Communication skills part 2
A person wrote to me: “I graduated in Software Engineering last year and got a job at a medium sized company. Last week my manager told me that he promoted me to project manager position. Although I took software project management course in university but I am worried because I only had one year of experience and this promotion happened so suddenly. What should I do to succeed in this new position? Please advise ”
Answer: Congratulation! You have done very well in your current position to get that promotion. I had written several blogs about the technical aspects of software project management so please review them. In this blog I will focus on one essential skill that any new project manager needs: Communication.
The first thing any software project manager must learn is you cannot do it alone. Software is teamwork and you need the team to work with you to ensure project's success. As a project manager you need to understand that the essence of communication is listening not talking. Rather than seeing different opinions as problems and start to tell people what to do, you need to listen to team members first. Many managers often make this mistake by letting their ego control them which often lead to conflicts and difficult situation to solve. By understand what team members think as well as their views, you can respond to them accordingly rather than with emotion or anger. You should talk to team members with sincerely but most of all you must learn to listen to their views and their feelings. Even they disagree with you; you need to think about how you can utilize all differing opinions to create a common goal. You must understand that any view is an opportunity to improve. If you recognize this well, you will be successful.
Sometime, discussion can become difficult because team members may have different opinions and they focus on issues rather than the goals. In that case, you should gently remind them about the project vision and common goals and try to steer them away from any small issues that may distract the team from doing good work. However you should never avoid a difficult situation but approach it with care and consideration. Team members often want to have problems solved so they can focus on the project so you must try to shield them from any unnecessary activities that may prolong the problem and allow it to get worse. During your project management training you should have learnt about the importance of how to deal with difficult situations and working towards a solution as quickly as possible.
Many project managers often confuse communication with talking and they like to call meetings where they can talk to their team. That is a big mistake, more meetings take away precious time of getting the work done. Team members do not like to listen to a speech or being told what to do. Basically, communication is a two-way dialogue but the manager must listen rather than talk. The secret of communication is to listen and only talk when needed. You should learn to maintain a good relationship with all team members and improve the overall harmony of the team. You should make sure that team members are feeling good about the working environment. When they are happy, productivity will increase and you have better chance for the project being successful. Many project managers often focus on technical aspects such as planning, monitoring, and mitigating risks but not soft skills. Using soft skills such as communication, teamwork in project management is as important as other technical aspects.
As a new project manager, you will learn many things. This is the best way to apply what you have learned in school and learning new ones. As long as you are learning, you will continue to grow and develop your management abilities. By keeping an open mind and learn how to manage challenging situation will serve you well in your future career. Project management is the first step in advancing your career, if you do well in this position there will be other opportunities waiting so take time to learn it well. Congratulation on your promotion and good luck.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
