There is nothing worse than your projects turning into a dumpster fire because you neglected to pay attention to negative interactions from key stakeholders. Sometimes it feels easy to fob off outbursts or dismissive comments from collaborators or clients as par for the course, but those behaviors are almost always early signals of stormy conditions ahead. EQ, or emotional intelligence, is a non-negotiable skill for successful project managers. The good PMs can size up who is who in a room or a Zoom call quickly and spot the problem children as the meeting unfolds. If I had a dollar for every time a project manager told me on a Thursday that the project was going well and by Friday I got the hairdryer treatment from the client, I would be taking you all on an all expenses paid vacation.
How people act in meetings, what they say, and how they say it matters. Great project managers are constantly reading the room. Understanding the nuances of your stakeholders is critical. Recognizing genuine frustration versus a default negative demeanor, for example, is a skill that separates reactive PMs from the ones who truly keep things moving.
Sentiment Measurement
Sentiment is a bit like the hidden heartbeat of your project. It can be tricky to track, especially when teams are working remotely and you are relying on words on a screen instead of body language in person. But thanks to modern technology, tracking sentiment has never been easier. Think of it as giving your project a pulse check with a high tech twist. Tools like Naïve Bayes and Support Vector Machines can reveal how your team really feels beneath the surface.
While outbursts or sentiment shifts in specific meetings matter, the real insight comes from the overall trajectory of sentiment throughout a project. Sentiment trajectories tell their own story. Overall sentiment examines the collective pulse of the team and how resilient they are, while individual sentiment trajectories help you understand how key figures are reacting to progress, tensions or delays as the timeline unfolds.
Here is where many teams fall short. They treat sentiment as a reaction, not a resource. When you track it consistently, sentiment becomes a forward looking indicator that helps you course correct before anyone hits the eject button. It becomes a way to decode team confidence, uncover hidden blockers and understand how people are truly experiencing the work, not just the tasks.
Attendance Tracking
Closely tied to sentiment is attendance. Both are inextricably connected as project health datapoints. If key individuals responsible for core deliverables are failing to show up, that is a flashing red light. On the flip side, when senior leadership or project sponsors appear, especially if they are not usually involved in the day to day, you should pay attention and be prepared. Tracking meeting attendance across a project ensures that the right people are present when it matters.
Since attendance is a binary datapoint, you can act on it quickly. At Superdone we like to use the RACI framework as a simple way to understand who should be present consistently and who will drift in and out. As a rule of thumb, those responsible and accountable should be in more than 90 percent of the meetings. The consulted and informed groups can have lower attendance and still support a healthy project.
By keeping an eye on sentiment and attendance, you get a clearer picture of your project's emotional health and operational reality. This combination not only prevents potential conflicts from escalating, it keeps your team motivated, aligned and productive throughout the entire lifecycle. So next time you are in a meeting, do more than listen to the words. Pay attention to the mood, and let technology help you keep everything on track.
