7 must-have project management skills

Just because someone has the title of project manager doesn’t mean he or she knows how to effectively manage projects, as many CIOs and other IT executives have learned the hard way.

To be an effective project manager, one who can keep projects and the team on track, takes more than technical know-how. It also requires a number of non-technical skills, and it is these softer skills that often determine whether a project manager — and the project — will be a success.

So how can you tell a good project manager from a bad one? surveyed project management experts and executives to learn what skills are required to successfully manage projects — that is, to ensure that projects are kept on track and stay on budget.

Following are seven of the most important non-technical skills for project managers.

Seven key project management skills

Leadership Motivation Communication Organization Prioritization Problem solving Adaptability

Leadership

“Being a good leader means that you do not only oversee and coordinate tasks and processes as a manager, but also outline the vision and define the road map, motivate and encourage,” says Tatiana Danielyan, deputy director of R&D at ABBYY, which provides document recognition, data capture and language processing software.

It is also critical that the project manager has the ability to quickly analyze data – or a given situation – and make good decisions because, she adds, “at the end of the day, you are the one who has the final call – and the final responsibility for whether the project is successful or not.”

Motivation

“A great project manager is able to keep their team happy during the tough times,” says Kofi Senaya, director of Product at Clearbridge Mobile, a mobile app developer. “Projects can get very difficult and stressful, typically when deadlines sneak up. As a project manager, your job is to ensure everyone stays motivated. Ultimately, this will improve efficiency and quality of work,” he says.

“Some tactics project managers can use is to praise good work, take team members out for a team building activity and cultivating a fun and collaborative environment.”

Communication

“Project managers must speak the same language as their clients,” as well as their team members, says Mike Mills, project manager at Sagefrog Marketing Group, a B2B marketing agency. “It’s somewhat of a cliché, but this phrase really does describe one of the most important skills that can make or break client relationships. Project managers are the sole translators, sharing information, updates and next steps from client to internal team and back again.”

“Communication skills are the core part of a project manager’s skill set,” says Danielyan. A project manager who is “a good communicator can resolve or prevent almost any issue by being clear [and] encouraging an unhindered flow of information, which means [getting] the right information to the right person through the right channel exactly when it is needed.”

Organization

A stereotypical image of a project manager is someone who is the consummate multitasker, but the ability to “multitask alone won’t help project managers meet all of the demands they face in their role; organization is key,” says Mills. “This means prioritizing tasks, compartmentalizing projects to avoid confusion, and neatly documenting anything and everything for future reference and easy access. Part of the organization process also involves envisioning all steps throughout the life of the project and predicting problems that might arise.

“As a PM, your task is to make sure processes run smoothly and are in line with the common goals,” says Danielyan. Therefore, “the ability to organize multiple complicated processes in uncertain conditions is essential – [and] prioritizing, planning and scheduling skills are critical. You need to always be ten steps ahead to quickly and efficiently achieve the desired outcome – or deal with a challenge if needed.”

Prioritization

“Information overload is a very real phenomenon, especially in the modern workplace,” notes Andrew Filev, CEO of Wrike, the developer of project management software. “There is a limit to the amount of stuff our minds can process, a.k.a. our cognitive load.” So “to succeed in the next decade, [project managers] must be able to manage this deluge of data and extract the useful bits from the noise.

“They need to be masters at prioritizing [and] time management if they intend to be successful,” he continues. And they have to stay focused and “be strategic despite all the pings and notifications that will have them running to put out fires.”

Problem solving

Much of problem solving in a project management context revolves around being able to identify and manage risk. “Many projects miss their scope, budget or delivery timeline due to unexpected surprises,” notes Tim Platt, vice president, IT Business Services, Virtual Operations, an IT support and managed services company. “The great PM is always on the lookout for risk – and how to mitigate that risk. He or she knows how to ask the hard questions of the team and continuously confirms decisions, timelines and dependencies. In a well-run project, there shouldn’t be a surprise. There should be a risk log and mitigation plans for all items, and the PM is in the best position to ensure that’s covered.”

“Dealing with obstacles is without a doubt an essential skill for a PM,” agrees Danielyan. “A good project manager [can] identify risk early, find the cause(s) of the problem, weigh different options [and] define and implement the best solution possible.”

