2.1: A Case Study on Emotions

EQ: The Competitive Edge in Project Management · LibreTexts

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    From LibreTexts, under CC BY 4.0, as the source states it; its equations are written in TeX, which the PDF shows typeset. This page at LibreTexts.

    Real-life Case Study 3 - Team Performance Issue

    The Situation

    A capable software project team was consistently missing deadlines. This alarmed the project manager (PM), who was totally focused on deadlines and technical metrics. The project manager continued to bear down on the team to get their act together and start meeting deadlines. Yet, there was no visible progress. Offering to help, the higher-level program manager met with the team and each team member individually to understand the real issues.

    The team recently lost two people, and the extra workload was distributed among the remaining staff, with no sense of gratitude from the management. The team was feeling overworked and poorly treated. They were struggling with the emotions of frustration and resentment. The project manager's lack of emotional awareness and focus on deadlines only exacerbated the problem.

    The program manager shared with the project manager the emotional issues he had identified and also provided a communication script to use with the team. The script helped the PM communicate with empathy that recognized and validated the feelings of the team members. That brought the project back on track, even though it was with a slightly modified schedule.

    Lessons Learned

    1. It is critical for the project manager to recognize, understand, acknowledge, and manage emotions, both their own and their team's.
    2. Addressing them through proper communication is key to effective project management.

    Emotions are the foundation of emotional intelligence. We will now dive into the five core skills to help us recognize, understand, and manage emotions using real-life project scenarios.

    This page titled 2.1: A Case Study on Emotions was last modified on Sat, 19 Sep 2026 01:06:29 GMT and is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Ravi Ravikumar.