Leadership, Management, and Emotional Intelligence

A ship navigating a treacherous ocean passage requires two distinct, non-overlapping forces to reach its destination. Someone must maintain the structural integrity of the vessel, monitor fuel consumption, and ensure the crew follows established watch schedules. Someone else must read the stars, interpret the changing weather patterns, and convince an exhausted crew that the distant shore is worth the struggle. In project management, these two forces are not distinct roles assigned to different people; they are distinct disciplines required of a single project professional. The former is management; the latter is leadership. Without management, the project ship sinks from operational failure. Without leadership, the ship sails perfectly in the wrong direction, or the crew mutinies before arrival.

To pass the CAPM exam—and more importantly, to succeed as a project coordinator or manager—you must understand how to wield both of these forces simultaneously, and how to fuel them using the engine of human psychology: emotional intelligence.