They must believe in themselves, be willing to take risks, and rely on their expert judgement.
Project managers often find themselves in situations where they don’t have all of the information to make a decision or provide answers. Self-awareness is one of the social competencies that help you operate effectively within the socio-political constraints of your organization.
This also means they recognize where they may need to develop professionally and take proactive action to improve their own performance. This lets them assign tasks to the best person for the job to achieve best outcomes. They don’t need to “do” all of the things, but they should know their strengths and those of others. A successful project manager will recognize their own limits and shortcomings. You don’t need to be top of the tree to be a good leader. They can take a diverse group of individuals, form a high performing team, and get them dedicated to achieving a common goal.ĭeveloping leadership skills should be a priority, even though you probably don’t have hierarchical responsibility over the team. Regardless, the ability to inspire a team to action is a hallmark trait of a great project manager. They all have line managers of their own, and that can create some tension between their ‘home’ team and the project team in terms of responsibility and where their focus lies. In other words, the project team doesn’t report to you directly. LeadershipĪ project manager typically lacks formal authority over the resources on a project. Effective communication can be the deciding factor between whether a project succeeds or fails in the eyes of the stakeholder. You will likely spend 60% of your time (or more) on communication – yes, it’s that important. Nonverbal (although you won’t necessary be conscious of this all the time!)Īnd more.
Sahil Sandhu’s research at the Harrisburg University concludes the same: effective communication came out top in the empirical research study into the order of importance that project managers ascribe to various competencies.Īn effective project manager also communicates in a variety of ways including: That plan outlines the type and frequency of project communication, and any actions expected from various team members and stakeholders as information is distributed. One in five projects is unsuccessful due to ineffective communication, according to research by PMI (The Essential Role of Communications, 2013).Ī project manager’s primary responsibility is to complete the project’s objectives with the resources provided within the agreed budget and schedule.Ī communication plan is typically developed to successfully achieve that. CommunicationĮffective communication is top of my list because it’s core to what we are trying to do as project managers: effect change. In my experience, these are the ones that are most likely to ‘move the needle’ in your career, so that’s what we are focusing on in this article. If you consider competency frameworks from the Association for Project Management (APM), or the guidance from the Project Management Institute (PMI), there are many more core skills listed. The competencies you should be looking to develop as a project manager are definitely ‘soft’ or interpersonal skills in their widest form. The Core Competencies You Need as a Project Manager Today In this article we’ll talk about the top competencies for project managers and how you can develop your skills. If you feel the same, what should you be focusing on? I don’t have the time (or the requirement) to take a certification course, but I’m always prepared to develop the project management competencies I need to succeed.
Your thoughts turn to what you should be doing for your professional development in the months ahead… and there’s a lot of choice. We’re almost at the end of the quarter and you’re thinking what a great year it’s been so far at work.