If you asked a roomful of new project managers and laypeople, “What’s the most important part of a project manager’s job?” you’d probably get responses like planning, scheduling, or keeping the costs in line. But if you posed the same question to a roomful of seasoned PM veterans, you’d probably hear a different story. They would tell you that the most critical part of a project manager’s job is communications. In fact, project managers spend at least 90 percent of their time talking to their project team, sponsor, or stakeholders.

This emphasis on communication wasn’t always the case. Twenty years ago, scheduling, not communication, was the keystone of project management (PM). The scheduling process was rigorous and complex, frequently involving several people, a plotter, and 25 feet of wall space to hang a gantt chart. But modern PM applications, such as Microsoft Project, Primavera, Artemis, PlanView, OpenView, and others, enable almost anyone with access to a personal computer to “do” PM. However, you won’t be able to do it well unless you have soft skills, i.e., people skills—and that means knowing how to talk to people.

In today’s fiscally austere environments, project managers typically do not have the luxury of a staff dedicated to a specific project or projects. They need to coordinate activities through a matrixed team, which requires excellent communication skills. And they need to control the expectations of their team, the organization, stakeholders, and users about what the project will and won’t produce. It should be noted from the beginning that this communication, coordination, and control cannot be accomplished through e-mail, however easy that may be. Nothing takes the place of face-to-face interaction.

What is critical for managing a project—communication—is also critical for teaching and learning PM principles. Because most project managers don’t have a four-year degree in PM or a Project Management Professional® certification, the best and fastest way to learn PM is on-the-job-training (OJT) from a mentor. The role of a PM mentor encompasses friendly advisor, coach, and teacher. A good mentor works with project managers in different ways, as each project differs in scope, challenges, and methodologies. In all cases, the best way for a mentor to teach good communication skills is to model them.

The question is, if communication is so vital to project management, why is it so hard to put into practice? There are several reasons and solutions, which a mentor and protégé project manager should consider and work through. If you are a project manager and don’t have a mentor within your organization, you may want to talk to a PM consulting firm about getting one.

Circumstances deter. Project managers are frequently people who have been in an organization for a long time. They have a depth of situational awareness about the current state of the user’s needs and the organization’s resources, processes, and policies. In other words, they are comfortable with their careers. A corollary of a “comfort zone” is an aversion to “boat rocking.” But being a boat rocker means being a catalyst for change, and this is key to leading a team and project forward. Communication is a key tenet of leadership. Therefore, project managers need to learn to step outside their comfort zone and take active control of the project.

Mentor’s solution: Work with the project manager to align the project’s goals with those of the organization, project team, and project manager him/herself. Too often, these goals are misaligned. Clear communication of the organization’s vision and the goals of the project, project team, and project manager is key to identifying any misalignment. A project manager can use positive reinforcement such as monetary bonuses, promotion, or recognition within the team to guide alignment toward the project goal. Cultivating, recognizing, and rewarding good performance is inherent in good leadership. Once all involved have some “skin” in the game—or perceive themselves as interested stakeholders—participation and cooperation will usually follow.

Lack of knowledge. Many people who become project managers are functional experts. They rise up through the ranks because of their knowledge in a specific area—but they may have limited experience in effective project communication, not to mention PM tools and processes. Additionally, resource shortfalls in experienced project management personnel often force functional experts to become PMs by default. The necessity for project management skills is recognized government-wide. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) now requires agencies to complete Exhibit 300 reports to demonstrate sound business cases for their major IT projects. One of the Exhibit 300 categories asks for PM qualifications. And the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has developed an IT project manager career track.

Mentor’s solution: The mentor’s job is to train new project managers, either through mentoring, direct support, or finding specific PM skill classes to augment capability gaps.

One effective OJT technique is for the mentor and project manager to form common objectives to accomplish the project. For example, the two agree on three goals, with the importance of achieving them increasing from the first to the last. Achievable milestones should be set ¾ for example, the first goal should be accomplished in one month, the second in a quarter, the third in six months. By starting out with achievable but increasingly difficult tasks, the project manager will grow in knowledge, confidence, and success.

Personality. Communication issues often come down to the project manager’s personality, communication style, and comfort in dealing with the other personalities and communication styles within the team. If the project manager does not like social interaction and talking to people face to face—nonconfrontational, reserved, or fearful of accountability or responsibility—the project may be heading for a disaster.

Mentor’s solution: The mentor must be sensitive to the introverted project manager, making every effort to share tools and techniques, such as active listening, to increase successful communications.

Start by educating the project manager about different personality types. Not infrequently, the mentor’s and project manager’s personality types are different. This can cause misunderstandings, which lead to mistrust. Mentors can gain trust by:

Collaborating with their project manager. The mentor and project manager need to understand that there is value in different ideas. The challenge is integrating differences into a viable solution.

Being the project manager’s peer by respecting and working with him or her as an equal partner. In other words, the mentor is a “guide by the side,” not a “sage on a stage”

Valuing input. Mentors need to actively demonstrate how the project manager’s input contributes to the overall success of the project. This is difficult if the mentor and project manager have different personality types—but can be achieved.

This kind of trust can trigger the project manager’s awareness that diversity in personalities is key to team success and that the best solution comes from the consensus of the team. Each team member brings individual strengths to the team. Good solutions typically aren’t formed in a vacuum or in a lonely cubicle. Team consensus means team buy-in to the project manager’s direction in attaining project goals.

To address accountability issues, mentors can suggest brief, informal meetings on a daily basis, versus impersonal e-mails. E-mails do not encourage ownership. Sitting down with someone and asking him or her to perform a specific task is far more likely to engender participation.

Words, Music, and Dance

Direct communication ensures that the project manager, at times a bandleader, has control of the words, music, and dance. In other words, everything that impacts the project whether internal or external is fully understood and embraced by each team member. If project managers can answer these three questions comprehensively and affirmatively—What do I know? Who needs to know it? Have I told them?—they will be successful in their communications, and consequently, their projects. And project success is a winning proposition for all involved.

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