Management Training – Page 16 – STL

Projects come in all shapes and sizes. You might be managing a long term implementation or organising an event alongside your everyday work. Either way, communication is vital for the project’s success. In this blog, we will look at the first of five vital skills for project managers – communication.

A third of projects fail due to a breakdown in communication, which project managers can easily avoid.

Five Vital Skills for Project Managers – Communication — Communication

Why is communication so important?

Project Managers need to gather and share large quantities of information to co-ordinate the efforts of all involved. Dealing with all the details, dependencies, decisions, and approvals is impossible without consistent and timely communication.

Effective communication keeps conflict and confusion from slowing a project down. It ensures that key players are aligned on project goals and know what is expected of them. Team meetings will also run more smoothly as people will come prepared with the required information. Furthermore, it helps build team-wide trust so that everyone works together better from project start to finish.

How to keep track of it all

A simple but practical communication plan has clear guidelines . These include sharing information and recording what needs to be communicated. Everyone involved in the project will then know what to expect. Hence, they will be able to communicate with each other effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, It is essential that any changes or challenges that may affect time, budget or deliverables are communicated in a timely way.

Taking advantage of technology will help you communicate more effectively. This will help you recognise and remove barriers to communication.

A good Project Manager will build relationships that help projects move along smoothly. To do this, he or she needs to actively listen to the team and ask the right questions. Doing this, they will really understand what is happening. By being available, open to discussion and willing to adapt, they will set a tone of positive collaboration and communication. Projects will be more successful as a result.

Conclusion

The Project Manager has to have an effective process with clear lines of communication. This will enable the Project Manager to feel secure in the knowledge that everyone is kept in the loop. They can then focus on the tasks and problems in front of them. Teamgantt.com has some excellent and free Communication Plans you can download along with more useful tips.

This concludes part one of five vital skills for Project Managers. Don’t miss the next blog in the series, when we will be talking about Leadership

If you wish to learn more about this topic, take a look at our Introduction to Project Management and Effective Communication courses.

How to succeed at the Networking Game

Networking in-person conversations, much like the networks themselves, are not self-sustaining, they require real commitment and drive in order to connect and establish the foundations of a relationship.

Once you initiate and make eye contact you need some tricks to establish trust, build rapport and make great first impressions.

CREATING POWERFUL RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH NETWORKING

Adapt Your Approach

Networking can feel uncomfortable – like a fish out of water – because we are exposed to people and situations that we are not used to. It can be uncomfortable, but that discomfort serves as a reminder of our need to adapt our approach for the different types of people we are looking to attract. How are they interacting? Is their style of communication indirect or direct, expressive or more reserved. Most importantly, watching and listening helps us to understand them better and communicate with them in the way that they like.

Active Listening

Put simply, active listening is where you speak less and allow others to speak more. By taking this approach to your networking conversations, you can develop a more profound understanding what others are saying and most importantly, develop a stronger rapport with them.

When listening actively, it is important that we not only use words but also appropriate facial expressions, eye contact and changes in posture because we need to signal that we are listening and relating to what is being said. Successful active listeners also use questioning to prompt their counterparts to look for new ideas and approaches, helping them to focus on solutions rather than problems.

Here are some examples of phrases you can use to dive deeper: “Why is this issue important to you?”, “Just to clarify, you’re saying…?”, “What makes you say that?”

Segueing

Finding the opportunity to move to the topics you want to talk about when networking is a challenging but vital skill. Particularly in formal, professional circles time is precious, so having planned topics or moves to break the ice is a must. Once the chit chat has run its course and others have had their chance, we need to look for opportunities to steer the conversation towards areas that are important to us.

Segueing enables us to do that even in situations where others have harnessed the discussion, for example “What’s most important here is that…” or “The key issue is…” helps us to navigate conversation towards our priorities.

Conclusion

It is all too easy to walk up to someone at a networking event, only to have nothing in mind to say, which starts the conversation off on the wrong foot.

Adapting your communication to match the preferences of others, listening actively to what they have to say and seizing your chance to move conversation in your direction can help you perform and succeed at the networking game.

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