The Art of Effective Communication in Project Management

Effective communication can be viewed as an art because an individual should feel confident when talking to others, he or she should always be themselves, should be patient while listening to others speak, should think before speaking to others, should be able to ask questions when not sure of a topic being discussed, and the individual should keep away from sensitive topics such as religion, politics, and/or personal life experiences.

In project management, the project manager, should be able to effectively communicate to his team members and stakeholders about the prospective project.  A project manager should be able to select team members, schedule meetings, assign tasks and explain what is the timeline and budget to get a project initiated, scoped, followed through, define deliverables and close the project.  An effective project manager will assure that all team members understand what their responsibilities will be and assure that team members commit to their responsibilities by preparing a Statement of Work (SOW) and assuring that all team members sign the SOW understanding the work that they are expected to complete in a timely fashion.  The Project Manager should be able to follow up by creating emails and submitting those to all stakeholders to assure that everyone is on the same page and if unexpected issues are present those should be discussed in order to find timely resolution.  A Project Manager should be able to find constructive ways to assure that all stakeholders do communicate with each other to create a collaborative work environment.  If team members experience difficulty communicating with each other, the Project Manager should be aware of this type of Scope Creep in order to assist team members to resolve barriers of supportive communication.  If a Project Manager believes that a team member is not compliant or is unable to complete an assigned task, he or she should be able to interview another qualified candidate that will commit to complete the assigned task and all team members should be aware of the change of team member and what task he or she has been hired to complete.  Portney et al (2008) wrote in Project Management textbook Project Managers are responsible for a variety of communication activities during the life of a project …Communications can be formal or informal, written or verbal” (p. 367).  “According to the Art of Effective Communication media (2010), a Project Manager can use three different modalities to clearly enhance communications with project stakeholders and those are by the means of emails, voicemail, and face to face.  By the use of an email, a Project Manager can convey communication by creating a message that can be used to ask a request where the intent will be to allow both parties to communicate effectively while a record of contacts can be created.  By the use of voicemails, the message conveyed can set the tone as to what the sender needs from the receiver of the voice mail.  By the use of face to face communication, the Project Manager can meet with a stakeholder in his office, or in any given location at the workplace to confirm information related to the actual project.  Face to face communications can also take place during a scheduled meeting or by the use of Skype with the intent to hold a direct conversation of what may be needed by any of the parties.  The intent of any of the abovementioned communications is to connect the parties or users in order to allow them to come together to allow them to create meaningful content.  It is clear that the Internet will allow multiple users to participate in creating data for the purpose of active collaboration.  In Project Management, it is imperative that the Project Manager communicates with members of the team in order to track progress and maintain control.   

Reference     

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.