As key players amid a fast-paced, competitive business landscape, project managers are responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling resources to meet specific project goals while controlling operational costs to ensure project success. A project manager’s set of wide-ranging responsibilities requires a diverse scope of knowledge, expertise, project management tools, and technical skills.
In the sections that follow, we examine 20 of the most important skills for project management professionals to excel in their professional roles and duties.
What Are Project Management Skills?
Effective and successful project managers draw from a variety of hard and soft skills. Hard skills include technical knowledge and expertise; soft skills embody the personal qualities and interpersonal capabilities needed for effective team management.
Top Project Management Skills
Working to develop the following project management skills can help aspiring project managers prepare for, improve at, and excel in their profession.
Leadership
Project managers are like the CEOs of individual projects — crafting a future vision, goals, and strategy for successfully planning and executing the project. They are responsible for aligning a team around the project’s goals and ensuring the project itself aligns with a business’s larger goals.
Communication
Clear, proactive communication is crucial in all aspects of business, but it is a foundational skill in project management when it comes to discussing and integrating the elements of project scope, cost, time, and quality to accomplish success.
Time Management
In business, time is money, and the longer a project takes, the more it will cost. On the flip side, rushing through a project risks compromising the quality of the outcome, customer satisfaction, and project success. With this in mind, proper time management enables project managers to develop a reasonable project plan and schedule and proactively manage delays to ensure that projects are completed on time.
Organizational Skills
The flow and success of a project largely hinge on a project manager’s level of organization. The combination of these skills allows a project manager to keep track of complex projects with several moving parts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness:
- Time management
- Task management
- Scheduling and planning
- Information and documentation management
- Delegation
- Attention to detail
Risk Management
Every project comes with inherent risks, which is why risk management reduces project failures while enhancing decision-making and project performance. Project managers:
- Identify possible obstacles
- Analyze how likely and significant each risk is
- Monitor the project for these risks
- Have a plan in place to respond if a potential risk becomes a reality
Negotiation
Project managers may be operating in a less-than-optimal environment limited by constraints such as limited resources. Negotiation skills help project managers resolve conflicts, secure resources, and manage expectations to support project success.
Critical Thinking
Project managers often need to analyze complex information, evaluate what they observe, and form logical conclusions to navigate challenges and make difficult decisions in order to mitigate risk and maximize success.
Problem-Solving
Problem-solving is essential to project success. Effective project managers have the ability to identify problems and analyze the issue to understand its underlying cause. They can then use this information to develop solutions and control damage.
Budget Management
Most projects have financial limitations. Strong budgeting skills enable project managers to plan, monitor, and control project costs to ensure completion without budget overruns that could compromise profitability.
Technical Expertise
In project management, numerous technical tools and software are designed to support and carry out the variety of tasks that the job requires. Possessing technical knowledge and background supports professionals when they are required to navigate or quickly learn new technology.
Team Management
Project managers lead and steer the direction of the team working on a given project. Effective team management involves project managers recognizing specific skills and capabilities, then allocating the right individuals to the right set of tasks within a project’s scope. While managing tasks and moving parts, the project manager must coordinate the group, facilitate communication, and foster collaboration for team success.
Stakeholder Management
Project managers are responsible for identifying, engaging, and managing all parties involved in a project. This includes internal stakeholders (such as executives, team members, investors, or sponsors) and external stakeholders (like customers, vendors, and regulatory bodies).
Adaptability
Despite a project manager’s best laid plans, things don’t always play out accordingly, especially in a dynamic project environment. So, project managers will ideally be comfortable operating with agility and some uncertainty — ready to adjust as needed.
Project Planning
Project planning skills enable project managers to define a project goal and its scope, in addition to identifying resources and creating a timeline before work on the project begins.
Decision-Making
From the beginning to the end of a project, decision-making plays an integral role in project management, as project managers may have a systematic process for identifying and evaluating options to determine the optimal course of action.
