Soft Skills for Project Management

Abstract
This paper contains the soft critical skills required by project managers and their impact on their
project success. These skills are essential to project success, but it is also found that soft and hard
skills work together to achieve success. We will deep dive into the various aspects of the
following: Project Management, the need for soft skills for project managers, the challenges
faced by project management, the list of required soft skills, the tool skills as are necessary for
project management, and the practical, real-world challenges. This review makes a significant
contribution by establishing the need to develop soft skills in project managers to effectively and
efficiently manage teams, thereby increasing their performance and the chances of project
success.

Project Management
Project management is a strategic function of the process and stages of a product's lifecycle. The
project management steps include initiation, planning and design, implementation, monitoring,
and closure. Specific soft skills are necessary throughout the process to make a project successful
in all stages and to communicate and analyze the main motive of a particular product to the
customers. The four pillars of project management are Process, People, Plan, and Power. People
are one of the central pillars of success; people are a mix of
Emotions, feelings, and respect take special skills to manage them.
Need of Soft skills
Studies conducted by Hartman and Ashrafi (2002) identified factors influencing project success,
but none addressed the role of project managers in project success. A project manager is a liaison
between everyone on a project. Soft skills help convey information, and understandably soft
skills include interactive relationship management and project ecology. In addition, the
organizational context can influence the direction of risk and uncertainty. For project
management to be less risky, successful management of venture opportunities requires broad
participation and cooperation of all departments and the state of the venture group. Sunderland
and Mellor (2012) argue that risk management requires more time and effort that allocates
resources to sensitive talent. This study aims to understand the relationship between risk
management and project success, considering the possible influence of project complexity.
According to Stevenson & Starkweather (2010), an effective project manager has leadership,
team building, motivation, communication, trust building, conflict management, and coaching
skills. These skills will equip project managers to address the abovementioned issues and keep
team members motivated and satisfied, which could ultimately reflect on their performance. A
project manager should be able to build trust and layers of loyalty within the project team. The
project manager must assemble the right team to implement the project effectively and efficiently
(Anantatmula, 2010; Cowie, 2003).
Many companies have devoted significant resources to project management (PMI, 2009), and
executives seek evidence that their organizational efforts have borne fruit. A critical managerial
implication of this study is that adopting a standard PM framework focused on the harder side of
risk management is insufficient to manage uncertainty effectively. Our study suggests that the
soft side plays a key role and that firms should also consider soft skills, as their impact on project
success is very significant and positive. Scope, time, and cost remain the basis for project
success, according to PMI.
It is worth noting that a lack of experience in solving specific project problems or risks among
project managers also leads to project failures. Livesey (2016) argues that if a project is to
continue to achieve its overall objective, any conflicts arising from anticipated or unforeseen
circumstances must be prompt to ensure the project is on the desired path to achieving its goals
and objective. He also identified a limited duration for team building, developing a relationship
with stakeholders, gaining organizational support, building a functional change management
control system, different professional and social backgrounds of team members, ambiguity
towards clear goals and objectives, and changing stakeholders and the team. Structure and
conflicts lead to problems with communication, scope, and personnel changes as factors that
affect the project's progress. These identified factors indicate the need for soft skills for project
managers to manage the "human" aspect of projects.

Project Management Challenges

Project managers must keep several project elements in mind while considering different
outcomes and the time it takes to implement successfully.
So balancing time, budget, scope, and resources are the main obstacles that project managers
face. The following are some of the challenges that project managers face when managing
projects.

