What are the Hidden Skills of a Project Manager?

With the increased attention given to leadership in today's business community, one could argue for the simple substitution of the expression project management with project leadership. You are right to think this but we must also understand there are so many other hidden skills to a project manager. Turlon & Associates (www.turlon.com) conduct a workshop titled ‘The Hidden Skills of a Project Manager’ to understand this

Truth be told, not everyone is a leader. It’s just not meant for everyone but we can all work on the hidden skills of for a project manager. Here are some of them … but look at them as you read, tell me if you agree or not?  

• Lead By Example … lend a helping hand, and making sure that the work you do is clearly understood by your team.
• Be Organised … if you’re messy, those around you will be too. When you’re organised you’ll be much more productive and so will everyone else.
• Focus on Priorities … don’t get sucked into the detail when you do not need to, a good expression is to focus on you top 3 priorities rather than the bottom 30
• Delegate … you think you can do everything but you can’t. Make sure people feel as if they own the project.
• Be Responsible … stand up and be counted for your actions and also other to do the same
• Communicate Effectively … be concise and considerate in communication … communicate what people need to know … do not communicate what people do not need to know
• Listen, Listen and Listen more … a huge part of being a great communicator is being a great listener. If all you want to do is talk, you’re not going to understand what is going on …
• Know Your People. You have to know your people. You don’t have to be

There are many more that we could add but for now that give you a sense of what some of the Hidden Skills of a Project Manager are. These are more will be demonstrated through examples and studies shown in our workshop