Exploring the Role of Soft Skills in Project Management Processes

This report thoroughly examines the influence of soft skills on project management, emphasizing their critical role in achieving project success. The report delves into various aspects, including the impact of interpersonal skills, communication skills, and leadership skills on project outcomes. It underscores the importance of effective communication among stakeholders and team members, highlighting how these skills facilitate clear understanding of project objectives and deliverables. The report also explores the advantages of strong soft skills for project managers, such as improved coordination, conflict resolution, and team building. Through a literature review, the report provides insights into the application of soft skills in project management, illustrating how these skills contribute to efficient project execution, stakeholder satisfaction, and the overall achievement of strategic goals. Furthermore, the report addresses the skills of delegation and the importance of building effective teams, emphasizing their role in optimizing project performance and minimizing risks. The report also discusses the importance of adaptability and negotiation in project management. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of the ways soft skills are essential for successful project management.

Running head: SOFT SKILLS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Soft Skills in Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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SOFT SKILLS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Abstract
This report discusses several kinds of procedures by which soft skills could impact the
management of several kinds of projects. The report also discusses the importance of the
utilization of the soft skills which are really very necessary for communication of the correct
information among each and every stakeholders along with every single member of the team.
This report discusses the interpersonal skills which are important for managing the project along
with the relationship among them. This report also discusses the important roles played by the
soft skills regarding easy administration of the projects. This report also discusses the impacts of
soft skills regarding administration of several projects in a correct manner. This report also
focuses on several kinds of advantages which are faced by the managers of the project by
possessing stronger soft skills.

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Table of Contents
1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
2 Literature Review.....................................................................................................................5
2.1 Interpersonal skills and project management....................................................................5
2.2 Importance of soft skills in project management..............................................................7
2.3 Impacts of soft skills in project management....................................................................9
2.4 Advantages of soft skills for the project managers.........................................................13
3 Literature Gap.........................................................................................................................17
4 Conclusion..............................................................................................................................18
5 References..............................................................................................................................20

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1 Introduction
Soft skills are often indicated to as a bunch of attributes which helps in enabling somebody
for interacting in both effective as well as harmonious manner with other people (Jena &
Satpathy, 2017) Soft skills are frequently referred to as the combination of social skills,
personality or character traits, people skills, attitudes, communication skills, career attributes,
and quotients of social and emotional intelligence to name few which in turn is accountable for
enabling people for navigating their environment, working well with others, and helps them in
incrementing their levels of performances (Ritter et al., 2018). Not only this, but also these soft
skills are also accountable for enabling people in the achieving their respective goals along with
complementing of their hard skills.
Project management is described as the exercise of the initiation, planning, execution,
controlling and completion of the entire work of the teams for the aim of grabbing strategic aims
and meeting specific criteria of success within a particular time span (Beard, Schweiger &
Surendran, 2019). The initial challenge in the context of management of project forms the
achievement of all the goals of any particular project within a set of constraints which is linked
with that particular project.
The most interesting factor is that the various kinds of soft skills like that of coordination
skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills, skills of delegation and building of teams are
very essential for the achievement of success with respect to any project (Matteson, Anderson &
Boyden, 2016). Good skills of communication is surely responsible for making the project
successful because communication of all the objectives as well as the deliverables of the project
in a clear manner would help every single member of the team along with each and every

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stakeholder linked with the project in what actually needs to be done or executed such that every
single objectives and deliverables as well gets considered.
Every single essential information needs to be communicated in a very understandable
manner such that which activity needs to completed after which particular activity becomes very
clear to the members of the team such that the team could commence working on any particular
project in an effective manner (Geithner & Menzel, 2016). Next comes the interpersonal skills
where it basically focuses on various kinds of skills as well as capabilities of the project manager
in motivating, persuading along with dealing with several kinds of people possessing very
different backgrounds such that every single essential activity of the project gets executed in a
very successful manner.
In addition to this, development of numerous association with the respective peers also
helps in successful handling of the project. Adoption of new and advanced ideas from the peers
also helps in understanding as well developing various types of phases of the project in a
comparatively better manner (Stevens & Norman, 2016, February). The other important soft skill
forms the skills of coordination as it is very commonly known that good coordination is directly
proportional to good performance and this in turn indicates towards higher rates of the success of
the project.
It becomes very important for the supervisors of any kind of project in possessing higher
levels of coordination skills for the aim of developing harmonious relationships among not only
with the entire team but also with each and every member directly linked with the team (Gibert,
Tozer & Westoby, 2017). On the other hand, it also becomes very important for the supervisors

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in understanding several kinds of capabilities of all the members of the team and assigning
several tasks tasks according to their capabilities such that they could be able to give their best.
This research paper aims to describe the important role of soft skills in the areas of
management of project. This research paper focuses to discuss the interpersonal soft skills,
importance of soft skills and a literature review in the context of management of the projects.
This research paper also purposes to discuss the impacts of soft skills with the inclusion of
advantages of soft skills for the managers of the projects for the aim of successful management
as well as the completion of the projects.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Interpersonal skills and project management
Interpersonal skills are referred to as those soft skills which is essential for management of
the projects in a successful manner (Ibrahim, Boerhannoeddin & Bakare, 2017). These particular
skills are very much essential for the managers of the project such that they could perform their
respective tasks in an effective and an efficient manner (Livesey, 2016). An essential role is
played by the method of interaction that gets utilized in the management of the projects. It forms
one of the major factors in getting the job completely done by all the members of the team who
are accountable for the accomplishment of the project in a successful manner.
There are various kinds of skills which directly falls under the soft skills and which holds
higher levels of importance for successful management of the projects. These comprises of
effective skills of communication, skills of leadership, adaptability, negotiation, diligence
(Gustavsson, & Hallin 2014). An essential role is played by all of these factors for the aim of
successful accomplishment of the project. The skill of communication forms the most important

