Top 5 Skills Every Project Management Professional Should Have
According to the PMP Certification course, there are likely more than just the 5skills listed below, but if you have them, you’ve laid the groundwork for a successful project management career.
1. Leadership
We must begin with the most important of all — leadership. It’s a tricky skill since some people believe you’re born with leadership abilities that can’t be taught. However, we believe that everyone can learn to apply proven leadership skills and tactics. What’s the alternative, after all?
As a project manager, you’re not only in charge of seeing the project through to completion but also of managing a team to accomplish that goal. This necessitates your ability to motivate and mediate as needed. Keep in mind that project management comes in a variety of styles, one of which will fit your personality. It’s not just about managing tasks; it’s also about managing people.
2. Communication
Leadership and communications are inextricably linked. You can’t be a good leader if you can’t articulate what you want your team to accomplish. But you won’t just be communicating with your team; you’ll also need to communicate with everyone involved in the project, from vendors and contractors to stakeholders and customers.
You’ll need both systems in place to facilitate communications, whether it’s through reporting tools or fostering collaboration using chat, file sharing, and other means to tag discussions at the task level. These tools can also be used to link people one-on-one as well as in groups, such as meetings and presentations.
3. Scheduling
Now we’re getting into some of the more difficult project management skills, and few are as important as learning how to build a project timeline. Breaking down the project’s goals into tasks on a timeline is the only method to achieve them within the timeframe that has been set.
That’s scheduling, and it’s at the heart of what a project manager does: creating a realistic plan and then managing resources to keep the project on track so it can be completed successfully and on time. There are several tools that can assist in this process, including an online Gantt chart, which provides a visual of the schedule with tasks, durations of those tasks, dependencies, and milestones, as discussed in the PMP Certification course.
4. Risk Management
Any action entails a risk. Planning a project, no matter how big or small is fraught with danger. It’s part of your duty to spot potential problems before they become serious. As a result, before beginning the project, you must first identify, assess, and control risk.
The better you are at managing risk, the more likely your project will be successful. Of course, you can’t predict everything that will happen during the project’s life cycle. There will be unanticipated challenges, so you’ll need to have a plan in place to deal with them as they happen.
5. Cost Management
You can’t do anything until you have the funds to do so. You’ve made a financial plan. Your first task is to ensure that the budget is reasonable and capable of meeting the project’s financial requirements, and your second is to keep expenses under control during the project’s execution.
It’s a lot simpler to say than it is to do. Unless you’re fortunate enough to work for an organization with infinite funds, you’ll face financial limits and, more than likely, a very tight budget. It takes a lot of talent to figure out how to get the most money out of a limited budget.
Need more insights on the same? Enroll in a PMP, CAPM, or PfMP Certification course today!
