Why do I need to know this?

Often, project managers and other technical professionals assessments are purely on their technical skills - knowledge of a programming language, ability to use certain tools, or the acquisition of a technical certification. Just as important are management, communication, and interpersonal skills. We refer to these as essential skills. More and more organizations are hiring, evaluating, and compensating employees not only on the basis of technical skills, but also on the basis of their management, communication, and interpersonal skills.

Essential skills for project managers

• Leadership
  
  The project manager is given authority to lead a project, but real leadership involves translating a vision into action, motivating the team, influencing colleagues, and seeing the project through each stage.
  
  
• Flexibility
  
  One of the project manager's primary responsibilities is to keep the project on course, no matter what obstacles the team encounters. Project managers must adapt to ever-changing project conditions and manage the team's actions.
  
  
• Business judgment
  
  The project manager knows more than any other team member the business reasons behind the project. The project manager must have a firm understanding of business strategy and objectives when making decisions.
  
  
• Trustworthiness
  
  The organization invests a lot in the project manager, and team members' reputations rest partly on the projects they are part of. The project manager must exhibit integrity.
  
  
• Communication
  
  The project manager communicates with many types of people in many different roles. The project manager must be equally adept at handling a team conflict, steering committee meeting and coaching session with an end-user. Effective listening is a large part of successful communication.
  
  
• Coaching and mentoring
  
  In addition to planning and managing the project, project managers manage people. The ability to give feedback and help others learn boosts their value.
  
  
• Negotiation
  
  The successful project manager has negotiating skills, for nothing is as constant in a project as change!
  
  
• Prioritizing
  
  Prioritizing is more than taking orders from the sponsor, or organizing a list of requirements. It includes balancing scope requirements, sifting through needs and wants, and documenting one's reasoning.
  
  
• Planning
  
  The project manager is solely responsible for producing the estimate, critical path, dependencies and schedule. There is a limit to the accuracy of formulas; past experience and sound judgment is the basis for this process.
  
  
• Managing
  
  The project manager must be able to not only manage the day to day activities of the team, but also to observe how the project is progressing from a big picture perspective and know when to take action.
  
  
• Reflecting
  
  Successful project managers organize their approach to closing a project. They take steps to gather feedback, document lessons learned and make it easy to apply those lessons to the next project.

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