Many technical people speak negatively about soft skills as if hard skills are the only things required for professional success. However, especially in the realm of management, people skills can make or break projects. Keeping people happy means making lives function. How can we leverage making people naturally cheery towards the productive growth of projects? Wasson directly addresses these questions in this business book.
So-called “emotional intelligence” came into vogue through Daniel Goleman’s book in the 1990s. Goleman discussed how emotional IQ often predicted success better than traditional IQ, especially in the domains of leadership and person-oriented professions. Citing Goleman, Wasson takes his ideas and adapts them towards her domain of project management. She spent her career as an IT project manager and provides many examples from her professional experiences. She aims to head off potential problems through pragmatic insight.
She focuses on cultural literacy (and even regional literacy) while bringing the reader up-to-date on forecasting common social pitfalls in projects. Small things, if anticipated, can often turn a project towards success if they are artfully managed. Yet technical leads are often placed into project leadership roles without an adequate interpersonal background. This book can help people get up to speed and identify deficits that might need to be filled by further personal work.
This book thoroughly addresses most of the standard social business fare. However, it is limited in that it does not really argue for any great change in the current business climate. It just teaches practices that should be common to most people involved in the world of management today. It’s solid and informative, but it is not earth- or paradigm-shattering. It’s not bad to read if you have time, but if you’re looking for a power-packed book to inspire your next effort, this might not be it.
The Socially Intelligent Project Manager: Soft Skills that Prevent Hard Days
By Kim Wasson
Narrated by Julie Eickhoff
Copyright (c) 2020
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ASIN B084H3S5WG
Length: 4:43
Genre: Business/Management
www.amazon.com