5 Top Skills For Project Managers in 2018

Highlighting the skills every project manager should be harnessing right now.

BY LUCY THORPE

Project leadership is a major responsibility and not to be taken lightly. Success in this pursuit requires an approach that harnesses a variety of skills applied with dexterity and consideration. With that in mind, here are five of the most critical skills for project managers in today’s modern age.

1. Talent for Team Management

Team success is more than about each individual contributing the minimum necessary requirements to meet project targets, which is why team management tops the bill of skills. As well as inspiring and motivating the best from your team members, a good team leader sees the whole operational picture and endeavors to transform vision into reality through everyone’s contribution. Part and parcel of management is knowing when to delegate, when to negotiate, when to charm, and when to rouse your team.

Fostering a strong team spirit will require you to nurture each individual team member, while also encouraging them to view that their success and the team’s is inextricably linked.

2. Compassionate Leadership

As project manager, it is unavoidable that those working with you will view you as an authority figure. This can affect their interactions with you, even if only on a subconscious level. The best leaders are the ones that other people want to follow. When people work under/alongside someone they have genuine belief and faith in, it is possible to forget the difference in hierarchy — while still maintaining an inherent respect for the elevated position.

By contrast, leaders who continually ‘assert’ their position of authority by reminding others of rank all the time will inevitably only cause problems. Such a leader will only generate work through obligation and necessity — which will differ drastically to those who work because they are engaged and motivated by their team leaders. This type of ‘leadership’ will never generate the same kind of genuine enthusiasm or respect that others will who inspire and encourage rather than order and command.

A compassionate leader will also find it easier to motivate their team to find further depths of effort in times of pressure and stress. Assertion during such periods will not be seen as yet another power trip.

3. Egalitarian Delegation

One of the most important project management talents to wield with skill is the art of delegating work appropriately. Effective — and artful — delegation means not only pairing the right people with the right assignments but also nurturing talent and recognizing when opportunities to help members of the project learn and grow.

It’s not as simple as neatly matching your team up with jobs that they are clearly perfectly suited for. As a leader, you also have to help shape your team and assign tasks that encourages them to work and expand skills outside of their comfort zone.

You may well have individuals within a project who do excel in particular areas, and it is often tempting to give them the same job or role throughout. However, especially if you find that your project is ahead of schedule, there are benefits to allowing a less experienced member of the team to either take on a new role or to work alongside the team member who is currently undertaking it. Establishing an ongoing culture of learning encourages personal growth and shared knowledge which is beneficial to everyone involved.

By delegating work fairly and evenly, you will be both motivating the members of the project and ensuring an efficient workflow. If you can help the project members to diversify their skill sets, it will only get easier to delegate as time goes on.

4. Considered Communication

Quality project management thrives on everyone within the team developing considerate connections with others. One of the most common mistakes made by project managers is to see communication as a one-way street. Many take the ‘I speak and others should listen’ approach. However, good communication skills are just as much about listening and being approachable as they are about sharing knowledge down the value stream in your project. Poor communication will only impede the project workflow, while also potentially damaging your relationship with your team members.

Showing consideration in your communication also means knowing when to set limits. If you are updating clients too often, they are likely to find this just as annoying as any of us would find receiving excessive, unnecessary spam. Keeping project shareholders updated is good; you will want to receive updates from your team so you can monitor the project effectively, for example. But if you are updating too often, your clients won’t be able to absorb the substance of your communications.

Whether you are communicating with clients via email, over the phone, or in person, the same principles apply. You need to give them enough regular information that they will be confident in the direction the project is heading, but not so much information that it makes it seem like you can’t prioritize. If they are constantly wading through excessive communications, this won’t reflect well on you as project leader.

5. Constant Motivation

Drive and stimulation are perhaps the most effective components of good leadership. Keeping your team motivated and moving forward apace will ensure not only that you get the best out of them, but that they want to give you their best at all times. Ensuring your entire team stays driven though is a greater challenge than keeping an individual motivated. If any of your team start to waver in their belief in the project, or in you, they will find it harder to maintain their belief in themselves.

To maintain your team’s motivation and ambition, you will need to effectively harness all the abstract skills on this list. If you can do that, productivity will naturally follow.

Successful project management is one of the biggest challenges any business person can face. As well as the skills compiled here, there are numerous other aspects including organization, risk management, negotiation, time management, budgeting, and others that are accurately required to ensure a strong workflow and success with project management.

Capture these five effectively though and the rest will surely follow.

Lucy Thorpe

Lucy is an entrepreneur, writer and digital marketer based in Bangkok, Thailand. Twitter @inkedlj