Anyone who watches Channel 4’s ‘Grand Designs’ will understand that choosing to manage a project yourself will only result in failure. That’s why recruiting someone with the correct project management skills will ensure a hassle-free build.

A combination of skills, qualifications and characteristics are all required to be effective and efficient project manager; it isn’t something you can just walk into and expect to be taken seriously.

What Are Project Management Skills

Before you start honing your skills, you must first become recognised by the industry. The Association of Project Managers is the regulatory body that will qualify you as a project manager and teach you all the important project management skills you need to succeed.

Once you pass your course, then the on-the-job training can begin. You won’t become a seasoned professional as soon as you’re handed your certificate. Shadowing experienced managers and learning the tricks of the trade will go a long way in ensuring you are competent when you’re at the helm.

One of the most important project management skills is leadership. When in charge of an entire workforce, it is important to hold yourself responsible and allow your team to come to you for guidance and support. Leadership is not control, it is management; trust your team and prioritise a healthy atmosphere above anything else.

Favourable Project Management Skills

A happy team is an efficient team, so grouping together and not holding yourself above the rest of the team is a project management skill that cannot be underestimated.

The key to team management and leadership largely revolves around communication. Being clear, concise and to the point will get all messages across and will rid any doubt from the minds of your team.

Communication is 9 tenths of the law in the life of a project manager, and usually, any problem can be solved with a quick conversation to discuss potential strategies and a way forward. These strategies will draw on the experience and knowledge of both yourself and the workers, and a developed critical thinking process will allow you to make the decision most of the time.

Making sure you identify the risks of each job will put whoever is in charge of carrying out the job more aware and more comfortable in what they are doing. Risk assessing and weighing up every pro and con is the least you can do in making sure you look after your team and ensure that the job gets done to the highest standard.

Project management skills will naturally develop over time as you ease into the role and pick up traits which are specific to the role. If you are in need of any form of work and require a project manager to head the process, head over to our project management page.