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Communication is widely recognized as a critical skill for project managers. Our work depends on accurate, clear communication.
Project managers tend to be practical, fact-oriented people. When we speak, write, read, and listen, we focus on facts.
Every communication has an emotional context, though. Are you aware of that context? Are you intentionally using that context to create an emotional response in your audience?
Emotion changes people’s outlook on an facts. Changing our emotional state can have huge impact on our work and our lives. A person who is sad tends to see the problems and risks in the world. A person who is happy sees opportunities.
Often we see our emotions in terms of “good” or “bad” emotions. “The power of positive thinking” is an often-used phrase, and it implies that thinking positively will help you achieve results in your life. Thinking in a “negative” way will somehow hurt you or eliminate options.
What if we look at our emotions not as “good” or “bad”, but as another communication channel?
The factual channel is very important to project work. We make sure that our thoughts, ideas, and ideals are understood accurately, and that we understand the thoughts, ideas, and ideals of the people on our team.
Communication has an emotional channel, too. Look at movies, television, books, stories, and almost any form of fiction. Why do people consume media that they know is untrue? If people only wanted facts, there would be no place for fiction in our society. Instead, fiction is a huge industry in every nation of the world. We create stories in a dizzying array of formats, and we spend significant parts of our lives consuming those stories.
We enjoy those stories because of the emotional impact they have on us. These stories have a logical meaning as well, and they can help us learn or gain insight into a fact or idea. Often the best works of fiction will not only communicate an idea or fact, but they also make us feel a certain way about it.
Becoming Aware of the Emotional Channel
Our project communications also have an emotional impact. There is an emotional channel to all our communications, from the simple Gantt chart and status report to the most elaborate executive presentation.
Are you thinking about the emotional channel of your communications? If you believe that people’s emotions influence how they look at the factual information presented to them, you should be very concerned about the emotional impact of your communications. If your sponsor is upset, he or she will read your status report in a very different way than if he or she is happy.
When speaking or writing about your project, think about the emotions that you feel. We all experience different emotions at different times. It is natural for human beings to share that emotional information, especially in face-to-face meetings. Our tone of voice, body language, and word choice all communicate subtle cues about how we are feeling.
I have been in many status meetings where a project manager reads a list of accomplishment after accomplishment, but in a dull, bored tone. Inevitably the conversation in that meeting turns to a question, “What’s wrong?” The question might not come until the formal part of the meeting has ended, but someone will ask the project manager that question. Consciously or not, the project manager was sharing his emotional state during that status meeting. Along with the factual list of accomplishments, he was sharing a feeling of boredom.
People in the room reacted. They wanted to know, “Why is he bored? These facts are something to feel joy and a sense of accomplishment about. Why doesn’t he project those feelings along with the facts?” As caring human beings, we want to know why he feels this way.
People will ask, “What is wrong?” for many different [...]