What are the top three project management skills
needed to succeed?
Well, in this video, you are going to find out.
Now, if you want to get even more project tips,
stay tuned till the end of this video
'cause I have for you a cheat sheet
on the top project mistakes project managers
make all the time and I'll tell you how to get it then.
Hi, if you're new here, welcome.
I'm Adriana Girdler and you have landed on
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In my personal opinion.
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giving you more great content.
Now, on the note of great content,
let's get to those tips on the top three things
that you need as a project manager to succeed.
Communication skills.
From having your stakeholder meetings,
to project team meetings, to getting new information,
to communicating to your customer
that you're delivering stuff to,
project management really is about communication.
Keeping people on top of things,
of changes, of new direction,
anything that you need to ensure
that everyone is working smoothly on a project.
So communication is a big skillset.
I highly recommend that you constantly do in your project.
Now, there's some really cool things that you can do
with communication that is not going to be extra work for
you but integrating it into the work that you do
as a project manager.
One of those things that I really talk about all the time,
and in fact I have a video on it, is the WBS.
It's a work breakdown structure.
I use it as an action plan and within mine
I actually have a comment section in there.
So now we start using the action plan
as a communication tool.
It's a really great way to keep your project team on track
without constantly having to have meetings
for those small little items
or just questions that can definitely be answered
at a later date but you have it tracked
in your communication tool.
Other things that you really need to consider
in communication is not just speaking, but listening.
Your project team members, your stakeholders,
your steering committees, and your customer
are going to give you a lot of information
and you need to listen.
Don't formulate your thoughts.
Really understand what they're trying to say
and bring people back to the original agreements,
which is part of communication.
So it's important that you do that listening
in order to help them.
And really, one of the key or more important things
is you just don't communicate once,
you communicate many times.
In fact, I say to my team and those
that I'm in constant contact with with my projects,
"You're going to hear me repeat things over and over.
It's not because I don't trust
that you're not hearing what I'm saying,
but I'm saying it to a group of you.
And I promise you there's one or two of you
who are a little bit busy thinking of something else
and may not have heard what I said or it didn't click yet."
I promise you that happens all the time.
So practice. Practice your communication.
Repeat yourself.
And it's through that practicing and repeating,
it's just going to help you become a better communicator.
And my one last tip in this is if you're finding
that even though you've done your due diligence,
you have your WBS, you're communicating with your team,
you have a really good communication plan.
And by the way, I have a video on that.
You can check it on the search bar,
Adriana communication plan.
It'll come up and you can check out that video.
Let's say you have everything that you've done
and people still are not getting it
or you're finding that you're communicating
is not hitting home, analyze it.
Figure out what else you can do. It's not just one and done.
Communication is constant. You have to be on top of it.
It is the biggest thing as a project manager
that is going to ensure your success.
So don't forget to communicate with me.
Subscribe, give a like, and give a comment.
Great communication. Thanks.
Outstanding organizational skills.
So not only are you trying to organize yourself,
you're also organizing your team members.
One of the things with project management
is ensuring that you have a lot of balls in the air.
And as a project manager, you're overseeing everybody.
You're actually doing that macro view and then zooming in
to a point in time or zooming into a particular activity
that one of your team members are doing.
And if you have a really big complex project,
you may have multiple smaller sub projects
within your large project that you're executing.
So there's a lot of moving parts.
A lot of things you have to keep track.
Organization is going to be really, really critical for you,
but your team, 'cause I promise you,
your team is probably so focused, and laser beamed,
and siloed on their stuff they do need to take a step back
and understand how their activities
are impacting on everybody else,
which is why their organization is so important.
So I really work very deeply with my team,
which is probably not the right word.
It's not deeply, but I work, (laughs)
I sit down with my team in order to really
get the right level of organization for them.
But I'm the one that has to start it out.
So what are some things that you can do?
The first thing is I have a central location
where everything is housed.
I use SharePoint. I actually love it.
