There is no way around it: in order to be a great project manager, you need to be a great leader.
And no matter how good your leadership skills get, there are always improvements to be made!
So, whether you’re a brand-new project manager or have decades of experience, you need to develop your project leadership skills.
But how exactly do you do that?
1. Have the Motto “People First”
Of course, projects are about getting tasks done, but you can’t get any tasks done if you don’t have the right people to do them.
At the end of the day, your project is all about PEOPLE.
It can be really easy to get caught up in your tasks and become really task-oriented, but good leaders always think about the people.
Your subject matter experts are the ones executing tasks, so you need to focus on them. Work on learning about emotional intelligence skills that will give you the ability to get a sense of where your team is at and what you can do to better guide them through the project.
Trust me: when you have a connected team, it becomes much easier to execute those tasks.
2. Get to know your team members
It’s not just about learning their names or what their tasks will be. Getting to know everyone for who they are as individuals will actually help your project run much better and will ultimately make you a better leader because you’ll know exactly who you’re working with and how to lead them.
Do some “get-to-know-you” activities in your team meetings. Find out what inspires everyone on your team and what their greatest strengths are. You can use this information to lead them better!
You can even do activities where your project team is all encouraging each other by talking about the positives they see in one another. Activities like this can be really impactful for your project team in the long-term and can also teach you a lot about the personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of each of those team members.
Other ways to develop your leadership skills
There are lots of other ways you can develop your leadership skills as a project manager. Luckily, I’ve made a video for you to teach you what steps to take. You can find it on my YouTube.
If you want more step-by-step guides on all things project management, check out my SLAY Project Management online course where I take you through all the steps of successfully managing a project – including documentation – from start to close. You’ll get every template you will need, along with detailed video instructions on how to use them.
Adriana Girdler, PMP | Creator of Slay Project Management™