WHAT CAN A PROJECT MANAGER DO TO IMPROVE KEY PEOPLE SKILLS?

To help a project manager achieve project and career success, the subsequent chapters of this book offer:

• Approaches to follow in project leadership

• Methods to use for identifying individual differences among team members

• Techniques for interpersonal communications

• Best practices to follow to motivate team members

• Methods for resolving conflicts productively

• Ways to respond effectively when a critical incident strikes a project team

• Techniques for managing personal stress

• Skills required for proactive career management.

Chapter 2 discusses the four different roles a project manager must assume: leader, manager, facilitator, and mentor.

Chapter 3 addresses the importance of developing tangible interpersonal communication skills and provides a model for identifying different types of team members with differing personality styles.

Chapter 4 delves into the art of how to motivate individual team members as well as the team as a unit. Common motivation mistakes and pitfalls are addressed to guide the project manager in reducing the risks involved in implementing these approaches.

Chapter 5 describes the inherent benefits and disadvantages of conflict and presents five specific approaches for addressing conflict. Insights are offered into preferred personal styles of managing conflict, along with the benefits and limitations of these styles.

Chapter 6 challenges the project manager to create a personal stress management plan for addressing the pressures of leading today’s complex projects. Specific, research-based stress management techniques are described.

Chapter 7 covers the steps that a project manager should take when a tragedy (a “critical incident”) such as the unexpected death of a team member strikes the project team. Tangible resources that a project manager can offer the team during these difficult periods are presented, with the goal of helping team members return to pre-crisis levels of performance.

Chapter 8 concludes the book with thoughts about developing an ongoing personal performance plan, suggesting concrete career management “people skills” that every project manager should have and providing a model to use in exploring the human component of project work.