As project managers, you’ve got our hard skills under control. But soft skills are equally important, despite what you might think.
Soft skills are social and personality traits essential to success at work and in life. For project managers to be successful, they must practice and improve their soft skills.
They significantly impact the results you get—and they make things easier for everyone.
Developing soft-core skills is vital if you’re looking to boost your project management career, improve your current performance, or just keep it afloat.
Soft skills can be learned and honed like any other skill, but the good news is that they are more intuitive than hard skills, and you likely have many of them already.
In this article, you’ll explore project managers’ different soft skills.
1. Conflict management
Dealing with conflict is an inevitable part of being a project manager. You’re working with people, and people often cause conflict.
Although conflict is considered negative, sometimes it is necessary to decide on something that someone does not agree with.
Being a project manager involves a lot of things, but managing conflict is something that can’t be avoided.
This refers to handling disagreements, arguments, and misunderstandings in a way that leads to a more productive team.
Good project managers can handle conflicts maturely. If a conflict arises, they should be able to work it out with all the involved parties and arrive at a mutually acceptable solution that works for everyone.
2. Attention to detail
Attention to detail may seem like a no-brainer for project managers, but attention to detail is one of the most important soft skills for a project manager.
This is something that employers tend to look for when hiring. In addition, it has a very high correlation with whether someone will succeed in their role.
Attention to detail means paying close attention to what is happening and picking up on small details someone may have missed.
For example, a project manager working with a team member will see when they are not performing well or working with their usual enthusiasm.
Attention to detail can also be used when checking your schedule and seeing where some gaps or things have fallen behind. Spotting these quickly can save you time in the long run.
It’s easy to overlook the details, especially when working on a big project or balancing multiple projects simultaneously.
Staying on top of details helps ensure that everything goes smoothly and you don’t miss anything important.
3. Leadership
It’s important to understand how you interact with people on the team and what they expect from you as a leader.
Yet, getting swept up in a project’s technical details can be easy, especially when working with a team.
Leadership is one of the most important soft skills for project managers since it entails how you deal with and treat your team. Project managers with leadership skills can lead their teams to the finish line.
Leadership allows project managers to get the most out of their team, inspire them, and teach them how to improve their work.
Leadership is about taking charge, setting goals, and providing direction. In addition to influencing the behavior of team members and stakeholders, leaders must also influence decisions made by management.
Developing leadership skills can take time and effort, but you can become a better leader with time.
4. Time management
Project managers often have to juggle many projects at the same time. This can cause pressure and stress, but it’s essential to understand that managing multiple projects requires time management skills.
Time management is using time effectively to accomplish tasks and achieve goals. Project managers need to be able to use time effectively.
They are responsible for completing tasks within a specific timeframe or budget and ensuring that projects stay on track.
5. Interpersonal relationship
Interpersonal relationship skills are often mentioned as one of the top soft skills for project managers.
These skills help you build trust and rapport with other people. Furthermore, it helps to develop strong working relationships with your peers and staff and to build high-performing teams.
Active listening, communicating clearly, and resolving conflict and difficult situations non-threatening are skills that include active listening.
These skills also help to see things from other people’s perspectives, build rapport with others, and manage change by helping them feel comfortable with it.
A highly skilled project manager with interpersonal relationships communicates appropriate levels of empathy for each team member.
He/she knows when to be firm and gentle and just go along with someone’s whim if getting your way will ultimately benefit all parties involved (including him).
Good communicators are often memorable for this reason. It’s as though their actions were an extension of their words or thoughts even before they spoke them aloud.
6. Effective communication
Soft skills are a project manager’s best friend. Without them, your ability to deliver on time, within budget, and within scope can be negatively affected.
Strong communication skills are essential to your success as a project manager.
Strong communication skills are essential to your success as a project manager, from dealing with clients directly to handling conflicts among coworkers and experts.
A project manager’s most critical soft skills are communication and presentation skills.
Project managers must communicate their ideas, plans, and expectations to all team members, including clients.
