What are the skills and the knowledge a Project Manager must have?

Projects encompass many different individuals and organizations,. But the project manager is the face of the project and the point of contact for any questions or concerns about their project, including all tasks performed by other people. But just try to imagine what project managers deal with. They need to be able to manage work, in which they sometimes they don't have any experience with. They need to also manage the experts performing this work and ensure they deliver as per expectations. On top of that they need to successfully relate with professionals from all levels of seniority - from junior team members through heads of departments to the high level managers like CEOs. They must own their project and every cog working within it. They are accountable for all of it. And with that comes the power bestowed upon them to make decisions and take action. But what makes them worthy of this power? Their skills, knowledge, attitude and practical experience. There are countless attributes a project manager will have, both professional and personal. What we can do is look at the three major skill sets and essential qualities within them. The first piece includes the technical skills and knowledge. This is the A - B of project management. Here we have the fundamentals and know-how, such as the understanding of the project management triple constraint: scope, time and cost, the link between the elements and how to manage them throughout the project. The theoretical framework, including key definitions and the five phases in the project lifecycle. This knowledge helps you organize the chaotic requirements, expectations and constraints into well-structured projects. The ability to apply critical project management tools and documents: Project Charter, Project plan, Gantt chart, Critical Path method, project budget, status review materials, risk log, etc. Sounds serious right? Well don't worry. This course is tailor-made to give you this invaluable knowledge, along with numerous practical tips and dozens of project management templates to get you fully ready as you engage into your next project. OK. Still in this area here are some of the key technical skills that project managers need to develop. Personal organization - the ability to order your own tasks. Task management - being able to structure work into tasks prioritize assign follow-up and bring those tasks to completion. Critical thinking - the ability to filter useful information from the not so useful and on this basis make the right decisions. And finally, efficient use of Basic software, enabling you to create clean tables and slides for your plans, trackers and presentations respectively. Allright, let's move on to the next key piece. The interpersonal or soft skills. Projects are performed by people and for people. You already know each project is unique and this means you will have to adapt to the new colleagues and partners each time. The project manager will need to build trust from scratch as the people involved and the dynamics will be new. This is one of the main reasons why working on projects is so interesting. But it also makes it quite challenging! Let's see the key skills required in this group. Communication. Various studies suggest that project managers spend about 90 percent of their time communicating. Sounds like an important skill to me. The majority comes from the regular and the ad hoc project meetings, the written communication via emails and chats and finally, the daily conversations with team members around the coffee machine. Yes. The last ones are a great opportunity for creating a good feeling around the projects as often team members are more relaxed to share ideas and opinions in an informal setting. The next skill to review is team management. As we already know, the project manager is accountable for the project's success, which always includes the performance and output of the project team. The project manager needs to clearly articulate what the tasks are that need to be done by whom and when each one is expected to be completed. In addition, they must support the team members in case of problems that prevent them from completing the work. On top of all that, project managers need to be able to keep the team motivation at a good level throughout the project lifecycle. Up next we have leadership. This skill incorporates the ability of the project manager to influence the organization and stakeholders in the desired direction. Negotiating with managers and mediating on conflicting situations may often take place in a project. Finally, we have the social skills. The number and variety of people you may work with on a project is substantially increasing nowadays. Can you imagine having to work with an I.T. expert in Germany, a sales representative in the US, a financial manager in India and the CEO in, let's say, Singapore? And all of that in the same day! That's a reality and you need to adapt your communication style, language and behaviour to the person you're working with. And some personal advice: never talk only about the project work with the people in your team. Personal interests, hobbies and sports are great topics to discuss every now and then. You don't want people to associate you only with office work! Oh and one more thing. Using humor is not a forbidden thing. There are situations when inappropriate joke helps people relax. It is proven that humor increases trust, relieves stress and helps build the team morale. Great. We covered the second group as well. Throughout the course you will be seeing real life examples and case studies where the project manager interacts with different stakeholders. These will give you a practical view of how to respond and deal with some typical situations. Okay. The last piece here is business specific knowledge or industry experience. A classic question is whether a project manager needs to be an expert in the industry in which their projects are taking place. The answer is not that straightforward. Experience in the specific business can definitely help the project manager. Knowing the details helps plan well with less uncertainties around the activities, predict certain risks and maybe communicate more easily with the stakeholders in the beginning. Nevertheless, being a great expert in the field does not guarantee the successful completion of a project. While it may help there is one thing you need to be an expert in to achieve success for your projects: Project management With that said, let's continue full speed on our journey to becoming these experts! But first, how about a brief history lesson?