Professional Project Management Skills | Google Project Management Certificate
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the role of project managers, emphasizing their value addition through prioritization, delegation, and effective communication. It illustrates the project manager's non-hierarchical guidance, focusing on task management rather than direct supervision. Key skills highlighted include decision-making facilitation, communication, flexibility, and strong organizational abilities. The script also underscores the importance of interpersonal skills for relationship building and influencing without formal authority, crucial for navigating project complexities and ensuring success.
Takeaways
- 📅 Project managers shepherd projects from start to finish using their organizational and interpersonal skills.
- 📊 They add value to their teams and organizations through prioritization, delegation, and effective communication.
- 📌 Effective prioritization involves breaking down large tasks into smaller steps and determining critical tasks for project success.
- 👥 Delegation is matching tasks to individuals who can best complete the work, utilizing team members' strengths.
- 🔗 Effective communication involves being transparent, keeping in regular contact with team members and stakeholders, and providing support.
- 🛠️ Project managers follow a process that involves planning, organizing, managing tasks, budgeting, and controlling costs.
- 💡 Core skills for project managers include enabling decision making, communicating and escalating, flexibility, and strong organizational skills.
- 🤝 Interpersonal skills like communication, negotiation, conflict mediation, and understanding motivations are key to influencing without authority.
- 🔍 Project managers are not always the direct managers of their team members but are responsible for guiding and supporting them.
- 📈 Project managers use productivity tools and create processes to track project completion and ensure that tasks are accomplished within set timelines.
Q & A
What is the primary role of a project manager?
-A project manager shepherds projects from start to finish and serves as a guide for their team using their impeccable organizational and interpersonal skills every step of the way.
How do project managers add value to their teams and organizations?
-Project managers add value through prioritization, delegation, and effective communication.
What is prioritization, and how does it add value?
-Prioritization involves effectively identifying and breaking down large tasks into smaller steps. It ensures that critical tasks are completed first, setting up the team for a better project outcome.
Can you give an example of prioritization in a project?
-In a house-painting project, prioritizing tasks like laying out drop cloths and applying blue tape before painting ensures that the project progresses smoothly and efficiently.
What is delegation, and why is it important in project management?
-Delegation involves matching tasks to individuals who can best complete the work. It ensures that tasks are handled by those with the right skills, improving efficiency and effectiveness.
How does effective communication contribute to a project's success?
-Effective communication involves being transparent with plans and ideas, making information readily available, and keeping in regular contact with team members and stakeholders to ensure the project stays on track.
What responsibilities fall under planning and organizing for a project manager?
-Responsibilities include using productivity tools, creating processes, developing plans, timelines, schedules, and maintaining documentation throughout the project.
How do project managers handle budgeting and controlling costs?
-Project managers monitor and manage the budget, track issues and risks, mitigate those issues, and remove barriers that can hinder project progress.
What are some key skills a project manager should possess?
-Key skills include decision making, communicating and escalating, flexibility, and strong organizational skills.
What is influencing without authority, and why is it important?
-Influencing without authority refers to a project manager's ability to guide teammates to complete their work without being their direct manager. It is important because it helps in motivating and leading the team effectively.
Outlines
😀 Understanding the Role of a Project Manager
This paragraph introduces the role of a project manager, emphasizing their critical function in guiding projects from inception to completion. Project managers are portrayed as organizers and leaders who facilitate tasks, budgeting, and cost control to ensure projects are delivered within the set timeframe and financial constraints. The paragraph also highlights the value project managers add through prioritization, delegation, and effective communication, with examples provided to illustrate these concepts in both professional and personal contexts.
📈 Project Management Skills and Responsibilities
The second paragraph delves into the specific skills and responsibilities of a project manager. It discusses the importance of planning and organizing, budgeting, cost control, and task management. The speaker uses the analogy of a house-painting project to illustrate effective prioritization and delegation. The paragraph also touches on the collaborative aspect of project management, explaining how project managers work with their teams and other stakeholders to navigate changes and maintain project momentum.
🤝 The Collaborative Nature of Project Management
This paragraph explores the collaborative nature of project management, clarifying that project managers are not the direct managers of team members but are responsible for guiding the project to success. It uses the analogy of organizing a camping trip to explain the delegation of tasks based on expertise. The paragraph outlines the importance of accountability, issue and risk tracking, understanding and adopting the right workflows, and collaborating with other teams within an organization to meet project requirements.
