In spite of this, soft skills seem to be given considerably less coverage in project forums and general discourse. From here, I’d like to focus on three often-overlooked soft skills which you need to be proficient with to thrive in a project management environment.

Resilience

Your team’s level of resilience reflects its ability to deal with internal or external factors that may impact on its objectives. These factors can vary considerably, from team resourcing levels to the availability of ancillary teams.

Though an exhaustive checklist of factors is not possible, the key factors which impact a project team’s resilience may include SMART goals, adoption of technology, project documentation, individual resilience, ancillary teams, etc.

From personal experience, I’d like to comment on three of these factors.

1. Individual resilience is important as staff burnout can have a big impact on team performance. Having a personal mentor and cultivating a good work-life balance is particularly helpful.
2. Project documentation is vital for briefing stakeholders, particularly when there is high project staff turnover. Having up-to-date project documentation (e.g. Project Initiation Document) to hand considerably eases the transition of new staff into your project.
3. Effective use of ancillary teams can improve outcomes. For example, in my previous role, I liaised with the technical team to vet risk and method statements before presenting these to engineering managers. This helped de-risk decision making and increase approval rates of documentation. Hence, it’s important to be aware of different ancillary teams whose support can be enlisted.

Personal Branding

Your personal brand ties in very closely with the concept of self-awareness. A comprehensive view of this covers everything from your dress sense, specialist knowledge, professionalism, and level of ambition.

Developing your personal brand begins with an open and honest dialogue with yourself. What are your interests? What are your key strengths? How high up the corporate ladder do you want to climb? It’s important not to forget that your personal brand needs to compliment that of your organization. Thereby, you should also ask questions like “How do I embody my organization’s values in my day-to-day work?”

There are several questions you can pose, however, the sample answers can help you begin to frame the conversation.

Defining your unique selling point can eventually draw others to you as a go-to person and tacitly elevate you to consultant status for your expert area, bringing specialist (and even remunerated) packages of work your way.

Political Astuteness

Politically astute project managers recognize that projects operate in politically charged environments, often impacting multiple stakeholders with vested interests. I like to call these stakeholders ‘teams within teams’ because, though often part of the same host organization, their differing objectives are brought to light by the implementation of the project.

In my experience, two key groups of ‘teams within teams’ can negatively impact the outcome of your project:

1. Those whose objectives are diametrically opposed to that of the project, who act as project blockers, seeking to halt the project in its tracks.
2. Those whose objectives align with the project, who will seek to use the project as a vehicle to achieve their own objectives, thereby increasing project cost, scope, and duration.

I came across an example of the first group when working as a management trainee in a Northern Ireland hospital. The hospital was implementing a new surgical referral pathway championed by consultant doctors. However, this new way of working would reconfigure workloads for the administrative front of house (the ‘team within a team’), which openly opposed the new system.

The second group’s emergence became apparent in an equipment installation project I was involved in. The project required a significant infrastructure investment to proceed, benefitting several other stakeholders. A deliberation over funding routes ensued, including a debate over this singular project bearing the brunt of cost, given several other benefactors.

For Group 1 teams, managing expectations, monitoring benefits and mitigating the impact of the project as far as possible is key. Group 2 teams, who see your project as an opportunity, can be negotiated with to reach a fair and equitable settlement that reflects their impact on the cost/scope/duration of your project.

To wrap it up, a multi-pronged approach can considerably enhance your team’s resilience. A tick-box exercise may not fully reflect the uniqueness of your team, however, the ideas presented above form a good starting point. Second, actively manage your personal brand to a tee, from your sartorial standards to project management style. Investing in yourself will pay dividends in a matter of time.

Finally, be vigilant for the political machinations at play within your project. Proactively identify ‘teams within teams’, whose objectives are aligned to or at odds with your project. Either way, their influence and impact may need to be managed during the change cycle.

Read on: PMI Named Top Skills for Project Managers

Illustration: Copyright © Margarita Winkler

The post A Trio of Powerful Soft Skills Often Overlooked by Project Managers appeared first on PM Column.

Those taking their first steps into the world of public sector projects may very well find themselves thrown in at the deep end of projects, as managers seek to accomplish more with fewer resources.

Luckily, if you are a newcomer to the profession, you can hope to embrace a vibrant community of peers, seasoned professionals, and old-timers. It helps to adopt a reflective mindset and learn from others’ trodden paths, which is why I am keen to share three key reflections from my first 100 days in project management.

1. Be creative in applying project tools to live projects

The application of project tools to live projects is not an exact science. In fact, it’s closer to fine art as you may reap some surprising results from experimenting with different tools.

For example, tutorials about stakeholder management invariably begin with an instruction to ‘identify’ stakeholders and then ‘map’ them in some way, often as a ‘power/interest’ grid. When I applied this technique to a project, I realized that one of our in-house teams (required to vacate a newly leased space) had low negotiating power over timescales to leave, but very high interest in the solution for their new space (i.e. ‘high interest/low power’).

The grid prompted me to seek ways to enhance their influence over the outcome, most notably by obtaining their requirements for the new space and tracking their benefits from the move.

Read on: Tools for Project Managers to Travel in Time

2. Take on extra responsibilities to meet project objectives

Within a year of my first project management role, I was playing second fiddle to a senior project manager on a high-profile capital scheme. I felt that my job description only really told half the story, if that. Role demarcations, though dynamic, can be clarified by asking yourself one important question: “What extra responsibilities do I need to take on for this project to meet its objectives?”

When I posed myself this question, I found myself conducting peer reviews for project documentation (usually performed by committees), project health checks (traditionally the province of the Programme Management Office) and recovering project management fees from a client (usually the responsibility of a credit controller). These activities, amongst others I completed, were critical to the project’s success.

3. Apply intuition to navigate ambiguity in projects

When I joined my department, I was signposted to the live process map, home to all relevant processes to be adhered to by project managers. However, I found that the process map did not opine on certain issues I later came across. For example, it did not provide guidance on the use of third party asbestos removal companies different to the approved in-house contractor. An intuitive approach dictated that the in-house asbestos manager be consulted to provide comment on the matter and that an agreement be reached with the third party.

To summarise, your first dalliance with project management might expose you to a plethora of project tools, so it’s helpful to be open-minded in selecting tools that add value to your project. Furthermore, project roles tend not to be wholly prescriptive as teams need to adapt to meet diverse workloads. It’s important to think critically about the extra responsibilities you may need to assume in order to satisfy your project’s objectives. Finally, exercise your faculties of intuition, as certain grey areas are not always accounted for by documented process. As long as you can justify your actions, you can inspire confidence in others of being in harmony with the principles of good governance.

Read on: How to Start a Project Management Career with Zero Experience

The post 3 Things You Need to Know on the First 100 Days as a Project Manager appeared first on PM Column.