3 Essential Project Management Skills

There exists a great demand for effective project managers in today's business world, individuals that are able to effectively run projects of various sizes and scales possess unique skills that are not only sought after - but are vital to the smooth operations of everyday tasks. According the Northeastern University, here are three of these vital skills that every project manager should possess:

Effective Communication

This skill ranks at the very top in most lists similar to this one. The reason for this is simple - project managers spend at least 90% of their operating time just talking to various team members, departments, vendors and contractors. In fact, it's been found that almost 1/3rd of most projects result in some sort of failure and delay simply because the project manager in charge was not able to effectively bridge relationships between the various parties involved.

Scheduling and Time Management

In close second is the ability of the Project Manager to effectively plan out deadlines, milestones and scheduled deliveries. Being able to effectively communicate is important, but having good interpersonal relationships will not get the job done by itself. The most causes of delays are 1) Changes to project objectives, 2) Unclear milestones and goals and 3) Constant changes in operational procedure. A project manager should be able to effectively enforce when certain tasks should be completed, and take immediate corrective action when deadlines are missed by teams or individuals.

Risk Management

The field of risk mitigation continues to see a rise in prominence, especially in recent times where so many external factors exhibit incredible pressures on a project that is underway. The pandemic showed businesses what would happen when logistics slowed down to a crawl due to service stoppages, and the recent conflicts in Eastern Europe has caused a bottleneck in energy and food exports. The ability to prepare, foresee, and lessen the impacts of these events before they occur will feature heavily in the skillsets of modern PMs.