🛠 Core Skills for Successful Project Management
The fourth paragraph focuses on the core skills that contribute to successful project management. It discusses enabling decision-making, communication and escalation, flexibility, and strong organizational skills. The speaker emphasizes the inevitability of change in projects and the need for project managers to remain adaptable and organized. The paragraph also mentions the importance of industry knowledge, tools, templates, and project management styles like waterfall and agile.
👥 Interpersonal Skills for Project Managers
The final paragraph discusses the interpersonal skills crucial for project managers to build relationships with team members and stakeholders. It covers communication, negotiation, conflict mediation, and understanding motivations as key skills for influencing without authority. The speaker provides examples of how these skills can be applied in personal life and the workplace, highlighting their importance in leadership and team guidance within project management roles.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Project Manager
💡Prioritization
💡Delegation
💡Effective Communication
💡Stakeholders
💡Planning and Organizing
💡Budgeting and Controlling Costs
💡Task Management
💡Interpersonal Skills
💡Influencing Without Authority
Highlights
Project managers are defined as guides who shepherd projects from start to finish using organizational and interpersonal skills.
They follow a process involving planning, organizing, managing tasks, budgeting, and controlling costs to meet project requirements.
Project managers add value through prioritization, delegation, and effective communication, which are key to team and organizational success.
Effective prioritization involves breaking down large tasks into smaller steps and determining critical tasks for project success.
Delegation matches tasks to individuals with the best skills to complete the work, enhancing project efficiency.
Effective communication ensures transparency, regular updates, and support for team members, crucial for project progress.
Project managers use productivity tools and create processes to improve information-sharing and track project completion.
Budgeting and controlling costs involve monitoring changes, managing the budget, and mitigating issues and risks.
Managing tasks includes tracking the team's workload and demonstrating progress to stakeholders.
Project managers are not direct managers but guides who ensure team members have the support needed to complete the project.
Interpersonal skills such as communication, negotiation, conflict mediation, and understanding motivations are vital for project managers.
Influencing without authority is a key ability for project managers to guide teams without being direct supervisors.
Decision-making, flexibility, and strong organizational skills are essential for successful project management.
Project managers need to hold team members accountable for their tasks and establish escalation paths for issues and risks.
Collaboration with other teams in the organization is necessary to meet project requirements based on scope, schedule, and budget.
Understanding and adopting the right workflows and project management styles, like waterfall and agile, are part of a project manager's role.
Building relationships with teammates and stakeholders through interpersonal skills helps in determining project priorities and motivating the team.
The Google Project Management certificate offers a comprehensive learning experience, including job search assistance.
Transcripts
SPEAKER: Now let's define what a project manager is and describe
how they add value to their teams and organizations.
Let's start with a definition.
Project managers shepherd projects from start
to finish and serve as guides for their team
using their impeccable organizational and
interpersonal skills every step of the way.
As you learned earlier, project managers usually
follow a process that involves planning and organizing,
managing tasks, budgeting, and controlling costs
so that the project can be completed
within the approved time frame.
We'll dig deeper into these topics throughout this program.
What you need to know right now is
that project managers play a crucial role
in their organizations.
Project managers add value to their teams and organizations
in key ways that include prioritization, delegation,
and effective communication.
So let's break these down.
First, we'll discuss prioritization.
Project managers add value to their teams and organizations
through effective prioritization of tasks
required to complete a project.
They're experts at helping team members identify and break down
large tasks into smaller steps.
There will be times when a project manager may not
know which tasks to prioritize.
To determine which ones are the most critical
to the success of the project, they'll
connect with their teams and with stakeholders
to gather information and make a plan.
Stakeholders are people who are interested
in and affected by the project's completion and success,
like the leader of an organization.
You've probably used prioritization
to complete work in the past.
In any kind of project, personal or professional,
there are tasks with different levels of priority.
For example, let's imagine that you've
decided to rent a house and plan to repaint the rooms.
You've picked out your paint, and you're
eager to get started.
While it may be tempting to start painting right away,
you'll need to prioritize tasks like laying out
drop cloths to protect the floors and furniture, applying
blue tape to the room's edges, and much more.
Those preliminary steps are critical
and need to come before painting.
Other related steps like choosing new face plates
for your light switches can come later in the process
or be switched out of the project
entirely if you run out of time or money.
But when you choose to take care of these preliminary steps
before wedging open the paint can,
you're prioritizing the tasks or steps of your project.
