Soft Skills of Project Management

Soft Skills of Project Management

Soft skills are very important in project management. Every project manager must strive to learn them and therefore apply them in his/her position. The use of soft skills ensures that the manager works with the team members well. The manager can detect problems through the use of listening skills and therefore able to resolve them and bring the project to the right direction. Communication assists the project manager to pass the message in an effective manner to all stakeholders. Emotional intelligence is crucial as the project manager can understand his/her emotions so that they do not affect his behavior or decisions. A project manager must ensure that he/she balances his/her soft skills and the hard skill to be an effective manager. There is a great probability of a manager to fail if these soft skills are not practiced even if he could be excellent in the hard skills. Since project managers deal a lot with people, they need these soft skills to deal with the various types of people in a company. People are the most complex resources to manage in an organization, and these skills can help overcoming these challenges.
Introduction
A project manager works with a team to ensure that the project is successful. It is imperative for project managers to possess soft skills since they will allow them to manage project teams. Soft skills are personal attributes as well as interpersonal abilities that assist a project manager to be able to motivate team members, resolve conflicts and be in a position to offer high – quality employee and customer services.

Soft skills include such things as communication, leadership skills, people management and many others. The project manager is responsible for providing direction to the individual members of a team. Project managers have the responsibility of ensuring that the teams that they work with carry on the functions that they are assigned in a good manner. The project manager, therefore, needs to have exceptional people skills since the manager is expected to communicate with stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and other members of the project team. This essay aims at detailing the soft skills of project management.
Soft skills of project management
Communication is a very important soft skill that a project manager need to have. Effective communication of the project manager to his/her project team makes it possible for the message communicated to be understood fully and accurately. The project manager must know how to communicate the message so that it can reach the intended persons successfully. Ninety percent of a project’s managers time is spending on communication. It is important that a project manager communicates ideas, goals, vision as well as other issues. He/she needs to produce reports as well as presentations that help the team understand clearly what the project manager wants them to get. It is important for a project manager to realize that audiences are different and it is crucial that communication style is changed depending on the audiences. The project manager needs to ensure that the right messages are delivered to the right people at the right time. Communication is, therefore, a valuable skill for the project managers. The failure of a project manager to adapt to the communication styles will limit the manager’s ability to influence the project team, executives as well as business partners to an organization. For instance, executives are not interested in the details of a project in the project review. They are more interested in the high-level summary that helps them to have a clear idea of the project without having to read all of the details in the report. Project managers must be aware of the needs of each of the audience that he/she communicates to ensure that their needs are met successfully (Araújo & Pedro, 2016).
Listening is another important skill in project management. Many project managers are not good at deeply focused listening. Project managers who are busy do not intend to dedicate a lot of time listening to people on a daily basis. Managers need to be disciplined so that they can dedicate a strong intention to understand what people are communicating back to him/her. Listening is an interpersonal skill that helps project managers to builds trust with people and also help them to detect risks early. A project manager needs to attend to discussions and listen carefully without entertaining disruptions. A project manager needs to apply patience by listening to others and not disrupting them when they are talking. A project manager also needs to avoid making assumptions or even jumping to conclusion so that he/she can get the clearly the intended message that is being raised.
Optimism is a soft skill that is essential in project management. A project manager must be a person who sees the positive side of situations rather than concentrating on the negative side. According to Carvalho et al (2015), optimism skill assists the project manager to motivate and inspire others so as to achieve the goal of the project being performed. If a project manager does not possess this skill, it is difficult for him/her to lead people towards the intended goal in case problems arise. Leadership is the another skill that is necessary for project management. This skill is vital as it assists the project manager to mobilize people working in the project so that they can understand the purpose of a project and therefore make the team work towards accomplishing the goals.
The another soft skill is conflict management. When people are working together, conflicts tend to occur frequently and therefore they are inevitable. A project manager must have this skill to ensure that he/she knows the techniques that can be used to manage conflicts. The project manager must know how to apply the skills so that they can be effective in managing conflicts.
Coaching is another important soft skill in project management since it assists in training employees on what they are expected to do so that they can deliver as expected. This skill assists the project manager to develop competent team members so that they can perform to their level best. Decision-making is the another soft skill that is needed in project management. Project management involves making a lot of decisions regarding the project (Herting, 2011). There are challenges that a project manager faces and he/she must make a decision to find solutions. The solutions tend to affect the outcome of the project, and it is, therefore, essential for the project manager to be prepared since one is required to make decisions on a daily basis. If the project is expected to succeed it is vital for a project manager to have this skill.
A project manager must be good in resource management. Resources in project management include human resources as well as money. A good project manager can develop employees so that they can learn new things so that they can take on new tasks that need to be handled in the organization. The project manager also must know how to use resources in an effective manner for the project to perform well.
Effective managers are good planners. They can organize activities so that they can follow the project schedule and cost. Good planning assists in achieving objectives. Through planning, a manager is in a position to identify all tasks that need to be done using the information that is available. Planning helps them to focus on the task that is ahead without disruptions.
