How do you develop and maintain your communication competencies and knowledge as a project manager?

One of the keys to assessing communication gaps is properly understanding who it is you are required to communicate with. Often this can help alleviate the guesswork of when and what type of information may need to be shared with the appropriate people.

This step requires you to have high self-awareness & a growth mindset. Have a positive view on continuous improvement. You must know yourself really well. Nervous when speaking in front of a team of people? What’s your communication style? What kind of feedback have you received on your communication delivery skills? These questions help you to frame your thoughts & actions as a project manager. Practise your project meetings with your client which is different from that with your team. The audience is different so know them really well. Include visualization in your practices. Play in your mind how the meetings could turn out in different scenarios. Anticipate tough questions & prepare answers. Stay focused on your project goals.

When evaluating your communication impact & value, don't try to generalize these sessions. Each is different because the audience, timing, situation & topic are different. So also your communication style. Instead, focus on connecting the dots between your communication objectives & the outcome delivered for each session. You could find common trends, be it negative or positive. Specific observations which are peculiar to certain sessions must be dealt with differently. Your evaluation must not ignore how the audience had perceived your delivery. Know how to sift through their feedback. Focus on issues raised. Don't be distracted by who gave the feedback. Evaluate with a growth mindset to challenge yourself for continuous improvement.

Even if you are a seasoned project manager, you need to master your communication skills. It's a very dynamic area. You need to deal with different audiences all the time & their changing expectations. You may also face project challenges (e.g. delays & extended project timeline, additional budget & resources required, contingencies exhausted, etc.) which demand different communication approaches when dealing with stakeholders, customers, top leadership & your own teams. This calls for self-awareness. At every stage of the project, it's advisable to keep in mind the need to review how things are evolving around you. Be conscious of the need to realign your communication style, content & delivery intermittently throughout the project.

As a project manager, you often find yourself mastering the art of persuasion & influence, & the art of negotiation. When projects are implemented, changes & priorities are bound to change. Tempers may flare in high tension situations. Clash of egos occur often. But as an effective project manager, you apply persuasion, influence & negotiation skills often whether you deal with demanding stakeholders, external expertise, or your own teams. These skills are fundamental in communication. Learn to apply body language skills to pay attention to non-verbal cues. Listen to what that was not said, look for things you can't see. Observe people's emotions to help you build the connection with them. But you still need to know your stuff really well.