You're also increasing the likelihood
that you'll be satisfied with your newly painted rooms.
This process is similar for professional projects.
When you effectively prioritize important tasks,
you set up your team and yourself for a better project
outcome.
Now let's discuss delegation.
Project managers use delegation to add value to their teams
and organizations by matching tasks to individuals
who can best complete the work.
Let's return to our house-painting example
for a second here.
Painting multiple rooms can be a time-consuming project.
So it's possible that you might enlist a few friends to help
you get it done.
Maybe one friend has professional painting
experience.
Now, with that in mind, you might
ask her to handle the more challenging aspects
of the project like painting the ceiling
or the detailed molding.
You might also schedule her to paint the molding
before another friend paints the walls.
So by delegating this task to the person
with the right skills to complete the work
and ordering the tasks appropriately,
you're applying knowledge of your team's strengths
to the planning of your project.
That makes sense, right?
Finally, let's talk about effective communication.
Project managers deliver value through
effective communication, both with their team
and with key stakeholders.
This refers to being transparent,
which means being upfront with plans and ideas
and making information readily available.
Project managers keep in regular contact
with their team about the progress of the work
and help identify areas where a teammate may need support.
In our house-painting example, this
might involve checking in with your friends
periodically to ask if they have enough paint or supplies
left to complete their tasks.
Checking in regularly means you'll
know if you need to buy more paint before the can is empty,
which ensures that the project stays on track.
In addition to keeping up with teammates,
project managers keep in regular contact
with people outside of the team, like company leaders
who are invested in the project outcomes.
For example, you might reach out to your landlord
to get permission to paint and to share the days you'll
be working on this project.
Though your landlord isn't directly involved
in the project's execution, the outcomes
will affect her property.
And so it's important to keep her informed.
Without your project management skills,
you might run out of paint halfway through the project,
your walls might get painted without drop cloths
to protect the floors, and your landlord
could be caught off guard about your plans.
So it's a good thing you're here to keep the project running
smoothly and efficiently.
Great, now you should be able to define what a project
manager is and explain how they use prioritization, delegation,
and effective communication to deliver value
to their organizations.
Coming up, you'll hear about the career
path of a real-life project manager at Google.
Their journey, to me, is fascinating.
And we can't wait to share it with you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You learned that project management
is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques
to meet the project requirements and achieve the desired
outcome.
So how does that actually happen?
Well, that's where you come in.
Project managers usually follow a process
that involves planning and organizing,
managing tasks, budgeting, and controlling costs,
and other factors so that the project
can be completed within the approved budget and time frame.
Let's break these down into examples of responsibilities
that you might find in a job listing for a project
management role.
We'll start with planning and organizing.
One responsibility that falls under the umbrella of planning
and organizing is making use of productivity tools
and creating processes.
During the planning and execution of a project,
you might need to use certain tools
and develop processes to improve information-sharing
across the team.
You may also need to create plans, timelines, schedules,
and other forms of documentation to track project completion.
And you'll usually need to maintain those documents
throughout the entirety of the project.
The next task is budgeting and controlling costs
and other factors.
As the project is underway, changes to the plan and budget
are bound to come up, believe me.
This will require you to monitor and manage
the budget, track issues, and risks as they arise,
and manage quality by mitigating those issues and risks.
One way to do this is by removing unforeseen barriers
that come up.
Now, by barriers, we mean things that
can get in the way of project progress.
For example, if your teammates lack
the resources needed to complete a task,
you might identify that issue or barrier up front.
Escalate the issue to a stakeholder,
and work to secure the resource so your team can move forward.
Another huge piece of the project manager's role
is managing tasks.
A project task is an activity that
needs to be accomplished within a set period of time
by you, your team, or your stakeholders.
Keeping track of tasks is a great way
to help manage the team's workload
and ensure that things are getting done.
Keeping track of tasks is also a great tool
for demonstrating progress to people
outside the immediate team like your stakeholders.
Back when I was a program manager in student development
here at Google, one of our goals was
to create pathways for students who
identify with communities that are underrepresented
in the technology industry.
A large part of my day-to-day responsibilities
involved working with two separate engineering teams
to create our technical curriculum.
To manage the tasks associated with this project,
I created separate project trackers
for each team that outlined the vision for the curriculum.
These trackers kept both teams in the loop about the timeline
for delivery, the categories and subcategories for work,
and the team members assigned to each task.
