Soft Skills Survey - some of your thoughts
July 19, 2007 @ How to manage a camel - project management and recruitment from Ian McK
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In a recent survey run in Arras People’s TipOffs News Letter people were asked about the importance of soft skills in project management - below is a preview of some of the responses to the questions asked about the most important soft skills a good project manager should have- spot any trends? (this is raw form data as entered)
Please state what you see as the most crucial soft skill in a project manager Why have you chosen that particular “soft skill”?
Relationship Builder - To be a good relationship builder you need to exhibit all the other skills to gain success
Influencing - If you can’t influence - you can’t manage holistic thinking. If you cannot see the big picture you cannot manage the pieces.
Relationship Builder - Without good relationships on a project you may find that when competing for resources (financial,human,document reviews, project plans, approvals) you loose out.
Stakeholder Management - Without people making decisions together, understanding together and working together the best plan will fail.
Communication - good communicator is crucial to communicate well in a project.
Communication - It is the link between managing stakeholder expectation and the changing project “environment” - success will be the former’s view of the latter.
Persuasion - Because busy people may not want to participate in a project if it does not directly affect them - yet they may possess important information.
Teamwork - A project manager relies or may rely on the team he operates with. He needs to be consistant, predictable and measurable. He needs to lead them and demonstrate best practice in all his dealings. They in turn need to respect him and develop loyalty. With this the PM can move mountains.
Effective communication - Communication to a large extent is the back bone in the skills set in achieving our goals as project managers at the end of the day. relationship management - people work with people. It has served me well over many years
Communication is vital. No action will happen successfully without communication.
Ability to work in a structured way - By working in a structured way, a project manager will be able to think logically, communicate across the project board and deliver the benefit of project more easily.
People Manager Problem Solving - Success in projects is often the ability to resolves problems and issues as they arise imagination There is a distinctly creative element to successful project and programme management. It takes imagination to anticipate problems, and take pre-emptive steps to have the necessary elements available to be able to take corrective action organisational skills Being organised ensures that you organise yourself, your team and all activities, and manage the project in an efficient and proactive manner.
Communication - It doesn’t matter how good a plan is, if you do not communicate to the relevant suppliers and stakeholders what is to be done then the whole thing will fall apart
Awareness - There are tipping points in projects when a number of factors combine to turn a project. Being intuitively aware of when that is happening is a crucial soft skill. Interfacing I think a PM should be able to interface with his all team members whether they are seniors, juniors or trainees. This will work as a confidence builder among the team members and will set an example for the other team members. Team members too will therefore interact and communicate more within the team.
Drive and Vision - Ability to focus on resolution rather than problems
Understanding Failure - to listen and understand the issues and concerns, (if they will share their concerns, particularly with Key Stakeholders will result in an under achieving project or even project failure.
Communication - A project is doomed to failure if the project manager cannot communicate at all levels. Each type of participant on a project will need different types and methods of communication. Explaining a business requirement to a devloper will need diiferent communication skill than say reporting to the project board. Similarly translating Techie speak into a language that a non-technical person can understand is also an art form. communication Good communication skills are the building block that can allow a person to develop other soft skills. Without good communication skills, you’re setting yourself up for failure! Understanding Because a project is done within a context. You need to see the whole picture, not only the stated scope, cost and time but business objectives, hidden agendas, etc. Sometimes the most important project objectives are not the visible ones but the non visibles.
Structuring Communication - All the other skills are dependant on the ability to communicate effectively
Ability to understand others - Understanding a stakeholder’s position is fundamental to project success. Once you are able to understand everybody’s needs, you can make better decisions when it comes to all other aspects of a project Interpersonal skills Its the core skills which revolves round interfacing, communication, understanding, relationship builder,
Communicating - Communication can solve any problem, whether it be big or small.
Social Skills Understanding - the project help to establish the scope and the deliverables. Understanding people contribute greatly in delivering on time and budgets. A good project manager does not need to be a master of a particular skill but needs a lot of understanding of everything and everyone involve in the project.
Decisive - It is important that timely informed decisions are made and stuck to for a project to progress smoothly.
Building Relationships - As a project manager you are most likely working with people you don’t know so well - ‘getting to know this person’ & how this person works will be crucial to obtaining your end result.
Active Listening - If you can’t listen then you won’t hear. If you don’t hear then your actions may well be misinformed and dangerous.
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