COMMUNICATION SKILLS

How good are your communication skills? I expect you think that they are pretty good, given that you are in a project-based role where communication is very important! But there is always more that you could do to improve your skills. With so many other things to learn – scheduling techniques, facilitation skills, budgeting and more – why would you invest time in honing a skill that you are already confident that you can do? Well, here are 5 reasons why you shouldn't neglect your communication skills.

1. To Negotiate For Resources

Project managers need resources for their team and project to be a success. Resources come in the form of project team members and project expenses, and you’ll have to negotiate for both. Your project sponsor or other functional managers in the business will hold the budget and the ability to authorize people to work on your project. It’s important that you can negotiate effectively to get what you need. If you can’t secure the resources you want, the project could be in a difficult situation. In this case, your communication skills will come into play again, explaining the potential risks, as we are about to see.

2. To Manage Risk

Project risks are complicated and you need to be able to explain them adequately in order to secure buy in for your action plan. Your risk management action plan will include the tasks that are required to eliminate or mitigate the risk. However, explaining all this to someone who doesn't have much knowledge of projects can be very tricky. For example, will they understand what ‘risk transference’ is as a mitigation strategy? You and I know that it is where you transfer the risk to another party, like buying an insurance policy. But someone who is new to projects or who has not worked in a project environment before may struggle with some of the terminology around risk management. Having good communication skills means that you can cut through the jargon and explain the situation in language that they can understand. In turn, this should enable you to get your sponsor to take any decisions required and get your action plans approved.

3. To Manage The Team

The project team needs clear direction, both in terms of the overall project vision and also for project tasks. When you delegate work to someone, you can use your communication skills to make sure that they really have understood what you have asked them to do. This is especially important if your team includes any non-native English speakers, as (however good their English) they may need extra help from time to time getting to grips with exactly what is required.

4. To Explain The Benefits

Your team members do know what the benefits of the project are, don’t they? Sometimes we end up working on projects where the benefits haven’t been properly explained – or maybe not explained at all. In this case, one element of the project manager’s role is to make sure that the team members know why the project is being done. There are business benefits to projects, and this is what you’ll have to explain. However, if the benefits are technical or commercial, it could be difficult to make the link back to company strategy so you can make use of your communication skills to get the message across clearly. It’s not just the project team who needs to understand the benefits of what they are working on. Other key stakeholders should also understand the benefits and the reasons why the project is a company priority. This is especially important if they are the functional managers who are providing you with team members or subject matter experts. They should understand why you’re asking them to give up their precious resources!

5. To Develop Your Career

Good communication skills help your career in ways that you probably don’t even realize. Managers like to do business with people who can get their message across clearly and who don’t waste their time with long-winded speeches. Being known as someone who can communicate will also open doors for you, as they will be keen to have you on board. Good communication skills are also important when you are asked to deliver presentations. The chances are, you’ll have to talk to a group about your project at some point in your career, even if it is just a room of people you know well. Making a good impression at an event like this can be really important and the memories that people have of your presentation will last a long time. Another reason to polish up your communication skills is to make sure that you aren't stuck for words when you happen to bump into one of the senior executives, in the elevator, for example. It’s best not to come across as someone who mumbles or who can’t get their words out, so think about what would happen in this situation and what you would say if they ask you what you are working on and how your project is going. In fact, it’s good practice to prepare in advance for any major piece of communication, especially if you are speaking or delivering a presentation. This will help you feel more confident about the topic and the situation overall. You might not have spent any time developing your communication skills over the years, especially if you communicate regularly and don’t have any reason to feel that you need a refresher. But hopefully these 5 reasons will have shown you why it’s important to dust off those skills and check that you are doing the best you can when it comes to communication. You can share any other communication tips that you have in the comments below. Another communication tip is to share your documentation with the project team so everyone can see the latest copy of communications and files. Use the advanced file sharing features of Project Manager to store your documents online where everyone can access them.