Interpersonal Skills – Project Manager: A Demigod? - Part II

The article below also appears on the Simplilearn website.

In Part 1 of this article, I elaborated on Leadership, Team Building and Motivation. In this concluding part, we take a closer look at

•       Communication
•       Influencing
•       Decision Making
•       Political and Cultural Awareness
•       Negotiation

COMMUNICATION

The PMBOK® states that a Project Manager spends 90% of his time in communicating.  This reiterates the importance of this must have Skill. Recent studies and surveys in Communication models show us that in a successful transfer of Communication, words only account for 7%, body language 55% and tone of voice 38%. Project Managers across the globe are now increasingly working with Virtual Team and inherently face challenges in Communication. It is clear that for effective Communications, Project Managers should work on honing their

a.         Nonverbal Communication – This includes your facial expressions, body language and even physical appearance.

b.        Para lingual Communication – This is the tone and pitch of your voice when communicating with people. Believe me; if you are rewarding someone with a sarcastic tone, then the Team Member will be demotivated instead of being motivated.

          Feedback -          It is a good practice to confirm what you have understood and provide feedback. You        can summarize the points discussed, ask questions for clarifications etc.

INFLUENCING

Influencing -       Influencing is using your relationships with your team members to get them to cooperate into making the right decisions for the Project. Leading by Example or Walk the talk acts as a great influencer and consequently motivator.  Collaboration is the key to being a great Influencer. A Project Manager needs to adjust his style depending on the Team Member personality.

DECISION MAKING

 Decision Making- A Project Manager needs to make decisions  throughout the Project. The decision making process itself should be transparent so as to influence and convince the Team to follow through the Decision. There are 4 basic styles of Decision Making practiced by Project Managers.

           a.  Command – The Project Manager arrives at a decision and the decision is binding on the Team Members.

           b.  Consultation – The Project Manager Consults his Team Members and independently arrives at the decision.

      c.   Consensus – The Project Manager allows the Team Members’ inputs and the whole team collectively arrives at a decision.

d.    Coin – Flip – As the name suggests this style of decision making is completely random. Depending on      the situation the Project Manager decides on the style to be followed.

For any style of decision making the following steps may be followed.

a.       Define the problem fully

b.      Generate different solutions to the problem. Various brainstorming or group decision making techniques may be followed.

c.       Define evaluation criteria for selecting the right solution.

d.      Involve key stakeholders to gain acceptance of the solution

e.      Evaluate the decision making process and document the learning.

POLITICAL AND CULTURAL AWARENESS

Political and Cultural Awareness-    Being aware of your Team Members background and culture, goes a long way in managing the team better. Respecting differences as well as similarities helps create win-win scenarios.  Duconring Project implementation, especially when dealing with vendors and other stakeholders from different background and locations, awareness and respect for their local customs and traditions, creates a stronger bond.  When Project Managers are working with Virtual Teams, this skill is a must to be developed Skill.  Ignoring the cultural and regional practices will always result in conflicts.

NEGOTIATION

Negotiation-      Project Managers negotiate to come to an agreement when parties have often opposing or sometimes similar viewpoints. Good Listening and Communication skills help reach an agreement with the least discord. While negotiating, Managers should focus on interests and issues and not positions. A negotiation should always be steered to win-win proposition.

Conclusion-        The Project Manager is expected to have a Know-it-All and Be-it-All persona. While this is a really Tall Order, almost taking a mere mortal to a demigod position, it is not that difficult to achieve.  Using time tested tenets of Management Theory, improvising through self-development, keeping abreast about the trends and happenings in your own field of expertise will help Project Managers hone their Inter-Personal skills.  As mentioned in the earlier part of the article, the 3 tenets: Knowledge, Performance and Personal Skills are the 3 legs of a tri-pod on which successful projects are shaped.

Yogeeta Deshmukh   BE, ITIL, PMP

References

PMBOK® 4th edition

Head First PMP, 2^nd Edition – by Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman

http://pmworldjournal.net/article/challenges-of-managing-a-virtual-team-with-an-ocean-in-between/