7 Essential Project Management Skills Employers Are Looking For In 2023

As a project manager do you have the skills that employers are looking for?

Project management is increasingly becoming a highly sorted category industry in today’s job market.  Learning essential project management skills is a great way to boost your CV and set yourself apart as you’re looking for a new job, trying to switch careers or promotion.

Are you ready to meet the demand?

Project management is a complex field, so if you’re not sure where to start, here are the top project management skills employers are looking for today;

 1. Planning

The foundation of project management is proper planning. Knowing how to take an assignment or goal and break it down into clear, actionable steps, each with a deadline and ensure that every task is assigned to someone, is a fundamental skill for project management success.

2. Managing resources

A project is nothing without the required resources. What is your budget? How many people will you need to employ? Effectively managing resources is very crucial. You don’t want to run out of money before the project ends or worse yet incur extra expenses along the way.

3. Leadership

Being able to lead a team working on a project in a way that motivates them, keeps them on task, and supports them in working through any challenges that arise is an important piece of successfully managing a project. Those who foresee project management being a big part of their jobs, or simply enjoy it and want to explore it further, should consider brushing up on their leadership skills as well.

4. Negotiation

From managing resources, to engaging suppliers, to dealing with team conflict, leading a project means constantly being involved in negotiations. An effective project manager is often a skillful negotiator with the ability to keep involved parties content and working toward a unified goal at all times.

Unavoidable discussions about budgets, resources, and timelines can easily become adversarial if not handled tactfully, and savvy project managers instinctively know when—and how—to apply persuasive techniques that will encourage solutions and avoid damaging workplace relationships.

5. Communication skills

To ensure successful projects, it is important that project managers practice and encourage clear lines of ongoing and transparent communications with key investors and the employees.  Potentially this creates an environment of trust and inclusion, which paves the way to successful project outcomes.  Without effective written and verbal communication skills, project managers are missing a critical component that can easily derail a project by risking buy-in from team members and stakeholders.

6. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

While critical thinking is a skill all professionals could benefit from learning, it is particularly useful in the project management discipline. Rather than being reactive, the best project managers are proactive and use their critical thinking skills to navigate through tricky or ambiguous projects.

By remaining objective, analyzing the facts, and evaluating options without bias, project managers are able to solve complex problems for organizations while delivering results on time and within budget.

7. Organizational skills

 A good project manager knows how to look at a list of tasks and prioritize them in order of importance and timeliness. This involves a tricky balance of the big picture – what’s the ultimate goal of the project? When should the project be finished?  – And detail orientation – what are the individual steps needed to get there, and how do you ensure that each of them is taken correctly, in the right order? In addition to being able to prioritize, you’ll need to be able to effectively communicate those priorities to your team.

Ultimately,

These are just some of the few essential project management skills. If you are looking to dive deeper into the industry and master more skills consider taking up a Project Management training course, this will take your career to the next level.