Adaptability

“In a fast-paced environment, particularly in the tech industry, changes — whether that’s new processes, standards or technologies — happen fast,” explains Senaya. “Planning is vital, but the ability to adapt to changes and work with your team to overcome challenges is just as important.” That ability to quickly come up with a workaround or change course is absolutely “necessary to be successful in a fast-paced environment.”

Career skills to increase your marketability

Employers value seven basic categories of skills in college graduates during the hiring process (Appleby, 2014), and the presence or absence of these skills also determines whether new college hires succeed or fail on the job (Gardner, 2007).

The three purposes of this article are to:

Make you aware of these seven basic skill categories.

Help you identify the specific skills within each of these categories.

Provide you with career-development advice about how to use both the curricular and extracurricular components of your undergraduate education to develop and/or strengthen these skills.

If you lack these skills when you enter today’s competitive job market, you place yourself in a risky position because your more skillful peers will have a clear advantage over you during all stages of the hiring process. Once you become aware of these skills — and begin to collaborate with an academic or career advisor to create a semester-by-semester plan to attain them — then you can begin the process of including them in your cover letters and resumes in ways that will convince employers to hire you. Do not postpone your attempts to develop these skills. Begin this process now, not tomorrow, not at the end of this semester and absolutely not until after you graduate when your undergraduate education has ended and it will be too late to use it to develop these skills.

1. Communication skills

Writing, speaking, listening, reading

People employed in the positions to which most college graduates aspire must not only write and speak clearly, coherently and persuasively, but must also attend to, remember, understand and act upon the information they read and hear. All students take basic communication courses such as English composition and speech. Unfortunately, many students do not understand the relevance of the skills taught in these courses to their professional futures and, therefore, take them to simply “get them out of the way” rather than to learn from them. Please take these courses seriously; without the skills they teach, you will put yourself at risk not only in the process of acquiring a job, but also in your ability to succeed in that job and to keep it once you are hired.

Take advanced classes in these areas (e.g., interpersonal communication and technical writing) and seek out experiences that will provide you with opportunities to practice your ability to read, listen, write and speak classes that require extensive reading assignments, information-rich lectures, demanding written assignments and formal oral presentations).

2. Collaboration skills

Working well in groups

Dealing sensitively and effectively with diverse populations

Exhibiting various forms of leadership, including supervising, influencing and motivating others

Your employer will require you to perform complex tasks that require teamwork. No one works alone, and almost all teams are composed of people who differ in terms of gender, race, culture, ethnicity, religion, marital status, education, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, age and physical or mental ability.

The skills necessary to be a productive member of a diverse team can only be acquired through practice, and the best place to practice these skills is in course-based group projects or extracurricular activities that involve working with groups composed of diverse members. The worst possible thing you can do in college is isolate yourself from diversity by deliberately deciding to live, study, work and spend your leisure time with only those students who are similar to you.

3. Critical thinking and research skills

Applying information to solve organizational problems

Using statistical skills to summarize, organize and analyze data

Finding, gathering and organizing information from a variety of sources

Creating new knowledge by integrating existing information

Employers seek out people who can solve problems, analyze data and create new ideas. One way to develop the critical thinking and research skills employers value is to participate in research projects that require the following critical thinking skills:

Retention and comprehension of information about the subject of the research.

Analysis and evaluation of the body of research upon which the research is based.

Creation and testing of new hypotheses and the application of research findings to advance knowledge and/or improve the quality of human life.

(Note that research refers to any systematic and organized method of asking questions and finding answers to these questions. It is not limited to the research method(s) of any particular academic discipline or area.)

4. Self-management skills

Being flexible and adaptable

Learning new skills and information

Managing time, stress and conflict successfully

Employers avoid hiring people whose inability to manage time, stress or conflicts causes them to perform poorly on the job by missing deadlines, exhibiting stress-related problems or lowering workplace morale. Strengthen your self-management skills in college by seeking out courses whose instructors expect you to perform in the same responsible, conscientious and mature ways your future employers will demand.

Avoid classes taught by instructors:

Whose classes are perceived as non-stressful because their subject matter is easy or they do not require you to learn new skills.