Project managers are responsible for planning, organizing, monitoring, and controlling assigned projects.
They set goals and objectives, track progress, and resolve project-related issues. Strong communication skills are vital for this role because you will interact with people inside and outside the business.
7. Motivation
There is no doubt that motivation plays a vital role as a project manager. Good motivation skills remain one of the most important characteristics of successful project managers.
Motivation can directly impact productivity and attitude toward work, assisting an individual or team in achieving their goals.
Motivated employees are more productive and creative. They tend to make fewer mistakes and respond better to change.
Successful project managers make an effort to motivate their team members even when things are hectic, which is often the case on an impromptu project.
8. Organizational skills
Project managers often have to deal with large numbers of people and activities, which can complicate things.
Organizing your processes efficiently is crucial to making this task manageable. Organizational skills are important for project managers because they control everything.
This is true from the planning to the execution and even the completion. They make sure everything runs smoothly, even when things get hectic.
They must keep track of all paperwork and reports and ensure deadlines are met. Organizational skills are about keeping track of all the details by creating systems for each aspect of your work.
No matter how good your technical knowledge is, if you can’t organize the project or keep track of what’s going on, you won’t be able to do your job correctly.
While at it, you should probably exercise your organizational abilities by arranging your desk drawer, file cabinets, or calendar.
9. Adaptability and flexibility
It may seem obvious, but people with effective project management skills are flexible and adaptive.
Any manager can benefit from flexibility and adaptability, especially if the situation changes or you have to modify your objectives.
Adaptability is the key ingredient to success in almost every business environment. Project managers, even those with years of experience, must remain flexible to adapt to change constantly.
The same goes for business travelers. They must be open to new people and situations to maximize every opportunity.
To be a great project manager, you must be honest and open about your perspective. However, most of the time, honesty will require you to change or modify what you initially thought of doing.
10. Analytical thinking
These are some of the stereotypes about analytical thinkers. But for a project manager, these skills are worth their weight in gold.
Analytical thinking uses logic and reason to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a project, a plan, or an approach.
It’s about identifying potential problems and performing tests to see if they occur. The process goes beyond simply thinking about a problem but uses different methods, such as critical thinking to reach conclusions.
Project managers use their analytical thinking skills to determine how their projects can be completed cost-effectively and efficiently.
What do project managers do?
Project managers plan and monitor activities to meet project objectives. They are responsible for planning and coordinating the resources needed to complete the work.
They do this while ensuring all involved parties understand the goals and requirements.
Their primary responsibilities include:
- Defining clear goals for the project
- Assigning tasks to team members
- Communicating changes in scope to team members and stakeholders
- Ensuring that team members are communicating effectively
- Resolving conflict between team members or stakeholders when necessary
Project managers control the scope, budget, and schedule of a project. But to do that, they need to rely on often overlooked soft skills.
FAQs
What are the hard skills for project managers?
Hard skills for project managers include the technical abilities and knowledge needed to complete a project.
For example, the hard skills of a construction project manager include architectural drawings, building codes, and typical detailing practices.
What makes a great project manager?
Great project managers thrive in diverse and changing environments, lead diverse teams, and adapt to various situations.
How can project managers learn to prioritize tasks?
Project managers can learn to prioritize tasks by relying on their natural abilities and project management soft skills. They should also understand the importance of time management.
Final thoughts
As a project manager, you are paid to consult with your clients and their teams on the best way to get a project done.
That’s a pretty challenging job for anyone, but it’s even more difficult when you have to make all the right decisions when managing your team with many different personality types.
The key is to make sure that you understand what makes people tick. People are constantly changing; they are dynamic, not static. So you must understand how they make individual decisions so that you can lead them in the right direction when making group decisions.
That’s why this list of soft skills for project managers is essential. I hope this list has inspired you and helped you realize what you need to do as a project manager to succeed.
You should also read more about the significant areas of improvement for managers. In the article, you’ll learn how to balance management and self-development.
