Resulted by Valeria Kozlova, founder Corporate-EQ, at several IT-teams in 2015
The research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and the Stanford Research Center, has surprisingly concluded that 85% of job success comes from having well developed soft skills and people skills and only 15% of job success comes from the technical skills and knowledge (hard skills).
Can the owners of IT-companies and their employees use soft skills? Some can, but most cannot. This is indicated by the figures. According to the Standish Group in 2014, 31.1% IT-projects in the United States ended in failure. Among the reasons are: unclear goals, unrealistic time frames, unreasonable expectations of the project’s participants, volatile circumstances … In the opinion of the author, there is a way that avoids failures and reduces errors on projects.
This article presents the indicators of the IT companies’ employees after the Emotional Intelligence improving. The assessment of the results is based on the following soft skills: communication, team work, personality development, negotiation, flexibility, time management, motivation, and planning.
Communication
Junior Developer (23): “I have overcome fear and unwillingness to contact the people of any work status. After 4 months working on my EQ, at an All-Ukrainian IT-Conference I could initiate the conversation with two IT- top-managers”.
Team Lead (27): “I have learnt how to prevent the conflicts with eventual opponents. The time I need to go out of the conflict situation is now 15 min instead of 48 hours I used to need”.
PM (25): “For the 6 months I have been working on my EQ, improving my confidence with more competent coworkers has grown”.
Teamwork
Junior Developer (24): “During the 3 months of EQ training I have learnt how to change behavior as well as to choose the most efficient way of behavior in a team. My opinion became more important for it. I feel a true team member, I can efficiently cooperate with other colleagues”.
Team Lead (28): “Five months after the EQ training project began, I felt joyful with the results of the team’s work results even though the critical decision might not be mine. Before the training it happened often to me that I arrogated to myself the results of the team’s work”.
PM (26): “I have been working on soft skills for three months. As a result, I have become more understandable for my team. The time we now need to solve a task in hand has at least halved”.
Personality development
Junior Developer (23): “EQ improving during 3 months gave me more self-confidence. I ceased to be afraid of making decisions without being approved by my colleagues. Now I know how to return faith in myself in case I lose it”.
Team Lead (29): “Four months of systematic work on my EQ helped me to become more responsible and be able to solve more difficult problems than before. Now I consider the positive outcome of the work more important than my own positive image. I realized that I must be able to recognize my faults to achieve a good result. And I can not only talk about it but also do what I declare”.
PM (27): “4 months of EQ training made me open my inner resource and double its efficiency”.
Negotiation
Team Lead (30): “The growth of my Emotional Intellect helped me to successfully negotiate for the higher salary. Now I earn twice as much as I have ever had for my professional life”.
PM (25): “I could learn how to carry the project to its conclusion, to motivate my team for the best result and to save for the company 20% of budget, while being on good terms with the employees”.
Flexibility
PM (27): “5 months ago, before the EQ training I was always able to find the reason why I could not to solve a task. Now instead of looking for excuses, I am looking for the ways to solve it, if necessary with the help of more competent coworkers”.
Time management
Junior Developer (26): “What I always could do was to accomplish tasks quickly, but unfortunately I did it not always well. After five months of the EQ training I can achieve the goal quickly but without sacrificing quality”.
PM (28): “Before I could plan my days, but it didn’t help as I never had enough time. Now the amount of tasks I can accomplish during one day has increased by 50%”.
Motivation
Junior Developer (25): “Now I know how to get inspiration from what I develop”.
Team Lead (30): “What I receive by working on my EQ made me realize: I have a job of my dreams, which every minute gives me pleasure”.
PM (27): “For the 6 months I have been trained to make my Emotional Intelligence grow I became more reasoned about my career. When I face difficulties or realize that my knowledge is limited I know how to have back the motivation to work”.
Planning
Junior Developer (23): “Six months ago my EQ was low: it was often when I didn’t accomplish on time or retired into my shell, which made my team-lead mad at me. Now I can cope with these situations and prevent them”.
PM (27): “When I had to be multitasked I lost my concentration rather quickly: as maximum I could manage only two tasks at a time. Now I can accomplish 4 tasks at the same time without losing efficiency”.
The results of the research conducted by the author in several IT-teams indicate the importance of Emotional Intelligence for successful implementation of projects. Experience shows that if you consider soft skills a constituent element of the emotional system of thought it might be the missing link that will save the project.