Inter personal skills of Project Manager

The “Interpersonal skills” also known as “Soft Skills” of the project manager make big difference in the project to build the team to improving the competencies, team interaction, and team environment and to achieve the goal of the project.

Inter personal is the important tool in the “Develop Project Team” process in the “Project Human Resource Management” knowledge area as per PMP.

1) Leadership Skills:

Leadership is the process of influencing others to achieve the organizational goals.

Leadership is an interaction between the leader, the followers and the situation.

A project manager needs to constantly remind the team of the vision they’re working toward and make decisions to help keep the team on track toward it.

2) Team Building:

Team-building involves helping your team learn to depend on each other and trust each other. As a project manger, it’s your job to help the team come to an understanding about how they’ll communicate with each other and stay motivated when things go wrong.

Project Managers role in team building:

·         Encourage and maintain open communication.

·         Help the team to develop and follow team norms.

·         Help the team focus on the task.

·         Deal constructively with conflict.

·         Keep a record of team meetings.

·         Maintain a record of team assignments.

·         Maintain a record of the team's work.

3) Motivation:

Motivation demonstrates to your team the value that the project has for them. It includes making sure that people are compensated and rewarded financially for their work.

Your team also needs to know how they tasks they’re doing contribute to project success and what’s in it for them. Motivating your team is about helping them to be satisfied with the job they’re doing, recognizing them when they do a good job, and keeping them challenged with new and different problems.

4) Communication:

Good communication is a key element in the skills portfolio of any successful professional. Being able to articulate your vision and strategies clearly enables you to energize and motivate your team and establishes you as a strong leader and capable manager within the organization. Harnessing the skills to influence others can be the difference between success and failure.
Communication is so vital to an organization's decision-making process that all project managers must have the skills to initiate and respond to all forms of communication. The successful manager builds collaborative relationships through active listening. He or she can dramatically increase productivity by running efficient meetings and business discussions.
Building collaborative relationships based on trust and respect, gaining commitment for your vision, and leading your team and stakeholders to consensus are all critical competencies for today's project managers.

5) Influencing:

Influencing is all about using your relationships with the people on your team to get them to cooperate in making good decisions for the project.

6) Political and Cultural Awareness:

In today’s world, project managers operate in an environment that is more globally focused than in the past. This makes cultural diversity another important component of successfully navigating the corporate environment as a project manager. A good project manager must have the skills necessary to recognize and understand those cultural differences as well as the ability to factor them into the project plan.

Cultural differences can influence the decision making process or the speed in which the work is completed. It can also cause members to act without proper planning. Not recognizing cultural differences can then result in conflict and stress within the project which will further delay it.

Furthermore it is important to recognize the politics involved in the project environment. Using political skills can help a project manager be very successful. However, more importantly, not recognizing the politics involved can create significant problems and roadblocks that could delay or completely derail a project.

7) Decision Making:

Decision making is how will you handle the issues, conflicts and risk occurs during the project.

Few decision making techniques are provided below:

Command - Sometimes, you’ll just make a decision and inform your team about it. You’ll decide and then team will do what you say.

Consultation - Sometimes you’ll talk your decision over with your team and ask for their opinions before you decide.

Consensus - Another way of making decisions is to talk about a few options with your team and get everybody to agree on one of them before you decide.

Coin Flip - Another way to make a decision is to just randomly choose one of the options.

8) Negotiation:

Negotiation helps people the on your team come to an agreement about how to work together. It’s important when your negotiating to listen to both parties in negotiation and to make sure that you make it clear when concessions are made.

That should everyone see both sides of the issue and know that you’re negotiating a fair resolution to the issue.