Quality Management
To satisfy all stakeholders, project managers are tasked with setting, testing, and upholding standards throughout a project’s lifecycle to ensure quality control and successful project completion. They are challenged to maintain high standards in quality while managing project costs and time.
Conflict Resolution
Project managers are often relied on to manage and resolve conflicts or disagreements that can occur between project stakeholders. They must identify the origin of the dispute, understand both sides, and help maintain a positive focus to foster an appropriate conflict resolution.
Knowledge of Project Management Methodologies
Project management methodologies provide various guidelines for planning, executing, and completing projects. These strategies offer several techniques and process models that can simplify a project manager’s responsibilities. Knowing an array of project management methodologies helps ensure that project managers can select the most relevant framework applicable to each unique project.
Documentation and Reporting
Documentation and reporting skills are necessary for project managers to keep a detailed record of a project’s progress and lifecycle. This also means maintaining updated reporting designed to keep all stakeholders aware of potential issues and informed regarding a project’s progress.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence entails self-awareness, self-regulation, relationship management, and the ability to understand and even influence the emotions of others. High emotional intelligence is key to a project manager’s ability to:
- Cultivate teamwork and collaboration
- Communicate clearly and effectively
- Negotiate
- Resolve conflicts
- Boost productivity
- Develop stronger relationships with stakeholders
Why These Skills Matter
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects 6% growth (faster than average across all professions) in the project management career field between 2023 and 2033. Plus, research (from the construction industry specifically) has found that, regardless of age, professionals with the right skillset are more likely to succeed in their project management goals that encompass:
- Designing and implementing a project plan
- Managing a project team
- Preventing scope creep
Such professionals are equipped to fill the estimated 77,000 annual openings in project management anticipated by the BLS — helping them create an actionable plan for career advancement in a growing field.
How to Develop Your Project Management Skills
Building and honing project management skills is an ongoing pursuit. Professionals who strive for continuous personal and professional development can position themselves to achieve the greatest career success.
Earn a Project Management Degree
While a master’s degree isn’t always required for project management roles, it can provide a competitive edge when advancing into senior or leadership positions. A graduate program helps you develop advanced strategic, leadership, and management skills that set you apart from candidates with only a bachelor’s degree or certifications.
Learn by Doing
Hands-on experience is an invaluable way to reinforce project management skills. You can gain hands-on experience through experiential learning, pursuing internships, and working in entry-level project management roles before moving up to more advanced positions in the field.
Seek Mentorship
Mentorship from industry leaders as well as experienced faculty in a college-level program allows students to learn from the experience (and with the guidance) of others.
Use Project Management Software
Using project management software helps strengthen and expand project management skills through tools that simplify the process of planning, implementing, executing, monitoring, and analyzing project performance for overall better outcomes. For example, this technology can enhance:
- Planning
- Budgeting
- Resource allocation
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Efficiency
- Time management
- Organization
Stay Current on Trends
As tools, technology, and businesses in general evolve, project management does, too. Thus, dedicated project managers participate in continuous learning to keep up with the latest trends and industry advancements. This might entail:
- Enrolling in graduate school or continuing education courses
- Professional networking
- Reading industry journals
- Attending industry conferences and events
Building a Strong Project Management Toolkit
A dynamic and ever-evolving discipline, the project management realm calls for professionals who are committed to ongoing learning, professional development, and personal development. Taking a proactive approach to elevating your related personal and technical competencies will prepare you for success in project management positions across industries and sectors.
Focus on Developing Project Management Skills With a Master’s in Operations and Project Management
While earning a Master of Science in Operations and Project Management from Johnson & Wales University (JWU) Online, students have the opportunity to accelerate their careers with a curriculum focused on operations and project management. This program covers the essentials and intricacies of project lifecycles as students gain real-world experience through case studies and experiential learning.
At JWU Online, our students enjoy a highly relevant and immersive curriculum, benefit from the flexibility of studying online, have ongoing access to personalized academic support, and emerge prepared to participate and advance in the professional world.
For more information about completing your degree online, fill out the Request Info form, call 855-JWU-1881, or email [email protected].