I create it like a website,
very clickable with pictures or color code boxes
and they just go to certain things.
But it's one stop shop for everything that they need.
And if I ever do anything,
it's on that site so that documents as well
are going to be updated to the latest version
and they're not floating around old versions
and people working off of old documents.
That's the worst and really disorganized.
What I said in my other tip, the WBS.
It is magic because now I'm keeping every person on track
and I, myself, can now look at it across the board
from that macro view ensuring that we're all on track.
Timelines and schedules become really important too.
I definitely have an overarching timeline
for the overall project,
but then I also break down each area
and their specific timeline,
'cause sometimes I just need to focus in on that
and that's all I need.
And a lot of times I'll cut and paste,
put it on communication,
because there's something very visual
about having like a bar, not a Gantt chart,
but actually having a bar schedule where you have
like your months and just showing where it is.
A lot of it, it's easy and it's simple
and I can kind of take a snippet and throw it into an email.
And that really helps people go, "Oh yeah, that's right.
That's coming up down the pike."
Again, that is the job of you as a project manager.
Really keeping organized.
And the last tip I'm going to give you on this
is do things immediately.
So if you just got out of a meeting,
clean up your notes and send them out.
That's part of the organization.
Do not wait till the end of the day
because you probably may not get to it
and you may not get to it for a couple of days
and then now it's hanging over your head
as something you have to do, which causes you stress.
So if you can get things done very quickly
and in your organization actually populate things
in a final template, like a meeting notes template,
then that really helps out tremendously
so that you can be quick, efficient,
effective, and organized.
Top notch leadership skills.
Okay, I've said this in videos before
and I'm gonna say it again here.
Project management is not about just executing tasks.
In fact, if that's the case, give it to anybody.
There's more to it. There is leading.
You have a group of individuals
who are all trying to achieve the same goal
and in the perfect world
they would all do their job, they'd all listen,
and they'd get it done with zero politics,
but that's not the case.
Politics does come into play.
People do have competing priorities.
So your job as a project manager now is to lead people,
inspire them, coach them,
ensure that they're very much aware as to what's going on.
That's why you do your organization and your communication.
And you do it through leadership.
You are there to guide your team
even though they don't report into you.
Okay, I get it.
But it's still your team and treat it like that.
And I talk about my team all the time to my team.
I go, "Yeah, my digital team. My construction team."
And they start to feel this sense of ownership
because that's what leaders do.
I'm there to help. I'm there to serve.
And that becomes really important,
not just about executing tasks, although that is important.
We do have to get those things done,
but it's how we do it and how much coaching I do
and the advice and the things I do for them
so that they are successful.
I'm removing their roadblocks. That's what leaders do.
And even more important, emotional intelligence.
Really understand where people are at.
Read between the lines.
Sometimes, because our projects
can be so driven to deadlines,
we're just about focusing and trying to get things done,
again, that sort of task challenge
that we're always with and dealing with,
you have to take a step back, put that leadership hat on,
which should be on most of the time.
Read between the lines with emotional intelligence.
Is someone having a bad day
and maybe they're just behaving in a certain way?
Maybe you need to pull them aside.
Ask them how they're doing. How you can help.
Is there anything that you can do for them
because you're there for them because we're one team?
That's what a leader does.
They're in the front, in the jungle,
moving through everything,
ensuring that their team has a clear path.
And that is your role as a project manager.
A very critical one,
'cause together with the communication,
with the organization, and the leadership,
it's a powerful combination which is going to ensure
that your projects are so successful,
that you're now looked as the go-to person for projects
and anything that's strategic within your organization.
Now that you know the top three project management skills
you need to succeed, ha-ha,
you need this and it's free for you.
My gift to you.
These are the top reasons why projects fail.
And it is critical that you're aware of this
so that you can do everything in your power as a leader
with your organization skills and communication
to ensure this does not happen.
Grab it. The link is below this video.
Until the next time, see you later.