Who reinforce procrastination and irresponsible behavior by accepting late assignments or allowing you to make up missed tests.

Who do not seem to care if you come to class late, leave class early or miss class entirely.

5. Professional skills

Organizing, planning and carrying out projects

Managing resources

Acting and dressing in a professional manner

Employers want to hire employees who can carry out tasks in a professional manner. Therefore, you should choose classes taught by instructors who have the same high expectations as employers, such as those who:

Help students develop a strong work ethic by providing them with opportunities to work hard and receive high grades only for excellent work.

Do not allow students to make up for low performance on assignments or tests with extra credit.

Require students to plan, organize and carry out complex projects.

Do not tolerate behaviors in their classrooms that are unacceptable on the job (e.g., texting, surfing the web or receiving cell phone calls; coming to class unprepared to participate; falling asleep; or behaving and dressing in a distracting manner that disrupts the learning process).

6. Technological skills

Computer literacy, word processing, email

You must realize that texting your friends, checking social media and shopping online are not skills valued by employers. In fact, the presence of these actions on the job can lead to highly undesirable outcomes. Employers expect their employees to select and use appropriate technological tools to identify, locate, acquire, store, organize, display, analyze and evaluate verbal, numerical and visual information.

Therefore, students should enroll in classes that require:

Papers written with word-processing programs.

Organization of information with databases.

Manipulation of numbers with spreadsheets.

Analysis of data with statistical programs.

Location of information with search engines.

Enhancement of speeches with presentation software.

Communication with their instructors and fellow students via the Internet.

Savvy job-seeking students master these skills while they are in college so they can “hit the ground running” when they are hired and not waste their employers’ time by having to be taught these skills on the job.

7. Ethical reasoning skills

The ability to make ethical decisions based on appropriate ethical knowledge

The willingness to act on these decisions

Although this was the least often mentioned skill by employers during the hiring process, it is crucially important for job-seeking college students to possess because of the dire consequences for new hires who fail to demonstrate it on the job. You should be aware that job interviews can include questions designed to evaluate your ability to think and act in an ethical manner, such as “Tell me about a project that required you to be aware of and act in accordance with a set of ethical principles.” The only way to answer this question in a credible manner is to have actually participated in such a project.

Therefore, you should engage in:

Research projects that require the creation of institutional review board protocols.

Writing assignments that conform to guidelines prohibiting plagiarism.

Internships that require you to be aware of, understand and act according to ethical guidelines such as those you would need to follow when you would work with clients whose confidentiality must be protected or who may be exposed to risks.

References

Appleby, D.C. (2014). A skills-based academic advising strategy for job-seeking psychology majors. In R. Miller & J.G. Irons (Eds.), Academic advising: A handbook for advisors and students, Volume 1: Models, students, topics, and issues (pp. 143-156). Retrieved from (PDF, 2.44MB).

Gardner, P. (2007). Moving up or moving out of the company? Factors that influence the promoting or firing of new college hires. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University. Retrieved from (PDF, 9.41MB).

Author’s note

If you would like copies of a sample cover letter and resume that have been created using these skills as their organizational structure, please email me. These are MSWord documents you can modify to include your own contact information, career objectives and skills.

About the author

Drew Carson Appleby, PhD, received his BA from Simpson College in 1969 and his PhD from Iowa State University in 1972. During his four-decade career, he chaired the Marian University psychology department, was the director of undergraduate studies in the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) psychology department and served as the associate dean of the IUPUI Honors College. He used the results of his research on teaching, learning, advising and mentoring to create strategies that enable college students to adapt to their educational environment, acquire academic competence, set realistic goals and achieve their career aspirations. He’s published more than 100 books and articles (including “The Savvy Psychology Major”); made more than 600 conference and other professional presentations (including 25 invited keynote addresses); received 44 institutional, regional and national awards for teaching, advising, mentoring and service. He was honored for his contributions to the science and profession of psychology by being named a fellow of APA, the Midwestern Psychological Association and the 30th distinguished member of Psi Chi. His work with IUPUI’s varsity athletes led him to be named “my favorite professor” by 71 student-athletes. More than 300 of his students have earned graduate degrees in a variety of academic and professional fields, and he was designated as a mentor by 777 IUPUI psychology majors, 222 of whom indicated he was their most influential mentor by selecting the following sentence to describe his impact: “This professor influenced the whole course of my life, and his effect on me has been invaluable.”

