Emotional Intelligence Accounts for 37% of Tech Project Success: A Lumenalta White Paper Bombshell

Lumenalta’s most recent white paper explores the impact of emotional intelligence (EQ) in tech. The study reviewed over 900 IT leaders and revealed that projects with EQ teams succeed up to 37% higher than those without. Despite 94% of leaders calling EQ ‘mission-critical,’ many companies find it challenging to apply these impactful principles. This has resulted in what Lumenalta refers to as an “EQ” crisis that is affecting workplaces across the globe.

What the EQ Crisis Reveals

Despite the increasing evidence that emotional awareness yields results, companies are still prioritizing technical skills over emotional awareness. Lumenalta’s white paper reveals that 58% of teams will abandon EQ development due to pressure from deadlines and project demands. As a result, teams are left unprepared when faced with remote collaboration.

What happens in the absence of an EQ focus can be seen in statistical evidence. Of the companies surveyed, a whopping 88% of IT leaders directly connected EQ to higher problem-solving and innovation. When remote teams scored high on collective emotional intelligence, there were fewer project delays, with work being completed sooner than in the lower EQ groups. Teams that excelled in emotional awareness reported nearly three times lower rates of burnout than industry averages.

How EQ Goes Beyond Technical Skills

Lumenalta’s measurements report an 87% leap in happiness among the clients of emotionally intelligent teams. Under the guidance of high-EQ teams, the adoption of new technology rose 81%, with team members recognizing and addressing client concerns proactively.

The findings of the report strongly suggest that 37% of what makes tech projects succeed or fail is emotional intelligence. This was a fact that surprised even Lumenalta researchers.

“Despite our findings, it’s important not to place soft skills on a pedestal and ignore the need for hard skills,” he emphasizes. “However, a mix of the two creates a superpower combination, enabling software developers to create while still listening, hearing, and understanding what’s hidden or not shared,” said the CEO of Lumenalta, Kuty Shavel.

Building Tech Teams with High-EQ

Lumenalta emphasizes the importance of protocols for practical team development. Recently, the company created chatbots that help staff communicate their emotions outside of formal meetings, leading to new ways to understand team dynamics. Coaching sessions can specifically target emotional awareness during high-stress project phases when technical teams tend to shy away from interpersonal concerns.

Google’s 2011 Project Aristotle backs Lumenalta’s findings that psychological safety, such as feeling confident enough to speak up and take risks, is the most important factor for team success. Project Aristotle was a multi-year research project that studied team effectiveness. It identified five key dynamics that lead to high-performing teams, with psychological safety ranking above dependability, structure, clarity, meaning, and impact.

Lumenalta’s white paper uses these insights to offer effective methods for tech companies seeking to boost EQ. The research reveals that as AI automates more technical functions, human emotional intelligence will grow to become more valuable. As a result, this could potentially determine the outcomes of over half of the projects within the next five years.

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