Power Skills or Soft Skills – Capability Matters More Than Terminology

Soft skills are increasingly being referred to as “power skills” – and I can understand why this mights be. These skills whatever the terminology are all about how you work with other people and there is plenty of evidence to show that this ultimately effects project outcomes and economin outcomes for organisations and whole countries.

So it’s not surprising that many high-performing organisations place a much greater significance on these power skills / soft skills than technical ones.

Research carried out for the APM by Censuswide, a research company, questioned 1,000 UK project professionals. The research found that 83% of those who responded believe there is currently a skills gap within their industry sector. 43% of respondents felt that the skills gap was staying the same or getting worse whilst those who believed that the skills gap is getting worse totalled 13%. The APM also discovered that GenZ employees entering the workplace are lacking critical soft skills.

Listening is an essential communication tool

We can’t stress enough just how important a skill of good communication is when it comes to project management. However, it is essential for a project manager to be good at all aspects of communication, and this doesn’t just mean talking to a team. Getting the balance right when it comes to communication is the mark of a great project leader and one who will be able to get far more out of their project team.  According to the PMI Pulse of the Profession Report (2013) communication that is ineffective has been found to contribute to the failure of around 33% of projects, as a soft skill listening is therefore one of the most critical and impactful ones your team needs.

Verbal communication isn’t the only way to communicate

One of the most widely stated statistics within the APM project management community, and often linked to best practice guidance, is that project managers can spend anywhere between 75% and 90% of their time on a project just communicating.

Be aware of false listening

Ineffecive communication is likely to contribute to the failure of projects in roughly one third of cases. This means that as a soft skill, listening is one of the most impactful soft skills that there is, which is why it is so important to ensure that “faulty” listening is avoided.

The impact of stress in the workplace

The figures around stress in project management are staggering with APM statistics suggesting that as many as 72% of full-time project professionals indicate that work related to their main project has had a negative impact on their mental wellbeing and 76% suggesting that their main project has caused them stress.

Consider software solutions

The right project management software solutions are a very good way of keeping your team together even when they are working from different locations or even countries. It can also be handy when they are in the same building but work on different tasks. The humble meeting is also a good collaboration tool and one that should not be dismissed. Sometimes having your full team in one room and discussing the project can be a good way of ensuring that everybody is collaborating together. Whilst this may be difficult if your team is based in different locations, it is still possible to achieve this in some way, even if some of your team need to attend the meeting virtually. It has been shown that a strong team who works together and collaborates effectively has better morale, and this leads to a happier workplace.

According to the Capterra Project Management Software Market Research Report, the most utilised feature of project management software tools is dashboards and reports with 65% of those questioned reporting that this was a feature they used. Document management at 64% comes in a very close second. The same research indicates that although they have access to them the same project professionals do not use things like Gantt charts and velocity charts.