7 essential teamwork skills

5-second summary Building “soft skills,” such as effective communication and collaboration skills, are vital components of a team’s success.

Making sure everyone is aligned on goals and responsibilities may seem like a no-brainer, but research shows that team members do not always have the clarity that leadership assumes they do.

Using formal procedures to make decisions and solve problems can help ensure that teams don’t get sidetracked by predictable bottlenecks.

Teamwork is powerful. You can tap into people’s individual strengths, collect diverse perspectives and ideas, and get projects across the finish line more efficiently.

Here’s the catch: those perks only pan out if your team works together effectively. And as a leader, you’ve probably seen firsthand that successful teamwork doesn’t just happen.

It requires that you make strategic decisions, encourage positive behaviors, and cultivate an environment where people can get their best work done – not just individually, but as a unit.

That all starts with ensuring that your team has mastered these seven essential teamwork skills.

1. Communication

“We never listen when we are eager to speak.” – Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Communication is a non-negotiable teamwork skill. A large portion of team or project failures (just take the untimely explosion of NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter, as one example) arise from miscommunication. For teams to work well together, they need to communicate well and be on the same page.

The ability to openly share information, align expectations, and offer feedback is essential in the workplace. However, communication isn’t only about sharing messages – listening plays an equally important role. Active listening, in particular, enhances shared understanding and helps teams avoid crossed wires.

Help your team communicate:

The extroverts on your team are more than willing to jump in with suggestions and opinions, but that can mean they end up steamrolling their colleagues. To make sure everyone’s voice is heard, send an agenda to all participants beforehand so people have time to gather their thoughts. Then, be sure to check in with each person during the meeting to make sure they’ve had a chance to speak. For in-depth guidance, run the inclusive meetings play to make sure that everybody’s input is considered when your team meets.

Communication isn’t one-size-fits-all, and your team will be better equipped to communicate information and ideas if they know other people’s preferences. Having each member of the team create a user manual gives them a low-pressure way to share their ideal conditions for getting work done — from their favorite communication channels to how they prefer to receive feedback.

Host a regular team stand-up to avoid siloed information in the workplace. This is a short, dedicated huddle where you can discuss team goals, progress, and obstacles to keep everybody in the loop and aligned.

Related Article 5 data-driven ways to tackle the challenges of virtual teamwork

2. Collaboration

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. – Helen Keller

Collaboration and teamwork are synonyms, so it makes sense that you’d see this teamwork skill high on the list. Even so, simply putting people on the same team doesn’t inherently lead to effective collaboration.

Instead, clarity needs to take priority. Team members should understand their unique roles, responsibilities, tasks, and deadlines, as well as how their individual pieces impact the whole. That broader focus increases accountability and empowers people to find answers or proactively solve problems themselves.

Help your team collaborate:

Who does what shouldn’t be a mystery on your team, however, people may not always have visibility into what tasks their coworkers have to do. Try creating a shared document that details everyone’s regular tasks and current projects. You can also run the roles and responsibilities play so that there’s no doubt or confusion about what’s on each person’s plate.

Team collaboration falls apart when people don’t have a grasp on dependencies. For example, Team Member A might not think missing a deadline by a few days is a big deal – until they realize that it means Team Member B can’t start their assigned tasks. Dependency mapping gives you and your entire team a better sense of how things fit together, so you can proactively manage bottlenecks and other issues.

There are certain norms that play out on your team on a daily basis – like muting yourself on Zoom when you aren’t talking or using bullet points in emails – despite the fact that they might never be formally discussed. Consider creating a shared doc that spells out the “rules of the road” for your team. Encourage people to add to it regularly. It’s a great way to help newbies on the team get up to speed quickly. Running the working agreements play can help your team iron out a list of those previously-unspoken expectations and avoid misunderstandings.

3. Goal setting

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” – Lawrence J. Peter

Teamwork is all about working your way toward a finish line together. But first? You need to be in agreement about what that finish line actually is. While managers might like to think that goals are already obvious and widely accepted, team members may disagree. Proof: 72% of employees admit they don’t fully understand their company’s strategy. That’s why having this teamwork skill is so important.

