A project manager is one who can manage one or more projects and the teams. He should have technical as well as non-technical knowledge related to the project and skills to make the project successful.
In order to become a project manager, a candidate need to take up a management course where PMP would be a wise choice to make as it is one of the most prestigious certifications, which one can do to enhance his abilities. Here are the skills, which one should learn in order to become a successful project manager.
Below take a rundown at the the basic qualities to boost up your project management competencies:
Leadership
Leadership is an essential skill, which a project manager must develop in order to manage the project and the team. The manager has to set a vision, motivate the team members, and provide them with the training, if needed, to make a project successful.
A project manager has to lead the team from a strategic and operational perspective. The communication with the team should be in such a way that the conflicts are resolved, goals are set, and their performance is evaluated. The manager also has to take care of remuneration, space, given to each team member, and other things, which will help them to work comfortably and produce good results.
A good leader should also have the capability of enforcing the rules and regulations regarding the project. He should manage the team and keep them informing about everything regarding the project. The final responsibility of the team is to deliver the project successfully.
All the projects need a leader who can manage the team and deal with the client. The project manager is the one who can cheerfully lead and encourage his team so that they can perform well. The manager also has to deal with the team if they face any problem in completing the project.
The manager also has to think of making the life of the team members cheerful and comfortable while working. He has to become a master in leadership so that he can lead the team on a successful mission of executing the project. He has to design a roadmap on which the team will walk in order to reach the success.
Communication
Communication is another skill that the project manager should have so that his team can understand him well and he can also understand his team. The communication skill can build a good relationship between the manager and the team.
The manager should also have good communication with the client in order to make a good relationship with him. The manager shall contact the client and update him about the progress of the project. If the client reports any problem, the manager should discuss it with the team and eliminate the issue.
The communication is not good if it is not understood by the person with whom the manager is communicating. A manager has to communicate effectively in order to avoid any conflicts in the future. A manager should also develop interpersonal skills along with communication in order to execute the project successfully. The manager should also give a written report of the project and its status so that client becomes relaxed as his project is going on.
The manager must explain clearly what each team member has to do. If a member has not understood, the manager can explain to him his task again calmly so that he can perform his duty as per the instructions and does not get confused and frustrated.
In order to improve communication, the manager should understand each of his team members well. In order to achieve this, the manager can have either one-to-one or a team meeting in order to understand them and their problems regarding the project. This strategy has to be changed from one project to another and should be maintained.
Planning Skills
One of the major project management skills is to plan the execution of the project before starting it. In this way, the tasks can be easily assigned to the right people and the project can be finished on time. This will also make the monitoring of the project easy. If there are changes, they can also be done and the project will remain on track.
The plan includes the following
- Meeting plan
- Timeline
- Statement of work
- Estimates
- Briefings
- Resource plans
Planning a project makes it easy to work it out efficiently. The effective plan will help in the successful completion of the project. If a manager is good at execution but not at planning, then it is very difficult to work on a project and it can even not be successful.
Time Management
Time management is also a very important task of the project manager. He has to determine the time that the team is spending on the project. The manager should also look the way in which he himself is spending the time. There are two types of tasks distributed among the team – one of them is important and other is urgent. Here time management has to be done in order to complete the urgent tasks rather than the important ones.
One of the most time-consuming things is meetings. Sometimes meetings take a form of long discussions, which eats up much time. Sometimes these meetings are unnecessary which eats up the time of completing important work.
If the meetings are done only for valid reasons, this will consume less time. The discussions in the meeting should be to the point in order to save time and meet the target. Before conducting a meeting, a strategy should be planned about what to discuss and how much time the discussion would take.
Risk Management
The management targets the project manager if the project is not successful or does not work out according to the plan. People began to think that the manager has not taken various types of risks while working on the project.
The client does not like surprises and if the project manager plans it efficiently, then he can eliminate such surprises. The project managers should think about the risks seriously so that they can control the risk and manage it as far as possible. Proper planning can avoid many or all kinds of risk.
If a manager identifies a risk, he should make a proper plan to eliminate it before it occurs. This will benefit the manager and his team in many ways. The most important benefit is that it will make the client happy as the project will be delivered without any risk.
Negotiation Skills
A project manager should also have the ability to negotiate things as there can be people in the team who have got competing interests and the project manager should have the ability to negotiate the situation in order to meet the project goal. The negotiation should be done in such a way that all the members of the team are satisfied.
Subject Matter Expert
A project manager has the responsibility to manage his team and lead them in such a way that they can complete the project successfully. The manager should be familiar with the platform and software applications on which the team is working.
He will come to know their limitations and accordingly talk with the client. The project manager should have the knowledge regarding the delivery of the project. If he has technical knowledge then it will be a plus for him
Afterwords
The job of project management is very difficult as the manager has to deal with the team and the client. He also has to submit the progress report to the client as well as the top management. His main responsibility is to deliver the project so he should have the capability of managing the team and the skills of time management, planning, leadership, etc.
Aisha Gujral 
UPLARN 
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