Since organizations spin viable initiatives into projects, and these projects can become complicated, managers need to acquire project management skills to ensure the actions are adequately delivered in time.
Project managers, unlike ordinary managers, go into the tiniest details when managing processes, here are several essential skills in project management:
COMMUNICATION: Effective communication is the bane of project management, it is necessary for a project manager to effectively convey vision, ideas, goals, and issues as well as produce reports and presentations at the close of an initiative.
LEADERSHIP: Leadership is an essential weapon in the arsenal of a project manager. A manager who can lead a team is sure to deliver on projects efficiently.
NEGOTIATION: Negotiation is a subset of communication skills. As a project manager, you have to negotiate on budgets, the use of resources, schedules, and a variety of unavoidable compromises. Negotiating well so that all parties are satisfied is an essential skill for the successful project manager.
TEAM MANAGEMENT: Leading a team is inspiring them enough to work with you, while team management is providing the right tools for team members to work with. Team management involves administrating individuals by fostering teamwork, delegating tasks, setting goals, and evaluating performance.
PERSONAL ORGANIZATION: A famous saying goes thus, “You cannot give what you don’t have,” and this also implies to project managers. A project manager needs to be disciplined enough to carry out his projects to completion before impacting his team members.
RISK MANAGEMENT: Risk by definition is a situation that is not urgent; as a result, many project managers fail to consider risks as imminently as they should. Predicting and creating solutions to issues before they arise increases your chances of completing the projects successfully.
WHY SHOULD MANAGERS TAKE UP A PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILL
Now that we know the vital skills necessary for a project manager, although it is a difficult skill to master here is why managers should learn it regardless:
The fundamentals of managing a project from start to finish require a team of individuals with different talents and skills. Those people are responsible for planning and executing the project objectives, and that takes more than just labour and materials. Each project follows a Project Life Cycle. A sound project plan can mean the difference between success or failure.
SETTING A CLEAR PLAN: Projects require a defined plan from the moment the initiative is conceived to its final execution. Executing projects could become chaotic at a point, and he knowledge of project management skill will come in handy for a manager. The primary function of project management is organizing and planning projects to curtail the chaos that may arise in the process of running a project. An adequately mapped out plan from start to finish ensures the outcome of the initiative is successful.
An essential aspect of setting a clear plan is managing schedules. Gauging a drawn-out plan to a time frame ensures that projects are not run past their slated time, and cost overruns are reduced to the barest minimum.
QUALITY CONTROL: Quality is the value of what is produced. Every manager should strive to ensure quality is delivered at the end of a project, and this is what project management identifies with as it manages and controls quality.
Projects are done under pressure and without supervision from a project management skilled manager results in underestimated tasks rushed processes and tightened schedules — the result of this a poor quality project. Project management trained managers ensure that the project is done in time with the available resources and that quality is delivered at every stage of the process.
ENCOURAGES EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND TEAMWORK: A manager lacking in communication skills will cause ruin to the entire initiative. Effective communication is essential in managing a productive team. Project management allows for a manager to accurately convey his ideas to groups and build a proper rapport with them.
Excellent communication and collaborative efforts between teammates fosters teamwork, which is the cornerstone of successful project planning, management, and execution.
ACCOUNTABILITY: As a manager, his knowledge of project management skills will help keep your team accountable for their work and cross out any confusion around responsibilities. The skills help you identify the best man for the job and attribute roles to that person by a measure of their performance. When the assigned task is failing, a project manager can easily place a pinpoint and bring it back to the right path.
MAXIMIZING RESOURCES AND CONTROLLING COST: – Resources are expensive in every form of it, whether financial or human. By including project management skills such as risk management, all resources are efficiently and economically managed.
The budget accrued to projects are in significant amounts. The use of project management tools such as project tracking significantly controls the risk of overrunning the budget.
MICRO PRODUCTIVITY: Breaking down a large project into small manageable micro-projects is vitalin the successful delelivery of the initiative. Project management skills helps the manger to assign these smaller tasks to a single individual. The more a project is disintegrated into micro-projects, the better the chances of successful tracking and delivery.
LEARNING FROM PAST SUCCESSES AND MISTAKES: Project management ensures that lessons are learned from project success and failure. While some projects are a huge success, others go south. When these projects fail, it is crucial to learn from the process and not repeat the mistake a second time.
A manager with a project management skill knows it is essential to go back to the drawing book in post-project reviews to understand what worked well, what didn’t go as planned, and what should be carried out differently in the next project.
Going back to the drawing book imbibes a learning culture in a manager. The manager notes the highs and lows of a project, makes a record of them, and uses this as a guide in future projects. Managers who fail to implement this skill fail over time after time and therefor dents the organization’s image.
The reasons stated above, and several other factors are why managers need to learn the core skills of project management.