Professional Documents
Culture Documents
- Part 2
In Part 1 of this article, I elaborated on Leadership, Team Building and Motivation. In this concluding part, we take a
closer look at
Communication
Influencing
Decision Making
Political and Cultural Awareness
Negotiation
Communication The PMBOK states that a Project Manager spends 90% of his time in
communicating. This reiterates the importance of this must have Skill.
Recent studies and surveys in Communication models show us that in a
successful transfer of Communication, words only account for 7%, body
language 55% and tone of voice 38%. Project Managers across the globe are
now increasingly working with Virtual Team and inherently face challenges in
Communication. It is clear that for effective Communications, Project
Managers should work on honing their
a. Nonverbal Communication This includes your facial expressions, body
language and even physical appearance.
b. Para lingual Communication This is the tone and pitch of your voice
when communicating with people. Believe me; if you are rewarding
someone with a sarcastic tone, then the Team Member will be
demotivated instead of being motivated.
c. Feedback - It is a good practice to confirm what you have understood
and provide feedback. You can summarize the points discussed, ask
questions for clarifications etc.
For any style of decision making the following steps may be followed.
a. Define the problem fully
b. Generate different solutions to the problem. Various brainstorming or group decision making
techniques may be followed.
c. Define evaluation criteria for selecting the right solution.
d. Involve key stakeholders to gain acceptance of the solution
e. Evaluate the decision making process and document the learning.
ConclusionThe Project Manager is expected to have a Know-it-All and Be-it-All persona. While this is a really Tall
Order, almost taking a mere mortal to a demigod position, it is not that difficult to achieve. Using time tested tenets
of Management Theory, improvising through self-development, keeping abreast about the trends and happenings in
your own field of expertise will help Project Managers hone their Inter-Personal skills. As mentioned in the earlier
part of the article, the 3 tenets: Knowledge, Performance and Personal Skills are the 3 legs of a tri-pod on which
successful projects are shaped.
References
PMBOK 4th edition
Head First PMP, 2nd Edition by Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman
http://pmworldjournal.net/article/challenges-of-managing-a-virtual-team-with-an-ocean-in-between/