5 Ways to Improve Your Project Management Skills

5 Ways to Improve Your Project Management Skills Project management is as complex as it is crucial. Doing well in one aspect of the project has little benefit if the other critical path tasks aren’t completed in time. Conversely, upping your game in project management can truly allow you to do more with less. Here are five ways to improve your project management skills. Improve Your Communication Skills Communication skills are one of the most important skills a manager can have. This is what allows you to clearly communicate what you want done and when. There are fewer mistakes when everyone understands what to do and who is to do it. There are fewer delays, since everyone understands the timetable, task list and overarching vision. You’ll get the exact resources you need when you can effectively communicate with subcontractors and C-suite executives. Your customers will have reasonable expectations when they understand what they’re getting and when, and they will be more likely to point out issues before they become a serious problem. Communication skills are not just presentation skills or public speaking skills. You use communication skills when you’re sending emails, editing project plans, and sending status reports. Get Training in Project Management Sometimes the best way to improve your project management skills is to seek project management training. There may be areas that you identify as your weaknesses, such as time management or project estimation. If this applies to you, you could check here for training and consider getting educated in principles like leadership or the software you use on a regular basis. Or you could learn the nuances of particular areas like IT project management or dealing with stakeholders. For those who want to move up into project management, you can learn the specifics of managing small projects. Use the Right Tools Project management is not a one-size-fits-all thing and can look very different to different people. For instance, a local coffee shop won’t need the same types of tools that an ad agency who has to deal with multiple remote moving parts will. As a matter of fact, using a full project management suite could actually work to your detriment depending on your business. However, most industries will require that you have some sort of digital project management system in place, whether it’s to check supplies or schedules without having to check the board in person. The good thing is that most project management suites will have a free trial version that will allow you to check them out in detail and see if they work for you. Tools like Basecamp and Trello, for instance, allow various team members to assign tasks and make updates on their phones. Instead of using the hot new app everybody’s using, try a few for yourself, and pick the one that fits your team’s needs the best. Make Reporting a Daily Habit When It Cannot Be Automated You cannot remove obstacles if you don’t know that your team is facing them. The sooner you know about delays and issues, the sooner you can address them. The solution is to make daily reporting a habit for your team. At the end of the day, if you have found you can’t get it done or need more help to complete it, inform the manager who can. This is aside from team members tracking the time that they work for each project and managers comparing this to the time specific tasks are expected to take. If someone is going slower than expected, maybe they need help or training in how to do certain things better. Another issue is ensuring that team members update their work as they pass it along in the chain. If they are in the habit of updating documentation or reports before handing it to the next person, then you’ll have more accurate reports and better communications within the team. Take the time to review the project plan on a weekly and identify gaps. Monitor the scope, so that scope creep doesn’t end up killing your schedule. Monitor the costs so that you don’t end up running out of money too soon. Cultivate Leadership and Collaboration Management tends to focus on the details and the data. You are monitoring schedules, scope, and finances. However, project managers are managing people. Learning how to motivate and manage people allows you to get more out of them and get the best they can offer. When you become familiar with each person’s strengths and weaknesses, you learn what you need to know to delegate effectively to the people most capable of doing the task in the time frame allocated for it. Learn how to foster collaboration so that people work with each other more easily and effectively. Without the basics of good project management, software tools and management fads are irrelevant. Gain these key skills to be able to deliver projects on time, in budget and per expectations.