Play Now: Download Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam prep to your pocket: Kim Wasson and Cornelius Fichtner Ever feel like your projects would run much more smoothly if everyone just did their job without nagging? Help is on the way. Emotional intelligence is the way to really connect with everyone on your team. Take project management to the next level using emotional intelligence principles to guide your interactions and activities. Today we discuss practical applications of emotional intelligence for everything from communications to meetings to celebrations to managing remote teams. This interview with Kim Wasson (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded at the uplifting Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. In the interview, we discuss how to apply emotional intelligence concepts to day-to-day project management tasks and activities (i.e., communications, team building, assignments, goals, and priorities) and learn to recognize both emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence signals and use them to tailor communications and daily operations. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Kim Wasson: In this episode of The Project Management Podcast™, I’ll show you how to apply emotional intelligence concepts to day-to-day project management tasks and activities like communications, team building, assignments’ goals, priorities, anything you do in project management you can use this for. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: We are coming to you live from the uplifting 2017 PMI Global Conference here in Chicago. And with me right now here in the hallways of the conference center is Kim Wasson. Hello, Kim! Kim Wasson: Hello, Cornelius! Cornelius Fichtner: Good morning! How are you? Kim Wasson: I am just fine! Cornelius Fichtner: Just fine. This room over there, 175, that’s where you will be presenting tomorrow. Kim Wasson: That’s where I will be tomorrow. Indeed! Cornelius Fichtner: Okay! Yes and I am now officially going to complain to PMI about the distances one has to walk here. I am going to bring my hiking boots next year! Kim Wasson: It’s really hard to get from place to place but I don’t have to use the gym here. Cornelius Fichtner: So ladies, do not wear high heels. Wear something comfortable. And Jen, same goes for you. Your topic is Emotional Intelligence from Chocolates to Video Conference --- EI Tools for Smoother Projects. Okay! First of all, EI tools. Kim Wasson: Yes, well! Sometimes it’s EQ. Sometimes it’s EI. They are kind of interchangeable but it’s emotional intelligence so EI is kind of the abbreviation but EQ is like IQ. These are tools…I’m really trying to focus in on the practical tools. I want to hand people things to walk out with to build up their tool kit to use these things. Cornelius Fichtner: Wonderful! So emotional intelligence, soft skill, touchy, feely, you’re giving us the tools, are you finally making us use hard tools to do all these soft skill things? Kim Wasson: Yes, that’s the idea! Cornelius Fichtner: Oh wonderful! We project managers love you! Kim Wasson: Exactly! That’s what I’m finding. Everybody feels…last year when I presented, I had a lot of people find me afterwards and say: “That was great! I really loved your presentation. Do I really have to do this?” And it became pretty obvious that the more concrete tools I can give people, the more comfortable they are going to be using them. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay, so why should we care? Kim Wasson: Why should we care? Well obviously if you already like the people side of project management, this just gives you some more tools. But if process is really what you like, you have to realize that just because it’s a process, people aren’t going to use it, right? So i