Undefined Objectives: If the objectives are unclear, they will negatively impact the whole project
and the team. If the business does not agree on vague goals and the right questions that
management asks beforehand, it can help the project succeed. The project manager is responsible
for asking the right questions and communicating clear goals at the beginning of the project.
Scope Creep: When the project moves to the implementation and control phase with proper
documentation and any changes made at the client's request, the project scope can change.
Failure to document new changes may result in project failure.
Improper Risk Management: Risk tolerance is typically a project manager's attribute, so they
must accurately plan their budgets and ensure that projects stay within budget. They should adopt
effective cost-management strategies to stay within the agreed budget when demand creeps in
and the budget changes. For this reason, managers must consider and budget for all scope
penetration options in the planning phase to avoid cost overruns.
Lack of Communication: Communication can make or break a project. Project managers guide
every project step, so every team leader must know what the project manager expects. To
complete the project. So effective communication with every person in the team will lead to the
project's success.

List Of Soft Skills

Leadership
A project manager's ability to effectively lead his people can significantly impact a project's
success. Leadership can be an uncomfortable topic for some people, especially technical project
managers who may have extensive experience being executives but little experience being the
person responsible for leading others to get their work done. Leadership skills, like athletic skills,
follow a normal curve distribution in our population. Almost anyone can become a good leader
with hard work. Leadership refers to the process by which a person can influence a group to
achieve a common goal. Manager permission may exist but is not required.
A leader has a vision of the future and proposes one or more goals to be achieved, and the group
carries out their realization through concerted action.
Communication Skills
Improving the communication skills of organizational members has been largely beneficial. It
Improves productivity – Achieving improved productivity is considered one of the main goals of
organizational members. In order to improve productivity, it is necessary for members not only
to expand their knowledge and understanding in terms of various factors but also to promote
effective communication with other members, which include superiors, subordinates, colleagues,
and individuals outside the organization, such as customers, distributors, etc. When focused on
the up-gradation of communication skills, productivity can be increased. Therefore, increased
productivity is considered one of the essential benefits of communication skills.
Higher Job Satisfaction – To perform one's job duties appropriately and achieve the desired goals
and objectives, it is of the utmost importance that all members of the organization gain job
satisfaction. When they develop practical communication skills with other members of the
organization, they feel satisfied with their work. One of the essential aspects to consider is that
individuals can get support and help from others to perform their job duties effectively.
Therefore, higher job satisfaction is considered one of the essential benefits of communication
skills.
Expanding Knowledge - It is generally understood that it is essential for individuals to expand
their knowledge in order to perform their job duties correctly. Expanding knowledge is necessary
for several factors, including job duties, use of technology, materials, tools, and equipment,
internal and external environmental conditions, and so on. In addition to using the Internet and
other reading materials, it is essential to expand knowledge by upgrading communication skills.
Through effective communication with all organization members, individuals can expand their
knowledge of various factors. Therefore, expanding knowledge is considered one of the essential
benefits of communication skills.
Communication skills are not only used to gain knowledge or to talk with people all around the
world, but it helps us to represent our product/project and the intention and vision of that
particular company.

Time Management
The most important thing in homeschooling or at work is time management. There are various
methods and strategies in project management. "In the case studies surveyed by organizations,
the definition of project success was predominantly efficiency-oriented (time and cost),
underestimating efficiency and business benefit" (Comstock, 2016).
The initial stage of time management is prioritization. This includes understanding which tasks
are most critical and allowing enough time to complete them. Prioritization is vital because not
all have a similar level of importance or desperation. Prioritization allows a man to reduce work
to its basics.
At first, it can be challenging to discern what is most important from what is generally tenacious.
For example, if one representative consistently asks another for help with a business that is not
an immediate task, the other worker may do nonessential but tedious work. Another constant
problem is the flood of documents and messages that the vast majority receive once a day. While
these messages may seem critical, most of them usually last.
When tasks have to plan effectively, they must have a solid understanding of how much time
each task will take. "In the case studies surveyed by organizations, the definition of project
success was predominantly efficiency-oriented (time and cost), underestimating efficiency and
business benefit" (Comstock, 2016).
Project time management includes the process required to manage a project's timely completion.
Define Activities
The first step to building your schedule is to characterize the specific exercises that should be
performed to complete the venture. Is accomplished by leveraging the work breakdown structure
you created in the middle of extended scope management. The work breakdown structure records
most of the work bundles that should be done with the end goal of completing all the business
expectations. For each work package, you will characterize specific exercises that should be
performed to complete the work package.
Planning -
Since the insights from the risk exercises have, this is an ideal opportunity to create a business
plan. The timetable will show the start and end dates of each movement. It must be that this is an
iterative procedure. When examining the scheduling system, you may need to shorten the
calendar using schedule pressure strategies such as breaking or optimization. On the other hand,
you may find that you have peaks in assets, so you do asset leveling to reduce those peaks; this is
the perfect time to develop a company strategy because the risk-management activities have
revealed valuable information. Each movement's start and finish dates will be indicated on the
schedule. It must be an iterative process in this case. If the scheduling system has to be
examined, you could use schedule pressure techniques like breaking or optimization to reduce
the calendar. On the other side, you can discover that your assets have peaked, in which case you
level your assets to lower those peaks.
I recommend using a software tool to build your risk plan. The booking tool will then change the
start and end dates of the event concerning the connections during the event. It will allow you to
effectively monitor the effect of different situations as you imagine the scenario in which the
examination is. (Comstock, 2016).