I also made sure to update our stakeholders every step
of the way.
By actively managing tasks throughout the project
lifecycle, I was able to keep tabs
on everyone's work and efficiently inform
stakeholders, which allowed us to achieve our project
goal with minimal issues.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let's discuss the role of the project manager
and how that role relates to other roles
within the project team.
It's easier to hear the term manager
and immediately think of your boss.
But a project manager is not often
the direct manager of the people working on a project team.
Here, we're discussing the project manager
as someone who manages the tasks of a project.
But what does that really mean, right?
Well, although you might have a few teammates working
with you on a project, you're probably not
their day-to-day boss.
With the help of your team, you can get a lot more done
together.
Everyone on your team will have their own set
of roles and responsibilities.
And you'll come together to ensure
that everyone is able to do their part
to advance the project.
Each person will be an expert on their portion of the project,
but no one will be an expert on every aspect of the project.
And honestly, neither will you.
For instance, the graphic designer
will focus on graphic design but probably won't
be an expert on copyrighting.
Similarly, you'll be an expert on project management
but may not be an expert on marketing.
Here's another way to think about it.
Imagine that you're organizing a camping trip.
You might be the person in charge of planning the trip,
but that doesn't mean you have to be a camping expert.
Maybe you've never been camping before,
but your partner grew up spending every summer
by the campfire.
In that case, you might assign them
the task of picking out the right number and style of tents
for your group.
So in this example, you are planning the trip
by giving your partner the job of finding
the right number of tents and the right size
tents to make sure everyone's covered.
You aren't doing the research or the task yourself.
But you're making sure that things are getting done.
It's similar in the workplace.
As the project manager, you won't be an expert
in every project role.
And that's OK.
As we said, your job isn't to be the expert on everything.
Instead, you're responsible for guiding your team
and making sure that they have the support
that they need in order to complete the project.
So how does a project manager go about doing that?
Let's discuss using a few more examples of the required
responsibilities you might find in a job listing.
First, you'll need to hold all team
members accountable for their assigned tasks.
Managing tasks will help you hold your team members
accountable by giving them ownership over specific pieces
of the project.
Second, you'll need to ensure that issues and risks are
tracked and visible and be able to establish escalation paths.
Now, by escalation paths, I mean that you
should know how you'll communicate risks
to the right people at the right time.
Third, you'll need to understand and help
teammates adopt the right workflows and project
management styles.
As the project manager, you'll likely
have the best idea of which style is best for the work.
It's your job to ensure that the team adheres
to that style and the other systems in place.
And fourth, you'll need to collaborate with other teams
at the organization to meet the requirements based on project,
scope, schedule, and budget.
In other words, a project may affect not only your team,
but other teams at an organization, as well,
let's say, the marketing or the finance team.
So you'll need to work with those teams
to ensure that everyone is happy with the project outcomes.
You'll learn more about working with other stakeholders
in a later course.
Catch all that?
Let's recap.
You've learned that a project manager isn't always
the direct manager of each member of the project team.
Rather, they're responsible for guiding those people
and ensuring they have the support they
need to complete the project.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
While there are lots of different skills
a project manager can bring to their role,
there are four specific skill sets
that we think can help a project manager be successful.
Those are enabling decision making,
communicating and escalating, flexibility,
and strong organizational skills.
First, let's talk about enabling decision making.
The ability to enable decision making on the team
or gathering decisions from the appropriate leader
is crucial to keep projects on task and achieve their goals.
Lots of the day-to-day decisions within the project
will likely fall to you and your teammates
to discuss and agree on.
You'll ensure that projects stay on schedule
by gathering information from teammates
and using those insights to help the team make informed
decisions.
You'll also make sure that those decisions are communicated
to the necessary coworkers, whether that's
the immediate team or company leaders.
For example, you might provide relevant data
or feedback to help your teammates
make an informed decision between choice A and choice
B. The second skill is communicating and escalating.
As a project manager, you'll use your communication skills
in just about everything you do.
This might look like documenting plans, sending emails
about the status of the project, or holding a meeting
to escalate risks or issues to stakeholders.
The third skill is flexibility.
As a project manager, knowing how to be flexible
when changes are needed is key.
Plans definitively will change, even
with careful upfront planning.
For example, maybe the goals of your company change.
Or maybe a member of your team unexpectedly
takes a new position at another company.
A good project manager knows that unpredictable moments
like these are almost always guaranteed.
