Do you aspire to become a project manager? If so, then you must know that pursuing only a management course is not enough to excel as a project manager, you must master other skills to do full justice to the position. Both soft skills and hard skills are indispensable to become a project manager.
A project manager is responsible to formulate a plan, execute it, control, direct and close the project. Furthermore, the project manager has to lead a team of subordinates towards achieving the end goals within the intended timeline while following the budget.
Let’s find out the essential skills which every project manager must possess:
Leadership
A project manager is the leader of the team. So he/she needs to possess leadership skills to get work done effectively through the team. Being a project manager, it is your duty to not only handle the projects in a well-organized approach but also guide your team in the right direction. For this, leadership skills are imperative.
Communication
Project leadership is curtailed without effective communication. A project manager is usually occupied with presentations or business meetings, chats and messages to communicate with those concerned with the project.
No matter how effectively you manage your team, but if you fail to commune the requisite information to the people, you can’t expect the accomplishment of targets. Thus, a project manager must be a skilled communicator so that he/she can communicate effectively with people ranging from the project’s team to the stakeholders and the customers.
Sense of Humour
A project manager has to deal with all kinds of situations. So, the project manager must know how to solve problems and overcome challenges while motivating the team to perform under pressure. Here, the sense of humor comes into play.
If you have a jolly nature, it helps you to keep your employees encouraged and lighten their mood. It facilitates a manager to work smartly while finding the best possible solution to the hardest of problems.
Being a project manager, you must also work hard to set an example for your subordinates. If you have a good sense of humour, you can create an affable environment for your team where they can work productively.
Risk Management
No matter how simple and effective your project is, but it will surely be prone to some unforeseen risks in the future. Being a project manager, you must have the ability to anticipate risks and be well equipped to tackle them. However, your anticipation can’t always be true. So, you must be prepared with different processes to handle unanticipated issues as soon as they arise.
These are some of the soft skills that make a successful project manager. So, if you are planning to pursue a project management course, make sure to sharpen your soft skills along with gaining knowledge. You should pursue a course that imparts technical or management skills along with enhancing your soft skills. MIT School of Distance Education (MIT-SDE) offers one such course. Here, you can pursue a distance MBA equivalent course that emphasises on practical exposure and personality development. This correspondence MBA course makes you job-ready. So, enrol for MIT-SDE’s project management course right away!