Soft skills help manage team members and stakeholders effectively and
efficiently (Scott-young & Samson, 2008). From the literature review, the researcher found that
one of the dominant reasons for project failure is the lack of soft skills in the project manager. A
study by Stevenson and Starkweather (2010) identified the essential skills required of a project
manager to deliver projects successfully. Their study showed that four of the six critical skills
identified were soft skills. In addition, Fisher (2011) argues that competencies supporting
behavior are increasingly crucial in project management. However, behavior does not drive
project outcomes. Therefore, the project manager must apply specific behaviors related to each
skill to achieve the desired result. Soft skills help a project manager improve his work attitude
further and consider the flexibility associated with individual team members, leading to an
overall production environment. The findings of this research reinforce the importance of soft
skills in a project manager and their contribution to the success of his project. However,
Gurugulis and Vincent (2009) argue that the increasing emphasis on soft skills creates problems
because personal assessing characteristics is exceptionally challenging. They also argue that
prevailing industry stereotypes about gender, behavior, and productivity further add to the
existing complexities. On the one hand, where the arguments of Gurugulis and Vincent (2009)
shed some light on
ANZAM 2019 9 importance of soft skills in project management, several other authors (Grugulis
& Vincent, 2009) criticize the exaggerated importance of soft skills in the peer-reviewed
literature. The authors found that it is pretty clear from the reviewed literature that hard skills are
an integral part of project management. Traditionally, project managers are hired based on
technical skills as the only criteria. However, the researcher found that a project generally fails if
the manager has no skill set (soft and hard skills).
Project managers are primarily hired based on technical skill criteria, but the authors suggest that
projects generally fail if the project manager has no skill set (soft and hard skills). Generally, a
project manager is comfortable with soft and hard skills. From a project manager's perspective,
their behavior toward work, team members, and the organization would form the basis of their
decision-making towards the project team and how individual and group tasks are carried out.
The project manager's soft skills play a key and decisive role in encouraging the team member to
adopt positive behaviors that ultimately lead to the team member contributing positively to the
successful completion of the project. At the same time, soft skills are considered a contributing
factor to project success, more than these soft skills for project success in the delivery. Soft skills
must work "hand in hand" with hard skills to increase the chances of project success.