A quote we love here at Google is, "The only constant
is change."
And that's true.
By staying cool under pressure, you'll
be able to adjust while helping your team stay calm, too.
And finally, a successful project manager
needs strong organizational skills.
As you learned earlier, the role of a project manager
requires using a lot of different processes
to keep the project on track.
Having strong organizational skills means
having the ability to organize these processes
and the core elements of a project to ensure nothing
gets lost or overlooked, which, trust me, can and does happen.
To prevent this, you might decide
to track daily tasks in a spreadsheet
or send frequent status updates or reminders.
There are many ways to stay organized and hone
your organizational skills.
And we'll talk more about them throughout the program.
To recap, decision making, communicating and escalating,
flexibility, and strong organizational skills
are four core skill sets that are
essential to successful project management.
You can continue to build on these skills
by becoming familiar with industry knowledge that
applies to most project management roles.
Knowledge of helpful tools and templates
and familiarity with popular project management
styles like waterfall and agile can
help you organize and document the project
throughout its lifecycle.
We'll learn about these throughout this program.
Hopefully, you feel better equipped
to explain the core skills a project manager should
bring to the role.
These skills really help enforce team morale and accountability
for the tasks of a project.
We'll discuss this coming up.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Earlier, you learned about the role
of the project manager and the core skills
you'll need to be successful in that role.
You've also learned more about your role within the project
team.
Now let's discuss a few key skills
that you'll use to build relationships
with your teammates and stakeholders.
Using your interpersonal skills is
key to building relationships with the people involved
in your project.
By developing these relationships,
you'll learn about the needs and concerns of the team.
This will help you determine the priorities of the project
and motivate your team throughout the process.
Possessing strong interpersonal skills
is a huge part of good leadership.
Even if you've never held a formal leadership position,
having these skills will help you
when you need to guide a team.
This is called influencing without authority, which
refers to a project manager's ability
to guide teammates to complete their assigned
work without acting as their direct managers.
There's a few key interpersonal skills that you can use
to accomplish this and guide the project outcomes,
even without the authority of being your teammates' boss.
These skills include communication, negotiation,
conflict mediation, and understanding motivations.
So let's break these down.
First up is a key skill we've mentioned a few times now,
communication.
In the context of leading a team,
communication can include checking in with teammates
to understand how they're progressing on a task
and providing clear feedback on the quality of a teammate's
work.
Next is negotiation.
Negotiation might include working with a teammate
to compromise on a new deadline when they tell you
that they won't be able to complete their work on time.
Now, trust me, I know this can be frustrating.
But you'll need to use your negotiation skills often
with your teammates and stakeholders
to balance their needs and what is best for the project.
Another important skill is conflict mediation.
As we mentioned, project plans can change
and issues will arise.
This can sometimes lead to tension and conflict
within the team.
So conflict mediation is a great skill
to practice and develop to ensure the project does not
suffer as a result. This might involve setting up
a meeting with two teammates who are struggling
to agree upon the best way to handle a shared task.
And finally, there's understanding motivations.
This means getting to know your teammates
and figuring out what pushes them to do their best work.
Understanding motivations might also
include learning how your teammates prefer
to receive feedback and how they like to receive recognition
for doing a great job.
You would use that individualized information
to motivate and encourage each person on your team.
So to recap-- communication, negotiation, conflict
mediation, and understanding motivations
are all interpersonal skills that
will help you influence without authority.
During job interviews for project management positions,
you might be asked to discuss a time when you
influenced without authority.
And it's possible that you've already noticed ways
that you've used these skills in your personal life
without even realizing it.
For example, let's say you have a coworker who's
constantly late to every meeting,
and I mean every meeting.
While you can't force them to arrive on time,
it's likely that you've thought about ways to motivate
them to want to be on time.
In doing so, you might have also wondered
how to change the way you communicate with your coworker
to influence them to be on time.
Maybe you've tried asking them to arrive 15 minutes earlier
than the rest of the group.
Or maybe you've told them how this behavior
impacts the rest of the team.
Both of these strategies are examples
of influencing without authority,
and they serve to encourage specific behavior.
Influencing without authority is one
of the most critical and one of the most challenging aspects
of project management.
As you've just learned, you'll need
to leverage your interpersonal skills in order
to do it effectively.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ROWENA: Congratulations on finishing this video
in the Google Project Management certificate.
Access the full learning experience, including
job search help, and start to earn your official certificate
by clicking on the Icon.
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