Hi.
I'm Max Dalton, and in this video I'm going to talk through five skills a project manager
needs.
Project management is an art form, and no one becomes good at it overnight.
Good project managers have lived through failed projects, taken their lumps, and learned from
their mistakes.
If you're considering becoming a project manager, there are five core skills you can work on
that will give you a good start in getting out of the gate.
Communication skills.
The ability to clearly communicate is the most critical skill for a project manager
to have, and it can account for upwards of 90% of a project managers time.
This communication can come in the form of both written and oral communication.
Examples of written communication that a project manager will be responsible for include meeting
notes, general email correspondence for the project, and weekly status updates.
Examples of oral communication you could engage in as a project manager include presentations
associated with your project, leading team meetings, conversations with stakeholders,
and conversations with team members.
Organizational skills.
Project managers often have to juggle multiple projects of various sizes.
That means staying on top of all of the schedules, financial tracking, communication, and individuals
doing the work for each project.
As a result, it's critical for project managers to Rishave strong organizational skills to
not just stay on top of all of their work, but also to be able to monitor what everyone
else is doing and where everything is.
There are a variety of tools available to help project managers stay on top of everything,
such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft OneNote, JIRA, Trello, Team Foundation Server, Intuit
Quickbase, and many, many more.
It's also important to try different tools to find the right combination that works best
for you.
Negotiation skills.
Project managers regularly find themselves in the position of negotiating contracts.
As a result, it's important for them to understand the importance of soliciting bids from multiple
vendors, how to identify what their positions of strength are that they can leverage when
negotiating terms, and the strengths and weaknesses of various contract types (eg, fixed bid,
firm fixed price, cost plus fixed fee, and more) so they can pick the one that works
best for the business.
Another important skill a project manager should have that will come into play when
negotiating a contract is the ability to review statements of work.
This is important to both ensure that all of the work the business is looking to get
done is outlined and accounted for, and also to make sure the vendor you're working with
isn't gold plating or unnecessarily increasing the scope of the work the business is looking
to have done.
Leadership skills.
Project managers routinely find themselves in the position of leading large groups consisting
of people from different departments who are tasked with doing something that no one knows
exactly how they are going to do it.
It's the project manager's job to get everyone to work together, to define how they are going
to execute the project they are tasked with, ensure that everyone is clear about their
work assignments, and then keep everyone engaged and on track until the work is done.
As a result, being a project manager requires the ability to stay calm and collected in
tough situations, helping other people work through problems, being able to lift other
people up and make them feel like an important part of the team, leading by example, and
having a high level of integrity.
Risk management skills.
One of the most difficult aspects of project management can be managing risks.
A project manager must work at the beginning of a project with individuals at all levels
of the business (some who may not even be on the project team) to identify risks to
a project.
To further complicate matters, there are all kinds of directions to consider when looking
for risks to a project.
There can be internal risks associated with other company initiatives, there can be risks
associated with vendors, there can be risks associate with government regulations, and
on, and on.
Additionally, for each risk that gets identified, it's the responsibility of the project manager
to both outline how to control that risk to prevent it from happening, and also to pull
together options for how that risk should be addressed if it turns into an actual issue.
And that process of risk analysis doesn't stop after the initial assessment, but it
is ongoing through the duration of the project.