How to Build on Your Project Management Skills

Building up your skill level

Earlier this year, the BBC had to concede failure of their Digital Media Initiative (DMI) project after spending £98.4 million ($152 million). More recently, healthcare.gov in the USA has dominated press coverage with its $500 million project failure.

High-profile projects like these have put a spotlight on the project management profession which, according to PMI’s Project Management Talent Gap Report, is estimated to add 15.7 million new PM roles by 2020.

With demand running high, and consistently climbing salaries, a career in project management is a promising option for many.

The downside is that there is typically no corporate entry-point for project managers, as many in the profession have confirmed they fell into the role accidentally. The good news though is that there are skills that can be easily developed which will increase your opportunities of being assigned a project – and succeeding with it.

Technical project management knowledge, including tools and methodology, are the core skills that should be built upon with the following:

1. Communication Skills:

As a project manager, you will be communicating with various functions (IT, legal, sales, etc.) at different levels (Intern, Director, Vice President) within your organization, as well as external (customer, vendors, etc.) to your organisation via numerous medium (meetings, conference calls, emails, dashboard, etc.).

Ineffective communication can cause confusion among the team members, lack of confidence from the sponsor/stakeholders, and poor adoption from your customer/s.

Your ability to effectively communicate your message to the intended audience is one of the most important skills you will leverage as a project manager, and one that will give you a crack at leading the next project for your team.

Unfortunately, this is an area that we do not give much thought to, with years of bad habits behind us. The harsh reality is that you are not as good as you think you are. Sorry. But by joining a local Toastmasters International group (they are global) or taking ESI’s High Impact Communication course you can easily improve your communication skills. All it requires is formal training with external feedback for it to be successful.

2. Organisational Skills:

As the lines between IT and business units continue to blur, project managers find themselves managing efforts in exceedingly complex environments.

Team members around the world, HR compliance, technology development, systems integration and sales training are just a few of the moving pieces that a project manager must manage through the project lifecycle.

It is crucial for a PM to know what is going on with the project, who is doing what, what the team needs, potential risks, and upcoming activity.

To be able to do this effectively, and to maintain a level of sanity, you must develop strong organisational skills.

A few, high-level, items you should work on include:

• Tools – Learn to leverage your email client (rules, folders, etc), maintain a calendar with accuracy, and leverage a project management tool (track tasks, dates, owners, dependencies).


• Techniques – Implement inbox management, establish and be consistent with your communications plan, learn a project management methodology, always be clear on next steps/who owns it/what is needed/when will it be done.

3. Executive Presence:

This is a skill (or even characteristic) that aspiring PMs must obtain. PMs will find themselves leading teams of senior engineers, negotiating with vendors and mediating debates with team members.

Some projects will be public facing, while others will have executive visibility across the organisation. To add complexity, every project is going to face points of confusion, stress, and even recovery.

Keeping all that in mind, the project manager’s ability to cast vision, garner support, maintain poise, and instill confidence is crucial to project success.

Developing effective communication and organisational skills are a great start to obtaining the elusive executive presence, but the greatest teacher in this space is experience. Try and find areas to volunteer as a project manager such as taking on ‘pet projects’ for your manager, or anything else that will put you in a position of responsibility and leadership.

Learning to be the point of contact, answering random questions or even becoming liable for the outcome of a task/project will develop this skill.

After looking at all the above, you will notice that project management has a lot of focus on soft skills. While some people appear to be born charismatic leaders, almost anyone can learn these skills and become a successful project manager.

Sometimes the most difficult part of this training is the personal aspect of self-reflection, or being critiqued. The risk of being told that you don’t appear confident, or don’t speak well, can be embarrassing or even a shot to the ego. But in the end it is better to know.

via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/strategy/build-project-management-skills-0720392?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=build-project-management-skills