Incorporate Soft Skills into Your Project Management Practice Today
Ready to integrate soft skills into your project management toolkit?
Learn how to apply these skills in your daily practice, choose the right training, and take your career to the next level.
Incorporate Soft Skills into Your Project Management Practice Today
Ready to integrate soft skills into your project management toolkit?
Learn how to apply these skills in your daily practice, choose the right training, and take your career to the next level.
Project soft skills - not an “add on” or a “nice to have”
Project soft skills are not a gimmick which give you an “edge” – they are a fundamental component of professional project management practice.
If you appreciate that project management rests upon the successful management of people, process and technology, it’s clear that “people skills” or “soft skills” must be fundamental to successful project management.
So why is it that project management training focuses on methodologies that offer excellent in-depth guidance on “process” but have little to say in comparison about people?
We agree the project objectives and tolerances with people, go on to deliver the project with people and ultimately review the success of the project or otherwise with people – little wonder perhaps why 70% of projects fail when most project managers have received no in-depth training in project management soft skills or people skills, to compliment their project management methodology and technical skills.
This means that for project managers that have not undertaken in depth training, development and application of soft skills, your project management training is incomplete
To learn more about why project soft skills are an essential component of effective project management, please download our free paper “incomplete”
The benefits you reap are indirect, which is to say you work on “you” and see changes in others, which is a good thing – as you are in complete control of what, how and when you implement the changes – changes which will not require the approval or cooperation of others which compliment any project methodology currently in use.
Because you will be working on “You” it is important to be as self-aware and “honest” with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses, as possible. We provide a free “self-awareness questionnaire” which you can access here and the University of Maryland’s online course: “let’s get started” is highly recommended, which you can find here
When you are ready, our recommendation is to integrate the use of the emotional bank account into your project management practice first – this is why it is the first course we developed.
Applying the emotional bank account will start to build a fund of trust and goodwill and foster strong emotional connections, which produce a very powerful positive effect upon all aspects of your project work.
Download Our Free eBook
Unlock the full potential of your projects with “Incomplete.” Download our eBook to discover how mastering soft skills can fill the gaps in your project management approach. Get your free copy now!
Completing your project management training
Integrating a mixture of strategic and tactical soft skills into your project management practice is the key to success. If you are a practising project manager, you will already have a number of tactical soft skills like problem solving, time management and delegation, and strategic soft skills like Change management, Influence and persuasion.
Listed below are those strategic and tactical soft skills you are least likely to have integrated into your project management practice so far and which are likely to give you the maximum impact, should you be new to project soft skill and choose to study and apply them:
Strategic soft skills
The Emotional Bank Account: Building and maintaining trust, goodwill & strong emotional connections through consistent, positive interactions, which fosters a collaborative and supportive project environment.
Reciprocation: Leveraging the principle of reciprocation to create a culture of mutual support and cooperation, encouraging team members to contribute and collaborate more effectively.
Resilience: Demonstrating and fostering resilience within the team to navigate challenges, setbacks, and changes without losing momentum or morale.
Tactical soft skills
Empathy: Understanding and addressing the emotional and professional needs of team members to build stronger relationships and improve team cohesion.
Active Listening: Listening attentively to team members and stakeholders to understand their perspectives, concerns, and suggestions.
Completing your project management training
Integrating a mixture of strategic and tactical soft skills into your project management practice is the key to success. If you are a practising project manager, you will already have a number of tactical soft skills like problem solving, time management and delegation, and strategic soft skills like Change management, Influence and persuasion.
Listed below are those strategic and tactical soft skills you are least likely to have integrated into your project management practice so far and which are likely to give you the maximum impact, should you be new to project soft skill and choose to study and apply them:
Strategic soft skills
The Emotional Bank Account: Building and maintaining trust, goodwill & strong emotional connections through consistent, positive interactions, which fosters a collaborative and supportive project environment.
Reciprocation: Leveraging the principle of reciprocation to create a culture of mutual support and cooperation, encouraging team members to contribute and collaborate more effectively.
Resilience: Demonstrating and fostering resilience within the team to navigate challenges, setbacks, and changes without losing momentum or morale.
Tactical soft skills
Empathy: Understanding and addressing the emotional and professional needs of team members to build stronger relationships and improve team cohesion.
Active Listening: Listening attentively to team members and stakeholders to understand their perspectives, concerns, and suggestions.