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soft skill for managing the projects, getting each and every activity linked with any particular
project done in both efficient as well as effective manner. Good levels of communication skill
would help in each and every members of that particular team in getting an idea of the scope of
the project in a better manner.
Higher levels of skills of communication would further help each and every members of
that particular team in clearly comprehending the their individual duties as to what kinds of
activities need to be performed one after the other for completing the project in a time span
which was previously planned considering various kinds of constraints linked with the project
and countering as much as it could be done by them (Alias et al., 2014). In addition to this, good
skills of communication also helps in solving several kinds of problems which tends to arise
during the development of the projects. Clear communication within all the members of the team
along with the managers of the projects helps in reduction of the several kinds of complications
linked with the project.
Next soft skill forms the style of leadership which is utilized should possess capabilities of
inspiring, motivating and governing the members of the team who are responsible for the
progress of the project in an efficient manner (Ahmed et al., 2015). Positive feedback along with
constructive criticism is very essential as it encourages the members of the team in proceeding in
a systematic manner and counter the drawbacks that occurred during development of various
kinds of activities linked with the project.
Then comes negotiation which allows and helps the people associated with the
management of the project in effectively reaching the agreements with the concerned members

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of the crew along with the identification of the common grounds irrespective of the occurrences
of the disagreements.
2.2 Importance of soft skills in project management
Soft skills makes the procedures for managing the projects much easier as it becomes very
much essential for the managers of the project for interacting with their respective customers
and understand their needs and demands as to what needs to be done and how they want their
project to be managed as well as developed (Takey & de Carvalho, 2015). Good levels of soft
skills would in turn help the higher levels of the management of the project in interacting with
every single member of the team as well each and every stakeholder who are associated with any
particular project. Soft skills also becomes necessary as it helps the managers of the project in
communicating with all the stakeholders and understanding the contribution of all the
stakeholders linked with the development of the project.

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Figure 1: Essential soft skills for managing projects (Takey & de Carvalho, 2015)
Good skills of communication would further help in making entire objectives of the
projects much transparent among every single member of the team. Several skills of management
are also very essential for the successful management of all the projects apart from various skills
of communication. On the other hand, it is also known that successful procedure of
communication is directly proportional to the successful achievement of all the goals which are
related with the projects (Ellis, Kisling & Hackworth, 2014). In addition to this, effective soft
skills also help in resolution of various kinds of conflicts connected with the projects along with

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the development of the team in a correct manner along with mentoring and directing the team in
accordance with the best possible methods.
Effective soft skills additionally helps in distribution of the several kinds of activities
among all the members of the team in a very easy manner. Higher levels of project management
is accountable for enabling and maintaining the bonding among the members of team such that
they could easily collaborate with each other for taking up of the tasks and completing it in a
correct manner (Itani & Srour, 2016). These soft skills are accountable for interfacing with the
customers along with the inclusion of the management of all the stakeholders. Effective levels of
soft skills in turn helps in handling of the complaints of the customers with respect to the
management of the projects.
It also helps in achieving the delight of the customers along with achieving the satisfaction
and belief of the customers. On the other side, the other necessary soft skill for making the
project forms the skills of delegation along with building of teams because a good team would in
turn become accountable for trying their best in achieving all the objectives of the project in a
systematic order such that all the desired outcomes which were expected in accordance with any
kind of project could easily be met.
On the other side, the occurrence of good levels of communication among every single
member of the team becomes extremely very important as they could easily understand the
causes of the errors in accordance to the development of any project and could work accordingly.
In addition to this, this would also help in countering the problems and further it would also help
in the reduction of the occurrence of various kinds of risks and errors (Deng, Thomas &

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Trembach, 2014). In simple words, reduction of occurrence errors directly indicates towards less
hampering of the development of the project and less wastage of time.
This further would also help in reducing the consumption of the extra cost in the context
of the development of the project. Higher quality of soft skills would also help the managers of
the project along with every member of the team in identifying several kinds of problems which
could hamper successful development and execution of the project along with holding of
analysis of those particular problems. Essential soft skills of the supervisors also helps in
anticipation of any kind of problem in the initial stages as well as final stages of the project.
Figure 3: Graph showing importance of soft skills (Itani & Srour, 2016)

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Utilization of higher quality of soft skills also helps the supervisors of the project along
with the members in jointly discussing and analyzing the causes of the problems and jointly
identifying the solution. Solution to any sort of problem could be identified by taking into
consideration several kinds of strategies for the aim of mitigating those particular problems along
with identifying various types of alternative steps such that those particular problems would not
possess any chances of occurrence in the future (Schwalbe, 2015). This all could be done if the
members of the team listens to the managers and in turn the supervisors of the project takes
suggestions from the members of the team as well. If both parties could be able to communicate
with each other following certain protocols along with the inclusion of continuous coordination,
they the project could be become successful by meeting all the objectives and strategic goals.
2.3 Impacts of soft skills in managing projects
An essential role is played by the utilization of higher levels of soft skills with respect to
the context of successful accomplishment of the project. If a good level of soft skill is utilized by
the manager of any particular project, it would become easier for that person in communicating
with the other members of the team regarding various kinds of activities of the project in a much
systematic manner. The members of the team in turn would feel encouraged to perform their
duties if they are directed in a correct and understandable manner.