Soft Skills and Project Management

I was at the PMI MileHi Symposium in Denver yesterday. The focus was on communication. This is no surprise since the project related challenges in this area are the biggest. Don't get me wrong the technical project management skills (e.g. traditional, incremental and iterative methodologies) have to be there as a pre-condition anyway. But once they are there the leadership/soft skills/communication skills or whatever you want to call it are becoming crucial. If you can't get people to follow you without positional power how are you going to succeed as a project manager?
After many years of work experience, reading books and listening to cd's in this area I consider the following steps common across authors and most critical

• Listen, before you talk. (rough guideline 70% listen, 30% talking). You need to know what your stakeholders need. You can't learn this when you talk because you are in sending mode and not in receiving mode.
• Set a clear goal. You need to know where you want to go. You will encounter changes but you still know where you want to go even if the path to that place changes
• Strive for a win/win. Think about others without giving up your goals.
• Be flexible. You can plan as much as you like but change will always be there. So don't give yourself a tough time if the inital plan doesn't work. Find another way. Do not give up!
• Be passionate. Do what you do because you love it. If you like it that is not enough. You have to love what you do so you can be passionate about it.

There are many other people who have said this much better than I do it and therefore I list here my all-time favorites in the leadership books

1. The 7 habits of highly effective people - Stephen R. Covey
2. Influence (Science and Practice) - Robert B. Cialdini
3. Dealing with people you can't stand - Dr. Rick Brinkman & Dr. Rick Kirschner
4. Optimal Thinking - Ph.D. Rosalene Glickman
5. The Success Principles - Jack Canfield
6. Getting past No - William Ury

I found the presenation from Guy Cabana regarding Negotiations very impressive but haven't had the time to checkout which books he sells.