transition or a strategic CiP program and you're unsure how to build the emotional maturity that will assure project performance? A coaching program integrated with legacy project performance reviews can be a simple, reliable way to achieve that success.
If applied EQ is too often missing from projects and there’s interest in improving the quality and success of ICT project activity please contact to discuss bespoke online coaching, mentoring and consultancy services. We optimise skill sets and deliver a sense of assurance for Project Managers to confidently conduct the "orchestra" for their own projects.
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