Accountability is also very critical for project managers. Managers should take responsibility for their actions, and they also need to teach the same on the team members. Effective team members inspire their team members to be loyal, and therefore they demonstrate it by doing and not just what they say. These leaders, therefore, do what they inspire others to do. These leaders tend to encourage their teams to put in open effort as well as commitment at critical times
Risk management is the another soft skill that is required for project managers to have. A project manager is aware of the risks and rewards that a project presents. They are prepared to take a deliberate chance to ensure that the project succeeds. Project managers also have monitoring and control skills. These skills assist the project manager in overseeing the project to ensure that it goes on as expected. Controlling ensures that the people work towards accomplishing goals. In case the project deflates from the intended direction the project manager must realize it and therefore do something to bring it back on track (Kerzner, 2015).
Emotional intelligence describes a skill that is crucial to project management. A project management needs to have self-awareness. The project manager needs to understand his/her emotions so that the project manager can behave in a manner that shows that he/she acknowledges his/her emotion so that he/she can manage them to ensure that they do not affect interactions with other people as well as in making decisions. This skill would, therefore, assist a manager to understand that people have different levels of maturity regarding emotions and this can help the manager to deal effectively with people.
Self-management skills are also importantly soft skills to be considered in project management. A project manager needs to portray effective work habits that would motivate other people to follow. If the manager has bad work habits, then the team would follow suit and the project that is to be done will not succeed. The project manager should also be ethical in that he/she should uphold ethical standards. The manager also must ensure that he/she creates a sense of urgency to ensure that tasks are completed at the appropriate time. The project manager needs to adapt to changes in technologies so that he/she can apply the technologies when they are necessary.
Importance of soft skills
Soft skills can be learned while some project managers are gifted with these skills. Either way, a manager needs to ensure that he/she has these skills since they can be beneficial while carrying out his roles. According to Turner (2016), soft skills are essentials since they offer various benefits to project managers. Soft skill allows project managers to communicate in an effective manner with co-workers, customers, employer and other people that they are interacting with in the process of his job. These skills, therefore, assist in building good relationships. Further, the project manager can manage time properly when he/she has soft skills. Soft skills also help one to have organizational skills as well as know how to set goals for the success of the project. Soft skills allow managers to develop leadership skills that help ensure that there is teamwork. This feature allows for creativity, high productivity as well as efficiency.
These skills assist in the development of presentation skills that can be used to increase sales, self-confidence, and others. These skills can also assist the project manager to realize the symptoms of stress within the team so that he/she can devise strategies to decrease them. They can also assist the project manager to come up with effective strategies that can be used for transition and change. These skills are important since they help to develop brainstorming strategies that can help in generating new ideas that can help to move the project forward. The skills also can help in developing problem-solving strategies that can assist in coming up with creative ideas and products (Wheeler, 2016).
Many times a company fails to consider soft skills when employing a project manager. The technical skills are given more weight. In most cases, project managers fail to lead projects in an efficient manner due to deficiency of the necessary soft skills. Soft skills can be used in reducing risks. Any project is faced with many risks that could put the project in danger. Most training on project management focuses on technical skills such as structure, work breakdown structures, and other skills. These skills are not sufficient by themselves since they cannot help project managers to reduce risks. One of the risks areas that face project managers is people. There are various things that can influence people in the wrong direction. Politics are not healthy on a project since they can cause people to engage in conflicts due to differences in their opinions and interests. People can also have personal agendas which can affect the way they perform their roles since they would do it in a manner that benefits them rather than the success of the project. People can also fail to show commitment to goals.
With the soft skills, a project manager can realize that the team is constantly changing. The team can increase in size or shrink. These skills can help the project manager to understand how to manage the team regardless of the changes that occur in the course of carrying out the project. A project manager will, therefore, know how to build good relationships and utilize the efforts of people while they are still on the team. The project manager can know how to utilize people so that they can contribute to the success of the project.
Project managers need to realize the importance of soft skills. Soft skills help to distinguish between successful and failed project managers. Greater emphasis should be placed on soft skills when a company is looking to employ a project manager. These skills help the project manager to get along well with other people and lead them to the greater goal.
Conclusion
In conclusion, soft skills are very valuable in project management. These soft can either be learned, and they can occur naturally. Either way that is very helpful for a project manager since they determine if the project that he/she is leading will succeed or fail. Some of the soft skills that are crucial include leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and many others. These skills are vital as they help in reducing risks. They also help in managing people so that they can perform their roles in an effective manner. These skills assist in ensuring that ideas, opinions, vision are communicated in an effective manner to employees, business partners and executives. The project manager detects problems before they arise and therefore acts before they occur. There is a need for a project manager to balance between soft and hard skills so as to achieve success in the project that is being carried out. Soft skills, therefore, must be given much weight as hard skills to achieve the desired outcome of project management.
References
Araújo, C., & Pedron, C. D.(2016). The Importance of Soft Skills and it Project Managers’ Personality Type. JPBReview 1(1), 40-59.
Carvalho, M. M. D., & Rabechini Junior, R. . (2015). Impact of risk management on project performance: the importance of soft skills. International Journal of Production Research, 53(2), 321-340.
Herting, D. H. (2011). Power of interpersonal skills in project management. Infinity Pub.
Kerzner, H. R. (2015). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (11th ed.). Wiley & Sons.
Turner, R. (2016). Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
Wheeler, R. E. (2016). Soft Skills-The Importance of Cultivating Emotional Intelligence. AALL Spectrum, January/February, 16-06.