Ability model of project manager-communication ability

The project is completed by everyone in the project team, and communication is an important way of information transmission between people. The responsibility of the project manager is to lead and push the project team to complete the project. In order to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of information transmission in the project process, the project manager needs to have strong communication skills and the ability to guide communication. It is no exaggeration to say that in PMI, communication accounts for 80% of the project manager's work. According to my experience in project management, most of the problems in the project process are in communication.

So today we will talk about the core competence that a project manager needs-communication ability.

Determine the purpose of communication

All work content has its purpose and goal, and so does communication. Before communicating with others, the project manager needs to clearly understand the purpose of this communication, such as the delivery of business objectives, understanding the current working status of others, feedback on project issues, establishing emotional ties, negotiating differences, etc. Only by clearly understanding the purpose of communication can we judge whether the communication has achieved the expected effect after the communication. The project manager needs to make a communication plan and choose a communication method according to the communication purpose.

Aimless communication at work, commonly known as gossip, is a waste of each other's time and energy.

Make a communication plan

After determining the communication purpose, we should make a plan for the communication purpose.

For example, a member of the project team is not in a good working state at present, so as a project manager, it is necessary to communicate with him about his working state. In this case, if the project manager communicates directly in the way of accusation, the communication result may end in failure. However, assuming that the project manager cuts into the problem from the perspective of considerate care, the success rate of communication will be greatly improved by understanding the real problems encountered by team members and giving some reference opinions to solve the problems. Team members may open their hearts, adjust their work status and get back to work, and the project manager will also solve an unstable factor in the project team.

For example, if the project manager can't solve problems in the process of project management, such as insufficient resources and unresolved technical core problems, it is necessary to seek the help of functional managers or higher-level leaders. Therefore, the communication plan should include expounding the problems currently encountered, analyzing the causes of the problems, and what problems need the help of functional leaders or higher-level leaders. Only when the communication scheme is clear and executable can the expected effect be achieved in the communication process.

Therefore, before communication, the project manager should make different communication plans according to the environment at that time, so as to achieve the purpose of communication and ensure that the communication results meet expectations.

Know who to communicate with.

The project manager communicates with many people, including superiors, customers, teams, suppliers, partners and functional leaders of the team. In order to achieve good communication effect, the project manager needs to know the communication object deeply. Including the behavior habits of the other party: whether there is a habit of active communication; Temper: introverted or extroverted; Possible views on communication problems: agree or disagree.

The project manager should have empathy, know how to put himself in the other person's shoes and guess the possible behavior of the communication object in different time and space. In the process of understanding the communication object, it will greatly improve the communication effect and achieve the expected effect by examining whether your communication plan is reasonable and whether it needs to be adjusted.

Choose communication methods

There are many ways to communicate, such as face-to-face communication, written communication and message communication. In terms of interaction, it also includes interactive communication, push communication and pull communication. Project managers should choose different communication methods for different scenarios.

Face-to-face communication includes meetings and conversations. Its advantage is that it can accurately deliver messages in the process and effectively avoid ambiguity. In this process, the consistency of information understanding can be guaranteed by repeating the other party's speech and feedback.

Text communication includes email, group chat, etc. Its advantage is that information is widely disseminated and all stakeholders get the same information. However, due to the extensive and profound Chinese characters, there may be some ambiguity in the communication process.

Message communication includes WeChat message, system message and telephone message. Mainly used when the two parties are in different time zones or there is no direct communication condition. Real-time communication cannot be guaranteed, and the communication cost is high.

Interactive communication is similar to the TCP protocol in the network. After receiving the other party's information, you must have a clear reply message, so as to complete a communication. Interactive communication aims to create a way of information exchange and realize information sharing. Compared with other ways, interactive communication has obvious advantages of information symmetry.

Push communication is similar to UDP protocol in the network. After the message is sent, it needs to be received and understood by the other party, but there is no guarantee that the receiver can really receive and understand the message.

Pull communication is an active way of communication, and participants can obtain existing information by themselves as needed. Simple pull communication can only spread and obtain information. For people with strong active communication skills, interactive communication can often be promoted through pull communication. For example, getting the information you need from the organization's wiki and consulting questions after viewing the information has evolved from pull communication to interactive communication.

language performance

In face-to-face communication, the same thing may be expressed in different ways. Everyone has heard a joke: a tester found a bug in the system during routine testing. If the tester goes directly to the developer and says: Sorry, you have a bug here, then the developer may think: You are * *, can you test it? But if the tester says to the developer: I have an untestable use case, please help me see if there is anything wrong with my testing method. At this time, developers may be surprised: I *, there will be no bugs. It can be seen from this joke that the same thing will be explained in different ways, so the communication effect will be very different.

Project managers need to master many language skills, such as using "we" instead of "you" as much as possible; In the process of communication, try not to interrupt others' expression; If you will embarrass others, try to express it from the side; Use some humorous language to express in informal occasions; Try to consider each other's position when expressing opinions; If necessary, add some body language to enhance the communication effect.

Instruct team communication

The project is completed by the project team. In order to ensure the project team to maintain good communication and complete information transmission without obstacles, the project manager needs to communicate and guide the team members on the premise of improving his communication ability.

First of all, we should help the team to establish some efficient communication channels. For example, organize daily meetings of project members; Establish a WeChat or nail exchange group; Establish a mail group for relevant personnel; Coordinate the relevant colleagues of the project team to sit together and work.

Secondly, we should define some communication rules with the team according to the characteristics of the team and the project. For example, define the content rules of the daily regular meeting, expose problems instead of reporting progress, control the length of the regular meeting, and communicate separately after the meeting to solve peer-to-peer problems. Grading the information to be conveyed; Face-to-face communication on important and urgent matters; Point-to-point communication of things with little impact; Communication in informal information groups that need to be synchronized; Need to synchronize formal information email communication and so on.

Third, we should build trust among team members. Trust is a key factor in interpersonal communication. If there is distrust or conflict between them, communication cannot be smooth. The project manager should continuously observe the team status and communication process during the project, and guide the team to build trust. For example, mutual understanding in the process of project start-up and resumption; Show everyone's work openly and transparently through project management tools; When the project encounters difficulties, guide the team to help each other and solve problems. Such guidance will enhance the trust between teams and better serve the project.

Finally, in the process of continuous observation and guidance of the team, the communication behavior and norms within the organization are habituated, forming an organizational culture, going deep into the hearts of project members and establishing a tacit understanding of communication among project members.

summary

Communication is one of the most important competencies in the competency model of project managers. In the process of communication, the project manager should determine the communication purpose, make a good communication plan, adopt different communication methods and expressions by understanding the communication objects, and guide the team communication on the premise of improving their communication ability, so as to make the information transfer more smoothly within the team, thus improving the team's combat effectiveness and project success rate.