Project Manager Soft Skills

Project Manager Soft Skills

Why are good soft skills really important for a project manager?
In successful projects, project and line managers are likely to have shared authority. The project manager will negotiate the line managers' commitment to the project and works with them, not around them. The project manager probably provides recommendations regarding employee performance.

One of the most difficult aspects of your position as a Project Manager relates to the simple reality that in most organizations project managers have no direct control or formal authority over the people on the project team. This is fundamentally different from leading a department, where the manager ordinarily exercises formal control and there is a hierarchical relationship between the supervisor and subordinate. Project leaders lack formal authority, and therefore must rely on influence and persuasion to gain cooperation from the team members.

You'll have to get things done through the people on your team without having any direct control over them. Among your most valued tools will be the ability to persuade and influence, as you seek to form a group of diverse personalities into a unified team with commonalty of purpose.

Reference: Fast Forward MBA in Negotiating and Deal Making (2015), Roy J. Lewicki and Alexander Hiam.

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Jose Daniel Esterkin
CEO, Argentina

Project Management Soft Skills

Project management also involves quite a bit of selling. There will be times when you'll have to rely heavily on your ability to influence others, to sell an idea, sell yourself, sell your project, or perhaps sell the virtues of project management.
In a perfect business situation, every project should prove its associated benefits in a business case, qualitative and quantitative. But too many projects start and move far into implementation without serious scrutiny: after such project begins, there is very little chance that it will ever succeed. A major reason for this is that if marginal projects are approved, there is likely to be insufficient allocation of always scarce resources. The project then has to "sell itself" even after it is approved: is the investment worth continuing?
That's why many companies have moved toward project portfolio management, where each new product project is viewed as an investment. Here, tough go/kill decision points are built into the new project process in the form of gates that successively cull out mediocre projects.
Source: Benefits Realization Management, a Practice Guide (2017), PMI.

Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands

Importance of Soft Skills of Project Managers

@Suresh Aiyar: Thanks for your valuable comment. Agile and/or scrum development methods help to assess continuously if we are (still) heading in the right direction. This aspect of managing projects is handled better than in traditional business case evaluation and applying gates as in various project management tools such as Prince2.
However the issue of Mr. Esterkin still remains that - due to excessive selling or not enough selling - the wrong projects get approved. It is obviously better to only spend precious resources on projects with a positive EVA. To avoid that, a sound strategy, a good business case, a proper project plan, risk analysis and mitigation, and last but not least professional decision makers are still as important as they have always been. No doubt, good soft skills and communication skills of the project leader are crucial to manage all this successfully.
A 3rd area where project managers need good soft skills is project expectation management towards the stakeholders.
⇨ Are there any other PM soft skills that deserve special mentioning?

Reg Hayes
Entrepreneur, Netherlands

Projects are Primarily Social Systems

Leading projects will be most successful if the project managers realize that projects are basically social systems.
That's why all project managers and program managers should develop skills in leading social systems. And when they construct project organizations, they should primary select and organize people based on their ability to work together and generate synergy.
Using group dynamics rather then technocratic methodologies; projects will successfully produce the right deliverables to all stakeholders. Even better would be that projects are developed as learning systems and provide all stakeholders a challenging learning environment.
Project start up should be organized with all stakeholders, included the project board. You should use group dynamics methodologies like brainstorming to align all visions on the project goals. This will prevent trouble in the final phases when stakeholders will decide if the project goals have been met or not.
When I performed project audits I sadly had to find out that disagreement on goals was the worst problem in reaching goals in budget and time.

Tendekai Dzinamarira
Manager, Zimbabwe

Mindful Project Management

In 2015, Congleton and Lazar claimed in the Harvard Business Review, “Mindfulness should no longer be considered as nice-to-have soft skill for managers but a must-have: a way to keep our brains healthy, effective decision-making capabilities, and to protect ourselves from toxic stress”. Mindfulness can be categorised into different levels (Sutcliffe et al., 2016):

Individual Mindfulness (of employees, managers, you)
Organizational Mindfulness (of the organization and it's culture)
Team Mindfulness (i.e., mindful organizing of a (project) team)

I'm going to focus on the third one and mindfulness in project management.

Mindfulness in Project Management. Definition and Steps

Kutsch and Hall (2022) refer to mindfulness in project management as the practice of paying attention to the present moment, without judgment, while managing a project. They go on to claim that it involves being aware of one's thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, as well as the external environment. In their book Mindful Project Management they outline following steps to be followed by a project manager in order to practice mindfulness in project management:

SET INTENTIONS
If project managers set clear intentions or goals of what they want to pursue, they can guide their actions and decisions in a mindful manner.
"Intentions are a conscious choice to bring your awareness to specific qualities or attitudes that you want to cultivate during your project activities."
CULTIVATE AWARENESS
To be mindful in project management, the authors recommend cultivating awareness of your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. This involves being present in the moment, observing your experiences without judgment, and being open to new information.
“Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment, without judgment or attachment."
CULTIVATE PRESENCE
If project managers are fully present in the moment, it allows them to better understand the project dynamics and respond effectively
"Presence is the foundation of mindfulness, enabling you to fully engage with the present moment and direct your attention to what is happening right now."
PRACTICE ACTIVE LISTENING
Project managers will be able to gain deeper insights and build stronger relationships with their stakeholders if they actively listen.
"Active listening requires letting go of your own agenda and fully immersing yourself in the perspective of the speaker."
EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY
Mindful project managers acknowledge and embrace uncertainty, allowing for agile decision-making and creative problem-solving. It therefore helps them to navigate uncertain situations with greater ease and flexibility.
"Uncertainty is an inherent part of project management, and mindfulness can help us embrace it rather than trying to avoid it."
"Embracing uncertainty means being comfortable with not knowing the outcome and being open to different possibilities."
FOSTER COLLABORATION
Project managers will be able to tap into the collective wisdom and diverse perspectives of their project teams, leading to better project outcomes.
"Collaboration requires creating an environment that encourages open communication, trust, and shared responsibility."

Benefits and Drawbacks

Mindfulness is a powerful tool that can help project managers improve their performance and well-being. From the several ways outlined above on how to be mindful, it can be seen that if faithfully practiced it can yield several benefits. According to Kutsch and Hall, the practice of mindfulness can help project managers and their team members to communicate more effectively, improve creativity as well as reduce stress levels among the project team members. Furthermore, mindfulness can help project managers in making better decisions as it enables them to remain focused on the present moment and avoid getting caught up in emotional reactions or past experiences.

However, it is important to realise that mindfulness in project management may have potential drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is that it can take time to learn and practice and project managers may not always have the time to dedicate to it and practice it. In addition, it may not be suitable for all the team members, as certain people may not be comfortable with self-introspection or may be unable to make decisions without using emotions or past experiences.

Nonetheless, with careful practice, mindfulness can be a valuable asset to any project manager's toolkit. It can help develop the ability to stay focused on the present moment and make decisions based on the best available information, rather than being swayed by emotions or past experiences (Kutsch and Hall, 2022).

⇨ Have you been practicing mindfulness, perhaps without realizing it? Feel free to share your experiences! Are there any other effective ways or steps that can allow you as project managers to be mindful?

References:
Congleton, C., & Lazar, S. W. (2015). Mindfulness can literally change your brain. New York, NY: Avery
Kutsch, E., & Hall, M. (2022). Mindful Project Management: Resilient Performance Beyond the Risk Horizon. Routledge.
Sutcliffe, K. M., Vogus, T. J., & Dane, E. (2016). Mindfulness in organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3(1), 55-81.