Emotional Intelligence — that one thing that can make massive difference in a product manager's performance and the product
In this article we are going to see how Emotional Intelligence can be of great value for Product Managers.
● What is Emotional Intelligence?
● How can we improve our Emotional Intelligence?
● As Product Managers, how can we use Emotional Intelligence?
Bonus points for you — if you can find reference to iphone 12 image being used and why! Ok let’s go!
What is Emotional Intelligence?
“Emotional intelligence is the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one’s goal(s).” — Wikipedia
Based on this definition we can point out:
● Ability from “individuals”, it means, all of us have this ability
● It’s pretty powerful in the sense that it seems to allow us to understand how we and those around us feel about something in particular
● It’s pragmatic, it can be applied in a practical way to guide our thinking, behavior and help us to achieve specific goals
Emotional Intelligence also known as EI, Emotional Leadership (EL), Emotional Quotient (EQ), Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EIQ) is a vast topic of debate. There are several studies that show that Emotional Intelligence could be a more important factor in someone’s performance than his own technical expertise or IQ. Different research shows that in some cases, EI is almost non-significant for the performance of people in leadership or management or any other task we humans develop.
There are still controversies and disagreements among those who study these topics, but what is certain is that there are some very interesting aspects that we can take into consideration for our role as Product Managers that without a doubt can help us to be better in our jobs.
Models of Emotional Intelligence — Mixed Model
There are different models being considered when it comes to Emotional Intelligence:
● Ability Model
● Mixed Model
● Trait Model
Today, we are going to explore the one called Mixed Model. This model was introduced by Daniel Goleman and he has elaborated on the topic in several books:
● What makes a leader: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters
● Working with Emotional Intelligence
● Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
Based on Daniel Goleman model, there are four main constructs in Emotional Intelligence:
● Self-awareness: the ability to understand and accurately identify our own emotions, motivations, impulses, abilities and identify their impact or effect on others.
● Self-regulation: our capacity to control our impulses, being able to adapt to a changing environment or circumstances. Being in control so that we can think before we speak or take any action.
● Social skills: being successful in getting along with others, being able to build and maintaining friendships and relationships, finding common interests with others also.
● Empathy: take other people’s feelings in consideration, especially when making decisions. One example of this can be coping with someone else’s sadness.
Something that’s really important about these five main aspects of Goleman’s model is that these are not innate talents, they are instead learned and developed abilities that can even be worked and enhanced to achieve excellent performance in leadership or management.
How can we improve our Emotional Intelligence as Product managers?
There are several things we can do to improve our Emotional Intelligence as Product Managers but as good starting point one could
● Read books — There are plenty of books like the ones we’ve mentioned previously in this article
● Online Trainings — There are several comprehensive training in online course providers like Udemy, Pluralsight and LinkedIn Learning
● Get Involved — There are organizations specialized in Product Management that provide articles, training, webinars and so on with the purpose of improving our Emotional Intelligence specifically when working as Project Leaders, Product Managers and executive roles in order to optimize our performance.
How can we take advantage of our Emotional Intelligence while working as Product Managers?
Being successful as a Product Manager is not an easy task. It takes years to hone in on the craft. For a PdM it’s not just technical skills (which in my opinion are much easier to learn); it’s the soft skills that aren’t quite taught that can make a difference in a Good PM vs. an Awesome PM!
PdM’s can apply EI in two ways that can massively make a difference in their performance and improve their product.
1. Customers
Empathize with your users!
I think this is a no-brainer and perhaps have been said in many books/blogs. Why do I repeat it? —To lay utmost importance!
Using your Emotional Intelligence to empathize with your customers and truly… truly trying to understand their problems and needs —make all the difference. Some of the greatest companies are great because they have not only understood the customers pain points but solved it with emotional intelligence.
‘’ Fall in love with the problem, not the solution’’ Waze, Cofounder Uri Levine
To give an example, I could go on and on on apple’s iphone 12 launch with all its features and how its a perfect example of emotional intelligence, but i have to stay mindful to my reader’s attention. :) and If you have made it so far, Thank You! Almost done…
2. Team members
A good starting point for applying EI in our work on a daily basis and start seeing results is working on our empathy. Common practice, and a very good one, for Product Managers that are starting on a new company, a new team, a new area within the company is to have what is called 1:1 meetings.
This is you connecting with your teammates on a deeper level than just for a project, talking about how they feel about the project, the goal that we are trying to accomplish, how they feel about the team, if they feel comfortable with the environment or with the technology stack being used, it may be the case that we have a team member whose technical interests are very far away from what we are going to be doing and implementing.
After that, it is good to put ourselves in their shoes and show support in the first place, and later try to do whatever is in our reach to help them feel motivated and happy about what they are about to do.
Hope you found value in this article, If you did leave me a comment and share what you think? I learn as much from your comments.