Practical Issues on Project management

Conceptual Issues:
International comparative research is fundamentally limited by looking at the role of the national
context in management theory. Hypotheses for administration have tended to for you quit
offering on that one country {typically the united states for America; However, hypotheses
starting with different nations show the same social specificity - those German Weber; the French
Fayol, and so forth throughout this way, observing and stock arrangement of all instrumentation
may be enha.). Additionally, recently, there needs to be a response to the prevailing us model
with endeavors to build different approaches, at present guaranteed Similarly as universally
applicable, to Germany (Kern What is more Schumann, 1984) What is more Sweden (Berggren,
1992).
Methodological issues
The issue for Examine approach likewise will make managed. The three principal methodologies
to examine are case studies, summary judgments, and surveys. What is more, these methods have
been widely used in international research. These favorable circumstances Furthermore,
obstacles to each methodology may be known (see recently McCarthy, 1994; Millward What is
more Hawes, 1995). In addition, there may be a solid habit of national and sectoral correlations
using other methods if these now and then include instance investigations. Such modern segment
investigations need aid based on the idea that streamlined parts would be internationally
interlaced alternately. Considering modern division consistent will assist in distinguishing if
critical nation impacts work and what is more entryway they could sway for associations.
Practical problems in international surveys of Human Management skills:
A way issue for review exploration will be getting a delegate examination. Clinched alongside
single-country investigations, the challenges of acquiring a proper inspecting outline would vary.
The issues need aid exacerbated over cross-national Look (Hidiroglou Furthermore Srinath,
1993). The test outline needs to hold a delegate examining the number examined. International
tests need to have a chance to be reliable for investigators, which means double-tapping more
comparable samples across national boundaries.
It must be crazy that accumulating accurate information instead of slants does not mainly
diminish semantics. Furthermore, social 'infection' of the data also lends itself that's only the tip
of the iceberg of the examination of claiming patterns (McCarthy, 1994). In turn, more late
examination ventures which deliver H.R. issues may be the worldwide association observatory
one task. This investigates various authoritative atmosphere issues utilizing a consolidation of
'factual' attitudinal inquiries. This research might have over five countries, although central and
only the questionnaire mainly managed with human asset administration issues. Thus, there need
customarily be an absence of similar information coating a thorough extent from claiming
Human asset issues.
The essentialness of national contrasts must be at both theoretical and methodological levels.
Though hypotheses ahead humanity's asset administration need aid on get up and go we
requirement to make wary of settling on presumptions something like that widespread
materialness of hones crosswise over the more significant part national contexts alternately the
prevalence from claiming polishes in you quit offering on that one nation over the individuals for
in turn. The same cautions necessity additionally make proclaimed with admiration to similar
exploration outline. For example, there needs to be more consideration for dialectical issues to
avoid faulty and erroneous conclusions about the authoritative act. It is limited to the claim that
racial propensity for such exploratory segregation can be created for multicultural exploratory
groups alternating networks. Over such situations it may be critical that know accomplices have
a rise to the contribution, prompting a more profound exchange of the issues under examination.
Ethnocentric exploration networks will inescapably prompt those sustained about absolute nat
hypotheses. However, it must also recognize that similar research requests bargain at the tiniest
levels.
Conclusion
The high failure rate of projects creates the need to take the necessary measures to increase the
chances of project success. It is contextually essential to integrate soft and hard skills into project
management methodologies to further improve the discipline, as soft skills in different project
phases. Regarding the CLR review findings, there is evidence that project manager soft skills
have an impact on team management, team performance, and project success. The authors found
that communication skills, team management skills, negotiation skills, people skills, human
resource management, professionalism and ethics, political and cultural awareness, conceptual
skills, leadership skills, active listening, motivational skills, conflict management, and human
skills. The soft skills a project manager requires to manage his team and lead them to project
success. These skills help manage the project team's most crucial project resource (people). By
applying these skills, the project manager will be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of
team members and their attitudes, get feedback, increase their ability to better coordinate tasks,
create an idea of harmony, exercise leadership skills, motivate the project team, and lead ethical
procedures.
Moreover, keep the team fired up to achieve project goals and objectives. This paper makes a
significant contribution to the project management domain by establishing the need for soft skills
in project managers and identifying a set of soft critical skills and their contribution to project
success. Future research could determine a revised competency framework for project managers
that includes soft skills. As the days go on, the amount requirements vary accordingly for a
company and specifically for different domains. Hence, the need for further research time-to-
time adds more information to this research.

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