In order to reap the benefits of effective teamwork, team leaders need to not only explain team and company goals, but also actively involve employees in the process of setting those objectives so that they can take ownership over the outcomes.

How to help your team set goals:

Use a defined goal-setting framework like objectives and key results (OKRs) or goals, signals, and measures so that everybody understands what you’re working toward and how you’ll know when you get there.

Store your team goals somewhere centralized and accessible in the workplace (like Confluence) so that everybody on the team can refer back to them when needed.

4. Decision making

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are very few times when teamwork is more frustrating than when you need to make a speedy decision. With so many perspectives to manage, reaching a consensus can be slow. That’s why decision-making is a teamwork skill that’s vital in a team environment, especially in collaborative cultures where the manager isn’t always the one with the last word.

To get their best work done, people should be able to listen to other opinions and suggestions with an open mind but then come together collectively to choose the best way forward.

Help your team make decisions:

Sometimes a consensus isn’t possible. In those cases, who has final say on a project? Who’s contributing but not necessarily a key decision-maker? Those roles can get murky. Use the DACI framework so that your team knows who fits where and is able to make more efficient group decisions.

Does your team suffer from decision delay? Try setting a deadline for your team to make a choice. Psychology says that while deadlines can be stressful, they can also increase focus.

5. Problem solving

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” – Albert Einstein

From a project that’s running off the rails to a conflict between a couple of colleagues, you and your team are bound to run into your fair share of roadblocks. In those moments, your team’s problem-solving skills are what will carry you through.

Successful problem solving isn’t just about slapping on a band-aid or identifying a quick fix. Some stumbling blocks can be deceptively complex. To truly address and prevent issues, people need to start by digging deep and understanding all of the factors that are at play using this teamwork skill..

How to help your team solve problems:

Use problem framing to step back and understand the who, what, why, and where of a problem before jumping into solutions.

The 5 Whys Analysis is simple on the surface – it essentially involves asking, “Why did this happen” five times in a row. This exercise helps your team uncover the root causes of a problem rather than acting on assumptions and surface-level symptoms.

The first possible solution to a problem isn’t always the best one, and that’s one of the many benefits of a team: everybody has access to an assortment of ideas and experiences to find the most suitable answer. Sparring helps your team get quick, honest feedback from each other in a way that feels structured and approachable.

6. Emotional intelligence

“Emotions can get in the way or get you on the way.” – Mavis Mazhura

Emotional intelligence is the ability to read the emotional state of yourself and others, then act accordingly. EQ might not be your typical teamwork skill, but it’s important nonetheless.

Your colleagues can’t always check their feelings at the door (and you can’t either). Emotions come into play in our work lives – they bias our perception and influence how we relate to one another. And, research shows that team emotional intelligence has a significant impact on effectiveness, as well as how much conflict the group experiences.

How to help your team be emotionally intelligent:

As the leader, one of the best things you can do is to model appropriate behaviors. Even seemingly small changes, like regulating a big reaction to customer criticisms or asking a coworker if they’re in the right headspace to receive feedback, can show your team how emotional intelligence plays out.

People can’t always control their emotions, but they can control and improve their reactions and behaviors. Unfortunately, emotions can easily become confused with personalities. Try to model and encourage people to switch from “I am…” language to “I feel…” language to keep those lines clear. For example, “I am anxious about this deadline” becomes “I feel anxious about this deadline.” It’s a small but significant shift in how the message comes across.

7. Growth mindset

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

Teams don’t always deal with smooth seas, and a growth mindset is what helps them power through obstacles and find creative solutions.

To state it simply, a growth mindset is a teamwork skill that sees problems as opportunities. They’re chances to reflect, learn, and improve. A growth mindset helps your team use past experiences to drive better collaborations – and it also means they won’t bristle at perceived failures or criticisms.

How to help your team have a growth mindset:

Run a retrospective regularly or at the end of project milestones so that your team can honestly discuss what worked, what didn’t, why, and how you’ll use that information moving forward.

Prioritize regular and frequent constructive feedback for all team members. These candid conversations help them understand how they can improve themselves – which, in turn, helps them improve the entire team.