Essential Skills a project manager needs to have to be an effective communicator

Essential Skills a project manager needs to have to be an effective communicator

As a project manager, one needs to have practical communication skills to lead people well.  These are the two communication skills required from a project manager:

1. Active listening- a project manager should have the capability of listening and understanding other members of an organization. Keenly listening to the words of other minus interruptions, asking queries and comprehending all the non-verbal cues bear some meanings to the project managers. Through active listening, persons get to open up. And with active listening, various misunderstandings, as well as conflicts, might be resolved amicably (Zulch, 2014).
2. Open-mindedness: for a project manager to be efficient, he should enter into any discussion with an open mind. With that, it would be capable of listening and comprehending the views of other people instead of only getting their points across. The manager would be willing to engage in any conservations leading to productive and honest outcomes.

How important is a global mindset for communicating in today’s project environment? Why

Nowadays, in the project environment, it is essential to develop a global mindset to share the best formal and informal practices. In sharing these practices from one organization to the other would portray elements of success indicators. Casual and formal sharing of best practices is essential as the management is capable of identifying opportunities that are emerging to utilize such chances to make them production points for the company (Awan, Ahmed & Zulqarnain, 2015).

How can a project manager continue improving communication skills through the career?

There are multiple ways which the project manager can use in improving communication skills all through the career phase. These include: taking part in the active listening to other members, planning meetings appropriately, adopting communication plans, as well as using communication tools whenever appropriate (Jha, 2010).

References

Awan, M. H., Ahmed, K., & Zulqarnain, W. (2015). Impact of the project manager’s soft leadership skills on project success. Journal of Poverty, Investment and Development, 8(2), 37-89.

Jha, S. (2010). The project manager’s communication toolkit. CRC Press.

Zulch, B. (2014). Leadership communication in project management. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, 172-181.